When I tell people that I am the construction manager for a design-build company, the response that I frequently get is ‘What is design-build?’. A fair question to ask, my response is that design-build is one of the methods of designing and building a project where one company oversees both the design and construction of a project.
In the more ‘traditional’ method of working on a project, the client will first work with an architect or designer to create the design. There may be an initial discussion of the client’s construction budget for the project, but this isn’t necessarily considered throughout the design of the project.
Once the architect has completed an approved design and spent much time and resources putting together a set of drawings to send to contractors, the client will start to see how much the project will actually cost to build. Nine times out of ten, the design that has been sent out to bid ends up costing substantially more than what was initially discussed with the architect or designer. There are many reasons for this, the biggest one being that the architect usually doesn’t have a good idea of the current costs of construction.
The next steps in this scenario are to go back to the architect and pay him/her more to ‘value engineer’ the project down to a scope that will meet the client’s budget; essentially spending money to save money. The revised design and associated drawings then get sent back to the contractors for bidding, and so on, until the design aligns with the build cost.
With the design-build model of project delivery, the design of the project evolves in conjunction with the construction budget, eliminating redundancy and cost. With both the design team and construction team involved from the outset of the project every design decision from initial schematic design through construction detailing is priced and vetted for constructability. This allows the client to make informed decisions about the design based on their budget. If there are unknowns in the design, the construction team can assign allowances to the budget that can then be designed to. With the design and budget of the project happening in tandem by the time the design is done the budget is as well, allowing the construction phase of the project to start sooner.
Throughout the project having the designer and contractor under one roof reduces the back and forth project management that would otherwise happen between the architect and contractor, once again reducing project timeline and cost.
While this is a quick overview of the design-build model, I believe that it is a great way of working on a project and offers many advantageous to a client. If you would like to know more about our design-build process, and how Suzanne Zahr Art & Architecture / SZ Build can help you with your project, feel free to contact me at parker@szbuild.com.