Teachable Moments: Occupied Dwellings

Paul Meredith is an International Design & Construction Project Manager with over 20 years of progressive experience in Building and Civil Projects. He has currently taken a project manager’s role working for the City Of Barrie on several urban growth environmental projects ranging from $1-$100M budgets. Having worked his way up from the construction site, and continually expanding his industry knowledge through graduate studies and field experience, he has a unique perspective and in-depth understanding of the design and construction processes for Construction Management, Stipulated Price Design-Bid-Build, Unit Rate, Design-Build, and P3 design, procurement, construction, financing and facility management models.

  Construction  

Teachable moments are formed when you have done something--regardless of the outcome--and learned from the experience. Learning makes us better at what we do and provides a great opportunity to develop others and sharpen skills. We’ve compiled our best Teachable Moments from our community members for you to learn from and share with other project managers.

This article is a case study of how a client upgraded its existing fire protection systems (fire alarm panels, smokes, heat and dry/wet sprinklers) in several homes occupied by senior citizens across Canada. The intent was to meet and exceed current federal, provincial and municipal standards and legislation within senior and long-term care (LTC) facilities.

The upgrades were the result of a recommendation from one of Canada’s largest insurance providers. Several benefits accrued--including a safer environment for workers--providing much needed reassurance for tenants and their families, and bringing the buildings up to current code compliance. Further, the owner/sponsors significantly increased the value of the portfolio while reducing the insurance premium on each building within the scope of the project.

I was engaged to deliver upgrades to 18 sites across Canada. I was working with the sponsor’s fire protection engineer, who visited all sites with selected sub-contractors to finalize the …

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