On the 19th of April we went to see the Facilities Management Side of the Waterfront Wharf which is the Shopping Centre District of the V&A Waterfront.

On arrival we met near the shore where the ocean means the breakers. Here is where Mr Devenish begun to discuss the Board Walk which allows visitors to safely view the ocean. He began by explaining that the board walk was not always an attraction and was mainly put in place to prevent visitors from dangerously exploring the ocean by walking over the sharp rocks. A photo of the board walk can be seen below:

The board walk itself is made from indigenous trees collected from storms and natural occurrences and is about 4 years old. This fits in with the V&A's green agenda. This indigenous wood is also used as it ages well especially due to its location in a harsh environment right next to the ocean. Colin says that in times of large swell the ocean may even come over the breakers!

Next Colin took us though the centre and into the 'heart' of the shopping centre through its back doors. It was strange seeing a bit of the management operations side of the centre for the first time. Its incredible what goes into managing such a large successful space! In the picture below we can see the   class walking through the back rooms to see the operational side of the centre.

The first room we went into was where they manage the electricity distribution to each of the tenants. In the picture below you can see one of the 2 transformers. How it works is the V&A buy power in bulk from the city, transfer the power into a usable voltage and current and distribute the power to the individual tenants where they receive a monthly electricity bill.

As a legal requirement, the transformers are check for maintenance once a year. If you can see in the above picture there is a chemical catalyst which changes colour when there is water present in the transformer. When there is water, the transformer needs to be checked and repaired. You can also see the Distribution Boards on the left hand side of the picture. These boards also have the legal requirement of a yearly maintenance check. We were then taken to see the generator room. The photo below shows 2 out of the total of 11 generators!

The generators were installed to combat Load Shedding and came at a price of around R27.7 million! The generators are used to provide power during times of Load Shedding but are not used to power the air conditioning. The block boxes below the generators are their fuel tanks and can store around 1000l of diesel which allows for around 8 hours of running time. Three generators provide power to around a third of the centre. The generator room has a fire escape as a safety precaution. They have also insulated the generators exhausts and allow for cool air to run into the room to keep the generators cool (just like any engine). Maintenance is down every week on the generators to ensure that they are in working order.

The image above is a section of the air-conditioning room. Inside this room is quite cool but the outside of the room is really hot. The AC contributes around 14% of the waterfronts monthly operations costs. On a month during the summer season they could spend as much as 2-3 million Rand on AC alone. This works out to around a total of R20 million a month operations costs for the centre alone! The V&A have a dedicated electrical team and strive towards a turnaround time of 24hrs in case any lights etc need to be replaced. The tenants themselves do not have complete control over their fixtures and the facilities management team put restrictions on what lighting they can use.



The above pictures show some of the waste management side of the centre. On the left is a recycling bin which is aimed at promoting the shoppers to recycle. Colin explained that initially they were hard to implement but when the management team explained the importance of recycling to the staff and tenants it began to make a difference! The photo on the right is the centres waste management centre. It is from here where waste is sorted and sent off to either the landfills or to a recycling plant. Colin explained how the waste is collected several times a day and how the staff who work with the waste are given injections to prevent them from getting any sorts of diseases.

To conclude the tour we were then taken into the security rooms located outside of the centre. Unfortunately we were told that photos were not allowed to be taken :/. The security room was like something out of a CSI movie and was filled with monitors, alarms and security guards. It was awesome to see how they have camera almost everywhere in the centre and can track a person from their time of arriving up until they leave the centre and get into their cars. The quality of the cameras is so good that you can zoom in to see a persons eye colour!

Overall it was a great experience to see the facilities management side of the Waterfront Shopping Centre. I can personally say that I will ever see the centre in quite the same way!

Today Colin Devenish came to speak to us. Colin is the Executive Manager of Operations at the V&A Waterfront.

Colin was initially with Old mutual properties and has been at the V&A for around 8 years.

