Des Moines Public Schools

In the summer of 2023 DMPS issued an RFQ to find a firm that could undertake the first ever comprehensive facilities condition assessment (FCA) of all 73 district buildings, evaluating over 125 years of construction and educational environments. To best serve their 31,000 students and 5,000 staff, DMPS challenged the successful firm to consider both the physical state and the educational adequacy of every site. Through careful study of the RFQ, strategic teaming, and innovation of our own services and strengths, BBS proposed a holistic-detailed approach that displayed exceptional responsiveness to the District’s unique needs, at a dramatically lower cost than other firms.

During Phase 1 BBS worked closely with DMPS to develop a one-of-a-kind methodology for rating conditions, categorizing corrective actions, and scheduling all 73 district buildings to be assessed in only 35 weeks/9 months. What emerged were clear and consistent forms, legible to non-design-professionals, that would be taken into the field by 2 teams of 7 professionals each, from October through April. Derived from the Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI) and ASTM Uniformat II, BBS customized these documents to meet DMPS’s specific needs. They covered: interior environment, exterior envelope, property grounds, structural elements, mechanical systems (HVAC/Plumbing), electrical systems (power, exterior and interior lighting, fire alarm, IT, and communications), and elevators.

Through Phase 2 the teams coordinated continuously with district and building staff to access every reasonably accessible space, and rate each according to a unified scale. In coordination with each other each professional developed brief, quantified recommendations for corrective action. These actions were costed by a select subset of the teams.

Phase 3 overlapped phase 2 and saw the development of clear narrative reports with lucid graphs to explain and compare each site’s data, from condition to correction, culminating in a final executive report, laying the foundation for DMPS to fully understand their buildings’ health and future-readiness.