Applied Ecological Services, Inc.
Wisconsin Office
17921 Smith Road,
P. O. Box 256
Brodhead, WI 53520
Phone: 608.897.8641
Voicemail: 608.897.4898
AES Fax: 608.897.8486
TCRN Fax: 608.897.2044
Info@AppliedEco.com

Illinois Office
120 West Main St
W. Dundee, IL 60118
Phone: 847.844.9385
Fax: 847.844.8759

Kansas City Office
1904 Elm Street
Eudora, KS 66025
Phone 785.542.3090
Fax 785.542.3570

Minnesota Office
21938 Mushtown Rd
Prior Lake, MN 55372
Phone: 952.447.1919
Fax: 952.447.1920

East Coast Office
1100 E. Hector Street Suite #398
Conshohocken, PA 19428
Phone: 610.238.9088

Changed thinking: The design-build approach

Visitors to the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium stroll along a newly constructed boardwalk surrounding Woodward Wetlands – an authentic outdoor wetland habitat designed and built by AES.

Applied Ecological Services’ latest team approach with clients is doing more than challenging the status quo. It’s challenging managers like Troy Anderson and Joshua Lippold to convince clients comfortable with the traditional design-bid-build process that the AES design-build approach to ecological services yields better results, in less time, at lower cost. With designbuild, one party – AES – takes sole responsibility for all project services and outcomes, including design, plant materials, installation and site management. This contrasts with the standard 20th century practice of separating designer, builder and material supplier. Both approaches work in theory. But reality – and project proof – becomes obvious in the field.

“Design-build is a guarantee that client goals will be achieved,” said Anderson, AES contracting manager, “but it runs against the status quo; even though the status quo sometimes results in too many contractors taking too long and pointing fingers at each other when something goes wrong.”

The AES design-build contract includes line items that delineate tasks and costs for every phase of a project, including design, installation and materials – all before the client sees a final plan. Signing on requires trust, but design-build offers a clear chain of command and responsibility, combined with other benefits such as flexibility, accountability and one-source cost-control. “The client is assured of a successful project before they see any design or engineering fees,” said Anderson. “It’s all wrapped up in a single contract.”

The way Lippold, AES’ Kansas City consulting office manager, sees it, design-build involves boiling down the arduous into the elegant. “No matter what design process you go through, there’s always something that comes up in the field that you didn’t plan for,” said Lippold. “If you’re working through a subcontractor, they put in a request for change order, you review it, send it to the client for approval, and then you make a change order in your scope of services. You might be looking at five days’ worth of red tape.

“With design-build, it’s much easier to accommodate field decisions,” said Lippold. “Troy and I will discuss the issue, come up with a clear solution or several options, present those to the client, and fix the problem. That’s five minutes.”

The AES design-build contract focuses on project goals rather than individual tasks, because establishment of ecological processes is often more complex than some traditional, straightforward contracting tasks. And determining the cause of any failure is more difficult because of the many possible causes: the effects of unusual weather, improper design, poor materials, poor workmanship, scheduling conflicts or damage by a variety of contractors may not become apparent for years.

In ecological work, follow-through is at least as important as the initial work. Any contractor who refuses to replant a failed area for any reason can easily eliminate project savings anticipated during the bid process. This is the strongest argument for design-build: AES follows through. In the rare instance that failure occurs, they don't make excuses or look for someone to blame. They simply fix the problem. The job gets done. The project goal is achieved.

Design-build, in detail: AES’ sister company, Native Landscapes by AES, offers a new brochure describing its customized services for residential and corporate projects. Call for a free copy.

Above: AES’ design plans for the Lake Forest Hospital Project, Final Phase.

Bielinski Homes’ unique Wall of Ages.

Benefits of AES design-build projects

Single-source responsibility and shorter delivery times save money.
Contract offers improved financial predictability earlier on in the design process.
Dialogue between designer and builder minimizes mistakes and optimizes value.
There is no project delay for bidding time.
If needed to meet client deadlines – design-build lends itself readily to fast tracking, where selected construction activities can begin before final design is complete.

Design-build projects in progress

Lake Forest Hospital

AES found an ideal application for their design-build approach at the future site of Lake Forest Hospital in Grayslake, IL. The plan is to create a new healthcare campus adjacent to the famed Prairie Crossing conservation development. The new outpatient facility is being carefully designed and integrated into the existing community setting to be physically inviting and promote healthy lifestyles. AES project team members include Founder and Senior Ecologist Steven Apfelbaum, Principle Engineer Doug Eppich and Senior Ecologist John Larson. Their plan calls for acres of prairie and wildflowers, restored wetlands, and formal landscaping in and around buildings and walkways. Protection of most existing desirable trees is a priority as well as respecting the site’s existing visual screening and buffering. Another key feature will be AES’ design and installation of an alternative stormwater management system that will incorporate sunken islands in the parking lot to infiltrate water, rain gardens to take on water from the rooftop, a series of biofilter wetlands to receive runoff from the road and parking lots, and a retention facility that will be planted in allnative vegetation. Seeding and enhancement of the property’s existing wetlands is slated to begin this fall, after which AES will begin a five-year maintenance and monitoring process. Landscape installation with native plants and rain gardens is expected to commence in spring 2004.

National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium

To get a true sense of life along the Mississippi flood plain, one only needs to visit the new National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque, IA and observe the handiwork of AES’ contracting and design divisions. The William Woodward Discovery Center there features Woodward Wetland – an outdoor wetland habitat designed and built by AES. Working closely with the museum staff, their architect and engineer, AES reproduced a compressed view of the Mississippi River flood plain spanning approximately one acre. The wetland area is surrounded by boardwalks that enable visitors to closely examine the natural flora of the Mississippi while turtles sun on logs and herons roost nearby. AES designed the wetland and installed all the native seed and plants on the site.

Bielinski Homes Corporate Headquarters

Switching gears from medical arts and museums, AES’ design-build approach is right at home on the new Waukesha, WI corporate campus of Bielinski Homes, the largest residential builder in Wisconsin. There, the AES Native Landscapes division recently designed and installed an extensive native landscape that reflects the builder’s growing reputation as a leader in conservation development. Ecological Designers John Gishnock and Alison Eyring-Green provided the landscape design, and Project Manager Jim Nelson led the build effort. As part of the project, AES designed and hand-constructed the “Wall of Ages,” a complex, 200- foot-long retaining wall composed entirely of glacial erratics – native stones of all shapes and sizes retrieved from the steep embankment of the site’s terminal moraine. In contrast to most machine-constructed boulder walls, the visual effect of the Wall of Ages is more natural and timeless. It blends rather than separates, providing a landscape transition between the formal architectural lines of the Bielinski headquarters and the seemingly random natural growth on the wooded slope below.

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