June 27, 2008 WOBURN, MA. Tocci, and our project partners KlingStubbins and Autodesk, recently held the kick-off meeting for Autodesk HQ, New England’s first IPD (Integrated Project Delivery) project and the first for all participants involved. The team began by reviewing the fundamental reasons IPD works:

Optimizing the whole: As individual team members can only benefit when the overall project is a success, participants are incentivized to merge talents & work together.

Collaboration unlocks creativity: Diverse viewpoints will produce more creative ideas, in both quantity and quality.

Self healing organization: Minor failures lead to major catastrophes. Since individuals are working as a unified team, small issues are brought to the table and resolved, rather than covered up.

Challenges spur creativity: People are known to “rise to the occasion”. However, when the challenges are too great, individuals become defensive, which negatively impacts collaboration, therefore intensity rather than hysteria will be cultivated.

Now that the project is in full swing Tocci is seeing examples of these principles everyday, especially in BAT meetings, when the full project team comes together. The BAT is the Building Advisory Team – a group of Autodesk employees that represent the various departments for design input. These are essentially design meetings but because the project is IPD everyone is involved during all project stages. So Tocci attends design meetings and KlingStubbins will visit the construction site and attend Tocci’s monthly meetings. The key to all this collaboration is the BIM (or The Model) which all parties are building and utilizing. An example of this model use occurred during last week’s BAT meeting. An amazing “BIM Moment” occurred; this is our Virtual Construction Manager’s account of the meeting:

BAT meeting in progress

“We were reviewing a potential feature in the building, with the hope that we could come to a decision. KlingStubbins had prepared a number of views, showing the feature. After going through the series of images, no one was sure if the feature was an effective enough design component to approve it. Offhand, one of the representatives from Autodesk offered to prepare a walk-through of the feature for the end of the meeting, but most people were convinced that the feature wasn’t going to happen. The feature was tabled until then.

Later that day, rather than a canned walk-through, we actually walked-through the feature live, using FreeWheel. As a feature, it was hard to control (or at least it appeared that way), but after that we really understood the feature and its impact. After walking through the space, observing the feature as a user in the building, everyone realized that the feature did have a significant design impact.

Decision made: BIM saved the design feature – it will be included in the project!”
Quote courtesy of bimx

For Immediate Release: June 19, 2008 Tocci Building Corporation, Woburn, MA. On June 17th Tocci Building Companies hosted noted entrepreneur and hotelier Jack Deboer. Jack created and built the Residence Inn, Summerfield Suites and Candlewood Suites brands. He is widely credited as the father of the extended stay hotel concept with his first Residence Inn in 1975. Over a light summer dinner Jack shared the inspirational story of his business success and how it led to even greater passion to rescue children in Myanmar and around the world. He and his wife, Marilyn, were particularly moved to help in Myanmar, and chose the humanitarian organization, World Vision as their partner. Due to their support, World Vision started work in Myanmar in 1989 as the only NGO in the country. To this day they remain the largest individual donors in Myanmar.

Last year Jack joined Tocci and the Frey Family to provide major funding for World Vision’s street children rescue program in the Republic of Georgia. The event on June 17th (see pictures from the event below) was the second in a three year commitment to fund this vital program to rescue Georgia’s street children. The widespread poverty in this former Soviet Union country has weakened the family unit and forced scores of children onto the streets to beg and steal for a living, leaving them vulnerable to neglect, trafficking and exploitation. This three year “Georgia Children in Crisis Project” requires $880,865 in funding, with your help we WILL make a difference in these children’s lives. Thank you to all those who have already donated, and if you have not, please click on link below and send in your support as soon as you can.

Donation Card

Tocci is named recipient of a 2007 AGC Massachusetts Merit Award honoring an exemplary safety record. The award recognizes that Tocci sustained an incident frequency rate 25% below building division average. In addition to incident rate measurement, the criteria include company management commitment, active employee participation, safety training, work site hazard identification and control, and safety program innovation. Great work, team!

For Immediate Release: June 3, 2008 Tocci Building Corporation, Woburn, MA. Tocci just received a 2008 (for year 2007 performance) Associated Builders & Contractors Gold-Level Safety Training and Evaluation Process Award. In 2006 and 2007 we received Silver Level recognition. Congratulations to everyone in the Operations/Field Group who are working diligently to assure Tocci manages safe project worksites and for implementing new safety programs such as the Fine System. Thank you to Marty Kelly for providing the training that enabled us to achieve a 100% OSHA 10 trained personnel level in the field, and among other staff that frequent the field.