OWNER: Hines Interests, NYC
ARCHITECT, MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL & PLUMBING ENGINEER: Kling Lindquist Partnership, Philadelphia
TENANT: Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Bridgewater, NJ
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Turner Construction Co., Somerset, NJ

Tenant fitouts usually take place after the core and shell has been constructed. But for the Aventis Tenant Fitout at 200 and 400 Crossing Boulevard in Bridgewater, N.J., it took place simultaneously during construction of the core and shell.

More specifically, the $27.7 million project involves 11 35,000-sq.-ft. floors in two 8-story buildings. One of the two buildings was fully fitted-out and its mirror image included three floors for Aventis.

Construction of Building 200 began in January 2001 and Building 300 began in February 2001, with completion dates of February 2002 and March 2002 respectively.

To perform the fitout while the buildings were being constructed required teamwork and a close working relationship with the team members constructing two structures. It also involved the prepurchasing of materials such as sheet metal and sprinklers, light fixtures, doors, aluminum frames and hardware and then storing these items onsite until the project was ready for their installation.

The schedule also played a key role in this project's success. For this project, the work was scheduled from the inside out. This had to be done until there were base building core walls around the perimeter. And while the framing for perimeter offices were being installed, the project team used the centerline of the space between the granite panels where window frames had not yet been installed so accommodate the space for the window frames.

Project team members also faced the danger of delaying interior work because the roof was not complete because the roofing contractor was waiting for an adjustment to the granite panels. The project team took alignment of the granite panels to task so the roof work could be finished and the perimeter walls completed which in turn allowed the interior work to proceed.

Difficulties were also encountered on the eight floor of Building 200. For some reason, the installation of perimeter insulation was held up which meant that the eighth floor fireproofing could not be applied to the roof steel until the roof was watertight. This placed undue stress on the ability to complete the interior finishes on the eighth floor. The solution was teamwork to finish the work that needed to be finished to allow the interior work to continue.

In addition, tenant work in the elevator lobbies could not begin until all of the elevator doorframes were installed. This resulted in a late start on the elevator lobbies. By working extensive overtime hours, the time lost in this situation was made up.

One final hurdle was getting all of the subcontractors to finish the work, as well as obtaining all of the required final inspections, throughout the height of a holiday season. A temporary certificate of occupancy was issued on January 2, 2002 through perseverance and teamwork.

The jury singled out this project's team's construction of a bare wall so that it could begin the interior fitout project simultaneously with the construction of the base buildings.