He says the three biggest worries he has about the business are:

• Water scarcity. No water can't flush the toilets, current water tariffs they pay 450 000 extra a month because of the new tariff and have to recover it from tenants. 
• Electricity, load shedding only not at moment due to slower productivity. 
• Terrorism, they know how to deal with robbers but cannot deal with people like suicide bombers. Has a huge impact on tourism. Had a bomb scare last week, dropped off a parcel and security saw them drop a parcel and they though ti was a bomb. Therefore they have a high level of alert. Had to get bomb squad in. 
• Lastly long term issue is Skill and people. how do you build a business without the correct skills. There are many empty jobs and unfilled positions. People quite often leave. Another is Political risk but it comes and goes. 

What makes a great place? Waterfront has location mountain, sea and port, but Colin believes its all about the SOUL of the area. He believes that the authenticity of the place makes it unique. That is why he believes in making the space work together and consistently changing to keep it interesting. Therefore focusing on the 'feel' of the place.

Thats why he now believes that Security and cleaning relates more to comfort. He believes in making an environment where people feel comfortable enough to spend time. 'Increasing quality of life is about connecting with one another'. Colin tries to make 'connections with the locals'. Their vision is to be the best Waterfront in the world and by incorporating Mixed use must also include Multiple use. Ie adverts on buildings, gyms in parks, outdoor cinemas,

The following outlines many of the Waterfronts Districts, their unique attributes and how the are managed.

Marina Facilities

• Dry dock synchro lift for ship repairs
• Facilities for docking of various types of vessels
• ISPS compliant can dock international vessels
• Super and luxury yachts

The Waterfront operates 24/7, 365 days a year and so much of the maintenance is done at night. Therefore they pay a premium as its usually overtime work. He adds that the surrounding areas such as the Cape Grace, Robin Island and CTICC all have an effect on the operations of the Waterfront. Ie the stadium having an event causing huge traffic issues. Need to manage the different events.

Hotels at the Waterfront

• Secure environment
• Easy access
• close to conference facilities
• Guests need to feel safe walking around to and from dinner etc

Parking and traffic are also huge issues.

• No of pay stations, no of entry and exits
• bay monitoring
• multiple tariffs of common tariffs?
• No more letting of bays the tariffs are flexible.
• securing the vehicles

Place Making
Doing small things or adding small attractions to try and slow people down. The power of 10. Making places destinations.

Eventa and promotion

• Painting the clock tower during work cup
• There are approximately 200 outdoor events that take place annually at the waterfront and 150 indoor.
• Challenges:
• Increased security, cleaning, parking
• traffic management
• external events, Stadiums

Accessibility

• Getting people in and out
• Granger Bay is most under-utilised path into waterfront. 
• Try and redirect people to entrances less taken.
• From a disabled person, they get a guy in a wheel chair to do a full assessment every 2 years or so.

Linkages between precincts.

• Getting from precinct to precinct.
• during world cup they made routes from town to the stadium.
• Must be a pleasant experience walking around. 
• Opening the bridges to get experience of shipping
• bicycle routes
• signage

Safety and Security

• Armed response units for precinct
• CCTV system
• Central Control room
• Tenant response system (basically a panic button)
• Traffic control unit
• Pro-active as well as re-active approach.
• On-site paramedics
• Disaster management Plan and Training

Wate management

• central waste handling facility for wet waste and recycled material
• Tariffs are charged based on how much they recycle.
• Incentivise people to recycle and to use dry waste

Technical

• Maintenance of buildings as well as infrastructure
• specialist electrical, mechanical and civiel, structural teams versus 'general' facilities managers

Utilities Management

• Focus on consumption and recovery
• Direct metering and biking as far as possible
• Services include: Electricity, Water, Sewage and waste/Refuse collection
• Monthly and ad hoc billing.
• Metering is very important. 

Sustainability

• Use the sea wear to cool the air for air-conditioning. 

While explaining to the class the difference between mixed use and multiple use, he showed us the below video. Click and the link and enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uiaYwJkW4Q

Watch the above video to find out more about our upcoming research and case study on the V&A Silo District!

So on Tuesday this week we went as a class to the Portside building in town to get an insight into the Facilities Management that went into running such a large building.

