Ensworth Middle School: Dining Hall & Kitchen

Unique in our organizational structure, W.E. O’Neil SouthLand has a Tenant Improvement/Special Projects Group that operates collaboratively, but separately, from our Ground-Up/New Construction Group. Having team members that are uniquely trained and dedicated in each group allows us to optimally serve our clients regardless of project type. Our cost effectiveness and construction expertise benefits our clients whether they have a smaller Tenant Improvement/Renovation Project, an Addition to an existing structure, or a large Ground-Up/New Construction Project.

Whether an owner, developer, or design team member, we understand your need to know what things currently cost from a construction standpoint. Projects cannot proceed if they do not make sense financially. If you have an upcoming project and need to know current cost, please select Pricing Assistance and email us your contact information. Also include as much information as possible about your upcoming project idea, and we will contact you quickly. If needed, please note that your project must remain confidential. We will absolutely respect that need and extend that courtesy.

Utilizing Design-Build provides our clients with a single-source of responsibility. We believe collaboration and involvement of the construction team from the earliest phases of a project’s design provide schedule benefits that are simply not available to traditional Design–Bid–Build projects. Design-Build means that the responsibility for the design falls under the construction team. The more access a client gives our entire team to their organization and project, the more project benefits we are able to provide for them. Integrated design, insightful and proactive performance, teamwork, quality assurance, constructability analysis, and excellent communication are all a part of the Design-Build process.

Utilizing the Design-Assist model allows W.E. O’Neil SouthLand to be involved in the early conceptual phases. We provide cost, constructability, and value-added input throughout the entire design process. It is more than simply providing square-foot pricing of a design that the client and design team issue. It is active and collaborative involvement with the team that allows our construction professionals to provide valuable and necessary input in order to assist the design team in shaping the design and maintaining the client’s budget. In a volatile pricing and busy subcontractor market, this level of Design-Assist input is invaluable.

When constructing a project for a client that is available for tax-exempt status, our Tax Savings Program has been known to save them approximately 1.25% – 1.50% of the total contract amount. Our project management and finance teams work collaboratively with our client to provide all of the necessary purchase orders, invoices, and purchase order logs needed to track all of the material costs and related tax savings. The cost savings are tracked on the potential change order log and are issued as deductive contract change orders throughout the project. Our team of professionals make the process an easy one for our customer. It is yet another way that we empower our clients and protect their most precious commodity, their time.

Zero Accidents is our goal for every W.E. O’Neil SouthLand project. We have developed a comprehensive safety program to ensure compliance with both the letter and the spirit of the law. Our effort begins with training and empowering our team to hold safety as an inalienable constraint. Our team members review and record subcontractor documentation with compliance in mind.  Every worker that is new to the jobsite is given a site-specific safety orientation and documented.  Weekly, we hold safety review meetings and select topics pertinent to ongoing activities.  Before high-risk activities are scheduled to begin we construct a plan as a team to ensure safety and maintain productivity.  As work progresses our employees continually review safety conditions.  Infractions are corrected and documented immediately.   

Not only do we desire to keep our team members safe and alive, safe conditions help our company to be more efficient and profitable. This is our most important focus from preconstruction through close-out. Every job site we manage and subcontractor we hire is fully compliant with all safety regulations, including OSHA standards, Department of Labor Safety and Health Guidelines, and TDEC workplace guidelines. In addition, we are a 100% Tennessee Drug-Free Workplace. Each project has the appropriate and needed safety signage.

We have a long-time relationship with an independent third-party safety consultant that works with our personnel through every stage of our projects. They work closely with our jobsite superintendents and have full authority to enforce safety and compliance. Daily job surveys and monthly inspections record conditions on the site. Just like OSHA visits, subcontractor and GC infractions are documented photographically and addressed immediately. As a result, our projects regularly receive clean reports from OSHA inspectors. Work proceeds safely, smoothly and, most importantly, without injury.

We leverage technology to its fullest extent without sacrificing the interpersonal relationships that are critical to performing a successful construction project. We utilize several key technology tools during preconstruction and construction. These include:

• Timberline Estimating and PASKR Estimating
• Sketch Up Pro
• On Screen Take Off
• PASKR Project Management Suite for contracts, purchase orders, pay applications, submittal logs, daily logs, RFIs, meeting minutes, and others. PASKR provides the entire project team (Owners and Designers) real time access to critical project controls.
• CMiC Accounting Software for cost control and potential change tracking.
• P6 for project scheduling. We also have Microsoft Project and Suretrak available at our customer’s option. All three software options have cost/resource loading capabilities.
• PlanGrid for cloud-based management of construction documents, quality control inspections, punch list generation, and as-built drawings generation.
• BIM/Navisworks for inter-trade coordination and implementation of sophisticated constructability solutions.
• Bluebeam Studio and Bluebeam Revu for submittal review, document markups, and general PDF document management.
• Our Superintendents and Project Managers use iPad/Tablets, Laptops, and cell phones for communication, coordination, construction document management, quality control, etc.

We integrate these tools into our project delivery via experienced staff, executive oversight, advanced project site trailer audio-visual equipment, and our employee-training program. The use of cutting-edge technology provides immediate and tangible results for our customers and project teams.

Green and sustainable building is not really a new idea. The practice of using sustainable materials in construction has been around for decades. W.E. O’Neil SouthLand strongly believes in sustainable practices. To that end, we have made investments in hiring and developing human resources with expertise in this field. We have successfully been a part of numerous projects with varying levels of LEED and Energy Star Certification. We build projects and use building techniques and materials that are environmentally friendly, responsible, and efficient. Our goal is for sustainability to permeate our construction activities, corporate operations, and personal lives.

We have had great success working with Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) firms on a regular basis on projects that may or may not stipulate requirements. SouthLand is committed to providing Minority Businesses (MBE), Women-Owned Businesses (WBE), Small Businesses (SBE), and Veteran-Owned Businesses (VBE) with maximum opportunity to participate in our projects. We take the time and put forth the effort to build relationships, to communicate with, to reach out to, and to provide an open-door policy with DBE owners and project managers. This approach builds stronger and healthier communities while providing opportunity for our future generations.

Traditional Competitive Bid is also known as
Design-Bid-Build. The client selects the design team and produces final plans and specifications for a short list of similar CM/GC firms to bid. This process does not include true preconstruction services from the CM/GC firms involved, only final bid pricing. Most often, the client engages the low-bidder to perform Value Analysis of the project in order to uncover potential cost-saving or value-adding ideas.