Renaissance Gardens at Wind Crest Extended Care Facility: Enriched Assisted-living

Wind Crest Extended Care Facility (Wind Crest) is amidst the construction of its new 127,000-square-foot Renaissance Gardens. The mixed-use senior care facility is located in Highlands Ranch, Colo., and owned by Erickson Living, a national provider of retirement living communities and senior care. The four-story extended care facility will provide the campus with 136 patient rooms for skilled nursing, assisted-living and memory care, as well as associated common amenity spaces. The senior community currently offers an extensive campus of independent living with nearly 900 residents. However, Wind Crest’s new Renaissance Gardens facility will bring a much anticipated value by offering space for seniors in need of varying degrees of care.

Because Wind Crest cares for its residents, the facility required a project team with high standards. Therefore, RG Brinkmann Company – better known as Brinkmann Constructors (Brinkmann) – is managing the construction of Renaissance Gardens. The $16.5 million project began in July 2012 with the team at Brinkmann and a network of subcontractors aiming to complete the facility within one year.

Brinkmann was founded in 1984 by Bob Brinkmann, a 1971 graduate of what is now known as Missouri University of Science and Technology. Between graduating and founding Brinkmann, Bob worked for more than a dozen years as a project engineer, project manager and project director for several top national contractors.

The company has built a solid reputation as a service organization aimed at providing value, top quality and accelerated schedules. In addition, Brinkmann contributes much of its success to the engineer graduates the company hires, many of whom are also from Bob’s alma mater. To note, Rottler is actually one of those employees hired from the university. Rottler was hired in 2009 as a project engineer and has been working in the capacity of project manager since summer 2012. Rottler is proud to note that Wind Crest is the first project with his name on it as project manager.

An Above-average Team

In this capacity, Rottler has handled in the solicitation and hiring of subcontractors and suppliers. Brinkmann does not self perform any work, but rather engages subcontractors for the individual expertise and skilled labor. Brinkmann handles the supervision of most projects with a lead superintendent onsite and a project manager in the office. “We are utilizing several of our valued subcontractors we’ve used on other projects but also have engaged a few new faces,” says Rottler.

“Subcontractors new to the Brinkmann team have a vetting process to get through before being hired for the job,” explains Rottler. Companies who submit bids to Brinkmann are required to meet project managers and superintendents in person to discuss the project at hand. Then Brinkmann investigates the company by reviewing past job performance and financial history, in addition to interviewing references.

In addition to subcontractor selection, the firm provides many services, including project estimating and budgeting, cost control, value engineering, scheduling, project management, quality control, safety and LEED experience.

In addition to the experts at Brinkmann, Englewood-based Lantz-Boggio Architects is heading Wind Crest’s design. As a national design firm that specializes in senior environments and health care, Lantz-Boggio Architects is the perfect fit.

“Lantz-Boggio was tasked with incorporating differing levels of care into a four-story structure due to site size restraints,” explains Lucas Rottler, project manager for Brinkmann. “With this multi-story structure and use group code restrictions, the design includes non-combustible construction compliant with Institutional Type II [I-2] building codes, which lead to the inclusion of the Hambro [a Canam Company] composite floor joist system.”

The Hambro floor joist system is a composite steel joist and concrete floor system, which is specifically designed and fabricated primarily for the multi-unit residential construction market. “The floor system bears on structural steel tube headers, which distribute the weight across structural metal stud load-bearing walls and the top “S” chord of the joist is poured into each elevated concrete floor level to tie the system components together,” details Rottler.

The joist system is an alternate to a conventional multi-story structural steel building with steel beams, girders and composite floor system. According to Rottler, this system presented the biggest coordination and scheduling challenge for Wind Crest.

“It was a pretty intricate puzzle as there were multiple trades working in coordination in order to erect the structural components of the system,” Rottler notes. “The first floor metal stud framing, installation of steel joists, placement of formwork and elevated concrete decks had to be complete prior to beginning load bearing walls at the second floor. Additionally, masonry stair and shear towers required completion prior to phased floor construction as each floor ties into the masonry to handle the shear loading of the building.”

Success in the Market

The Wind Crest project is another significant building to add to Brinkmann’s impressive project list in the commercial building industry. Wind Crest is a major highlight of a growing list of senior living facilities the firm has handled. Additionally, Brinkmann boasts experience in many market sectors, including retail, hospitality, health care, office, education, as well as government facilities.

With each project, it is Brinkmann’s goal to provide quality service and cost savings to every client. According to Rottler, Brinkmann recently completed a $42 million building for Sunrise Senior Living and managed to realize the owner over $1 million in savings by project completion.
For Wind Crest, Erickson Living received a bid with approximately $500,000 in value-engineered savings along with an aggressive schedule, allowing for open business. As work continues on Renaissance Gardens at Wind Crest, Brinkmann hopes more cost savings are realized before complete in July 2013.

The team is currently targeting a mid-summer completion of the project. Lantz-Boggio Architects, Brinkmann Constructors and Erickson Living team looks forward to unveiling Renaissance Gardens at Wind Crest Extended Care Facility, which will further serve the needs of the community.