April 21, 2008

JANIS REES/KALEIDOSCOPE PHOTOGRAPHY.

The winning teams in the student bid competition sponsored by the Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors and the Ontario General Contractors Association.

George Brown student team wins mock-tender competition

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

Collingwood

A four-person student team from George Brown College came closest to the mark in a recent mock tender closing in Toronto.

Prestige Construction’s bid was a mere $462,570 shy of the target price of $38,823,459 that had been budgeted for the project.

“At first, I wasn’t sure how well our group was going to perform, because none of us had worked together prior to the competition,” team member Trevor Chung said in an interview.

“But as it turned out, we worked extremely well with each other.

“Our estimate was so precise because we coordinated the tasks well and we believed in each other. Our team took pride in this competition.”

The simulated bid competition was organized by the class of fourth-year students enrolled in the project management option of the architectural science program at Ryerson University.

The objective of the exercise was to give the students hands-on experience in tendering and in working as a team to achieve a common goal.

The competition was based on an office tower project in Markham.

Student teams assumed the role of general contractors bidding directly to the project owner.

Bid packages were evaluated on the basis of presentation, professionalism, accuracy and completeness and being closest to the target bid price.

This year’s winners are:

•Closest to target price award: Prestige Construction. (Team members Trevor Chung, Nick Elworthy, Julian Ioannou and David Tandory).

•Overall bid package award: Campus Construction from George Brown College. (David Arscott, John Arscott, Fiodor Postica, Val Acocella and Gurmeet Bharj).

•Presentation award: MJ Consultants from Ryerson University. (Suzanna Afonso, Victor Tang and Jack Leung).

•Professionalism award: Campus Construction.

This year, 28 teams from the two institutions submitted bids. Awards were presented during the Ontario General Contractors Association’s (OGCA) 5th annual construction symposium.

Sponsors, which include the Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (CIQS) and the OGCA, would like to see the competition become truly national, with participation from outside the Greater Toronto Area and Ontario.

Students in their final year in construction, construction technology, building science, construction engineering and construction management at post-secondary institutions in Canada are eligible to compete.

“We’d like to encourage colleges and universities in the other provinces to participate in what we believe is a very worthwhile learning experience,” said Lois Metcalfe, executive director of the CIQS. “We’ll be working on this over the next year.”

A similar note was struck by OGCA president Clive Thurston, who believes that the simulated bid competition is well executed and “as close as you can get to the real thing.”

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