Tying strategy to outcomes in the built environment.
Making our processes, the built environment, and the user experience better requires researching and understanding both quantitative and qualitative information that is not only measurable, but more importantly, meaningful. Many projects have guiding principles that often have metrics to allow us to determine the success of a project. With an overwhelming amount of unobtrusive data already being collected, it is critical to prioritize the most important metrics on all of our projects.
This session stresses that meaningful and measurable outcomes only exist if informed intentions are set in the early planning stages. By establishing baselines and targets from ‘day zero’, discovering and implementing design strategies to achieve those goals, and then evaluating the successes / shortcomings of the design post-occupancy, one can measure impact – the extent to which various stakeholders and the system as a whole demonstrate positive outcomes.
The intent to impact approach is presented as a sequence for integrating research/metrics throughout the entire design process. Akron Children’s Hospital Kay Jewelers Pavilion, a 368,000 SF critical care tower opened in May 2015, will serve as a case study for this method, exemplifying impacts for people, earth, and business such as an average 67% improvement in patient/family satisfaction, greenhouse gas emissions savings of 48.5% in comparison to the national average for healthcare facilities, and a cost savings of $44 million and construction completion 54 days ahead of schedule, largely due to the implementation of Lean-Integrated Project Delivery and the integrated team approach.