In summer 2010, in anticipation of wrapping up the investor deal, Hines told Clark/Smoot to get ready for subcontractor bidding, with which Hines would be involved, in the fall. The $422-million project has 150 prime subcontractors, including Clark Concrete and Clark Foundations.

"We gave each package three weeks to bid, followed by two weeks to review," says Clark's Haas. "We were awarding some as we were bidding others."

All the bids came in on one day. When a package arrived, Clark/Smoot would scan the bids and send them to Hines. The next day, Hines and the GC scheduled interviews for the three most responsive bidders for each trade.

"We used four conference rooms all week, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.," says Haas. "It was the most extra-ordinary bid effort I have ever seen, but, by the end of the week, we had a good idea of the price."

Another downside of the downturn was finding the right skilled labor for such a large project—the largest under way in D.C. at the time. "Craftspeople had been laid off during the recession," notes Haas.

For Hines' Greene, the project's greatest difficulty was managing concurrent construction of three different building types with two designers, different submittal processes, different owner groups and different budgets.

The project has five sets of design contracts, four separate general contracts, including one for the basement, and five main budgets. "We have to maintain and link the budgets," says Greene. "As one goes up, another has to go down to reallocate resources."

The primary design and construction strategy was to treat each project as a stand-alone job. "It was like running four very large projects—just all on the same site," says Jack Moyer, a Baranes senior associate.

But the jobs overlapped, particularly in the basement's mechanical level. Teams merged at the executive leadership level. And every morning at 6 a.m., the GC's team leaders met to coordinate site logistics and deliveries. There were only three entrances and one exit.

To cope with the congested site, the GC used off-site storage and just-in-time deliveries. A concrete batch plant set in a future federal mini-park in the corner of the site minimized the number of concrete trucks.