with an emergency response to immediately reopen the school and provide facility replacement. The building was completely destroyed in the fire and impacting the entire campus. HMK was on site the morning of the fire and began executing a plan to secure the building and ensure school could resume the following Monday, 5 days later.

Project challenges included the development of a plan to design and construct the building in 14 months, while negotiating with PACE to develop a realistic replacement cost valuation for the building loss. The initial valuation difference between the district and PACE exceeded $4 million. We were able to reduce the delta between the cost to rebuild, and PACE’s identified cost, by assisting PACE with establishing a process for valuing a complete loss. We successfully negotiated a building valuation that accurately reflected the true cost of replacement. Through developing a strong team approach with the School District, City of Albany Building Department, PACE Insurance Trust, Design Team, and Prime Contractor, the project was designed, constructed and insurance settlement completed in 14 months, and ready for the start of the 2016/2017 school year.