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Wolgast Blog - Construction Trends, Tips and Information

Get commercial construction questions answered by a professional contractor sharing building trends, tips and information

Posts about the Wolgast Way (3)

Three Ways Constructability Review Can Improve Your Building Project

What Is Constructability Review?

The construction process starts with an Architect designing plans based on the requested scope from the building owner mixed with regulations mandated by the government and the creative expertise of the designer. The Architect is responsible for knowing the performance, quality, longevity and size of limitless

Prioritizing School’s Needs for ESSER Funds

There are so many decisions to make as schools get back to in-person learning and doing everything they can to make school safer, catch students up from remote learning, and expand mental health accommodations, among other needs. School leaders, administrators, and teachers have so much on their plates, oh, and are also dealing with volatile views from parents about how to handle it all.

Patient Flow Optimizes the Design of Your Practice Floorplan

When a patient walks through the door of a doctor’s office, whether it’s a family physician, chiropractor, dentist or veterinarian, he or she needs to easily find the check-in area to make his or her attendance known.  Patients may not know that check-in area starts off a whole path that they will follow while receiving treatment through paying their bill, also known as patient flow.

How to Design an Office for Patient Centered Medical Home

Since Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is more of a management model or philosophy, you may not have considered the building design changes that may be necessary to make the conversion.  Below we discuss some of the elements that your PCMH office design should consider.

You Have Construction Service Options

Which construction delivery system is best for your project?


There are several unique and distinctive methods for providing construction solutions. As a business owner you have the luxury of selecting the most beneficial and appropriate delivery system for your type of project.

Construction of New Tech High Schools

The New Tech Network is designed to target disinterested students, while still reaching those who are already college bound. And it is working because their report, "2020 Impact Report", shows that New Tech High School students are 10% more likely to go onto college compared to the national average.  And added 14 new schools to their network in 2020.

Certificate of Need and Your Design Build Contractor

Updated 11/24/20: The controversial Certificate of Need (CON) program in Michigan is in question through several new bills that passed the Michigan Senate in February 2020.  It has yet to be decided in the House.  The debate has been ongoing and seems to be getting more and more heated with those against it arguing for an open market approach to drive down cost and those for it are claiming that the medical industry needs to be regulated to keep a high standard of care at an affordable cost.

Key Elements that Help Our CM Division Achieve Team Cohesion

Construction Management is the ideal delivery method for large, complex construction projects, such as those for School Districts.  School Boards and Superintendents rely on their Architect and Construction Manager (CM) to form dynamic teams to fulfill a project’s goals and seamlessly deliver their buildings on time and within budget.  Team cohesion is the goal on each of our projects. Taking into consideration that we are possibly working with new and diverse players with each new School District, this takes effort and coordination to achieve.  An experienced CM typically will have vast resources and relationships with a wide variety of Prime Contractors, but when bidding projects, an unfamiliar contractor may be more suitable in achieving the schedule, budget, or meet proximity requirements of local contractor, therefore, we have tools that we use to initiate them onto the team as a cohesive member.

Four Things You Should Know When Planning a Groundbreaking Ceremony

When building a new business or relocating, it pays to start your publicity early.  An inexpensive way to create buzz is to host a groundbreaking or a “kickoff” ceremony at the beginning of your project.  I’ve had clients who’ve broke ground both before starting a project or soon after a project has started, with construction being the backdrop during the ceremony.  We call it a project “kickoff” instead of “groundbreaking” when we renovate an existing building.

Tips to Pass a School Bond Election

We have found that there’s not a single formula to passing a school bond vote.  Every community is different in regard to their support of their school district, so each campaign needs to be tweaked and managed.  However, Wolgast's School Facility Specialists have discovered a couple of tactics over the years as former School Superintendents on how to give every bond campaign a better chance for success and offer their expertise as part of our Pre-Bond Services.

First, the most important aspect of a success­ful millage election is staff and community involvement in the planning process. With that said, the likelihood of the passage of a millage proposal is determined days and even months prior to the election.  The devel­opment of the bond proposal, the inclusion of groups that will be af­fected by it, along with the marketing plan and execution are all key ingredients that will help lead to a successful election.

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