The building itself is architecturally beautiful and towers over many of the buildings around it. The building has around 30 floors and is jointly owned by Old Mutual and RMB. Each of the halts have their own entrances and separate lift systems. The building has around 3.3 bays for ever 100m square of space.

Portside is a 5 Star Green Rated building.


When we first arrived we were shows the 'waste room' where they sort out all of the refuse of the building into different sections of recycling. This room is sorted once a day.

We were then shoed the BMS system which basically controls all the Aircon in the building. It was really interesting to find out that not only do they allow for a certain amount of fresh natural air to be flow through the building but also that the Aircons themselves can only be activated if their sensors pick up movement in the area.

We were then taken to the Diesel Storage room which hold a 23000l diesel tank which can be seen in the image below.

This diesel tank pumps up diesel to the four 1250 KVA generators which are located on the 7th floor of the building. Off one tank alone the generators could power the building for up to 2 days but the tank can also be refilled without having to turn the generators off. Here is a picture of one of the generators. Its the biggest generator I've ever seen!

We were then taken to see how the building utilises the rain water and re-uses water form the sinks to be reused in the toilets. It was really interesting to see how they tried to utilise as much as they could to prevent wastage. It was also interesting to find out that in the case of a fire this water is not used as it simply just isn't enough. You can see the waste water storage tanks in the image below:

After being shown more of the ins and outs of how the building runs we were taken to see an empty office on the 15th floor. This is where most of the students were most excited about and it kind of sparked some inspiration in us to start a business (well it did for me at least).

When the tour was coming to an end, I remembered that whenever I drive past the building, I always see people cleaning the outside glass. I asked the Facilities Manger how often they get the glass cleaned and to my surprise they actually employ glass cleaners full time! He says that it cost them around R80k a month just to clean  the glass and that they have over 300 different ropes for cleaning!
This got me thinking that even though the glass is great for allowing in natural light and reducing the need for artificial lighting, how much were they actually saving?

At the end it was all very interesting and great fun. Thanks to Dave and the guys at Portside for giving us the opportunity!

So we had our first meeting with Kathy (our lecturer and supervisor) today and it went really well!

As a group we have decided to take a look at the FM processors and strategies in an Urban Precinct. So an urban precinct is (in a nut shell) an area which is controlled or managed by a certain overseeing body, think Century City, its like an area within an area. This means that an urban precinct will have its own governance of a sort.

As a group we wanted to focus on Woodstock at first but after a discussion with Kathy we agreed that focussing on the Silo district of the V&A waterfront would be more interesting. Our assignment will look at the 5 dimensions of sustainability which are Physical, Social, Economic, Ecological and Political.

For those of you who don't know the Silo district it is a Precinct which is being developed at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront area near the N2 highway. It is being developed by V&A, Growthpoint and the Government Employee Pension Fund (managed by the Public Investment Corporation). There will be four new developments in the area introducing over 35,000m2 of mixed use sustainable developments at a cost of over R2.5 billion and to be honest it looks epic!

They plan to develop residential apartments, commercial office and even a Virgin Active. If you know Century City they're basically trying to create a similar space with all the infrastructure and amenities you would want to find in a precinct. What's great about developments like this, is not only does it create beautiful sustainable space, but it allows for job creation and ultimately an increase in GDP.

Here are some photos I found online.
Check how epic it looks!

So what is Facilities Management?

Facilities Management is also know as Corporate Real Estate and Buildings Management

'Facilities Management is a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place and technology' - IFMA

So basically what this means is that Facilities Management is a profession that focusses and ensuring that a building runs to the best of its capabilities while taking into regard the building itself, the people that use the building and the functionality of the building.

Welcome :)

Let's get this thing started!

Just a quick background...

Hi guys my name is Adam Brews :)

I'm a 23 year old Property Studies Honours student at the University of Cape Town.

This year we have been given the assignment to make a blog for a course knows as Advanced Poperty Studies B which is basically Facilities Management.

For those of you who are unsure what Facilities Management is, DONT WORRY! Neither do I :p

But join me on my journey and I'm sure that within no time we'll be experts in the field.

So let the journey begin!!