Project catalyst through integrated planning & development
GMK Associates’ approach to facility delivery is comprehensive: an integrated platform of services and coordination protocols that allow our team to meet each client’s unique needs and a heightened responsibility for finished spaces, long after initial occupancy by the owner. By using our multiple disciplines and specialists to their highest and best use – from planners, designers, cost estimators, construction administrators, program managers, energy-efficiency consultants and more – GMK is positioned to facilitate every aspect of bringing your facility to fruition, meeting the often disparate needs of all stakeholders. We work with other consultants, like financial planners, to integrate facility and business planning, and offer healthcare certificate of need and project cost analysis assistance. This collaborative and meticulous up-front planning process helps articulate clear, strategic objectives that provide a unified roadmap for our clients.
With GMK as your project catalyst, the result is
- successful project navigation in often challenging circumstances;
- a more seamless, cost-effective, schedule-minded project from start to finish;
- forward-thinking design;
- space that enhances user satisfaction;
- and facilities that drive return on investment and higher profit margins.
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Single-source services that drive cost-containment
This team brings a unique service platform to the market. We’re not just architects, engineers and interior designers. Nor are we simply construction administrators. Rather, we form an integrated planning, design and construction services group – a single, unified team with a tremendously wide knowledge base, allowing each discipline to work to its highest and best use while serving as a resource to all the others. Unlike a traditional design and construction model where independent companies work together, yet separately, each protecting their own interests, GMK brings all stakeholders to the table right from the start – when the key decisions for design, schedule and budget are made. The result: improved cost control and budget management which leads to enhanced business outcomes.
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“Razor-sharp” national healthcare planning expertise
GMK’s is an extremely seasoned healthcare planning team, including one of a few architects in the Southeast certified by the American College of Healthcare Architects. Our team has led more than 500 successful healthcare projects valued at more than $1 billion in construction, many of them complex healthcare due to existing conditions, owner phasing and infection control requirements. This know-how of the latest acute care trends, cost modeling and containment, and scheduling means our design solutions solve problems that hinder our client’s operations while ensuring new problems aren’t created downstream or in other departments.
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Philosophy of sustainability
As a firm, GMK is committed to sustainable, energy-efficient design and construction, with 70 percent of our designers LEED-accredited professionals. In order to make sound design recommendations, GMK evaluates the long-term efficacy of suggested building components and systems, their life cycle and energy efficiency both within the building (engineering systems) as well as building envelope and roof. We analyze the simple payback, cost of equipment, building energy modeling and return-on-investment calculations. It’s something we do every day and how we’ve helped many of our clients meet with tremendous energy-savings success (especially as seen by our more than multiple projects as a pre¬ferred vendor with the SC Energy Office’s Energy Technical Assistance Program) whether they chose to pursue LEED certification or not.
GMK designed and is currently building South Carolina’s first proposed LEED-certified inpatient healthcare facility.
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BIM capabilities
GMK utilizes Building Information Modeling to promote efficiencies in design drawings, bidding, construction and facility management when appropriate. Just this year, GMK has worked very successfully with the University of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine on projects utilizing BIM.
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Interior design that
speaks to senior living
Designing interiors for a
continuing care retirement community is such a specialized business. Creating an environment that truly supports
residents and their specific needs requires an intimate understanding of the
different levels of care provided and the transitions involved with each.
GMK Interiors has worked with
more than 21 Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs), including 49
individual projects, on other countless healthcare projects and with a number
of high-end hospitality groups — all relevant in designing for the retirement
industry. Our team incorporates supportive design features subtly but
effectively into our work, like providing the right size chair, sofa depth and
seat height for residents. And, we understand the differences between design
for independent living, assisted living and healthcare, and how to meld these
together to create a seamless environment. GMK’s interior designers know how
color, texture and patterns work and their purposes within the context of
senior environments. We work to ensure fixtures and finishes are operational
and functional as well as aesthetic. Likewise, we pay attention to maintenance
issues when specifying finishes, building codes, ADA compliance and
sustainability products. And, while our hospitality experience is vast, our
team is careful to only meld appropriate hospitality elements into our
senior living environments, always keeping top of mind that a CCRC should offer
a zestful, robust, safe lifestyle in a comfortable, residential style.
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