Design/Bid/Build Is an Innovative Solution

Design/Bid/Build Is an Innovative Solution

By John A. Marasco, AIA, NCARB

One of the many ways we have helped our clients recently is by developing an innovative design and construction strategy. This strategy takes the best attributes of the most commonly used design and construction methods and combines them into one. The most prevalent design and construction method is called design/bid/build. This is when an architect is selected by the client, completes a detailed design/construction document set based on the clients needs, bids this set to several experienced general contractors, and helps the client select the appropriate bidder to construct the building. This provides the client with the benefits of competition, and therefore typically the lowest construction costs. That being said, however, you are putting your trust solely into the architects’ hands as it negates any contractor input (until it is too late) on how to better construct the building for less money, without sacrificing quality. This cost-savings process is called “value engineering” and relies heavily on the contractor’s experience with local construction systems and techniques as well as access to materials and equipment.

In a typical situation, the building is not value engineered until the design/construction documents are complete, the building is bid out and the general contractor is selected. At that time, any changes that are decided upon are redrawn into the design/construction set, but unfortunately at additional cost to the client. Some savings are still there, but it costs the client architecture/engineering fees to save on building costs. On the plus side, during the construction process, the architect acts as your quality assurance agent, guaranteeing that the contractor remains on the up and up and the client receives what he or she paid for.

Another often-used method, called design/build, is when a general contractor and architect form a team at the inception of the project and are selected by the client as such. Because the team is set from the beginning and work can commence even as the design/construction document set is being finalized, technically about two months can be shaved off the typical construction timeline. Unfortunately, because of fixed lead times with various building materials, we generally do not see this time savings actually materialize — but it is technically possible. However, because the contractor is on board from the beginning, his or her input can be included into the design/construction document set from its inception, giving the client a value-engineered building from the get-go and at no extra architecture/engineering costs. However, as the contractor typically employs the architect, your quality assurance agent during construction is lost. Therefore, you must be completely comfortable with the team’s level of ethics before you chose this method. We are not trying to imply that the design/build process is flawed, just that the client has less control; in fact, we work routinely with design/build firms that produce excellent buildings for their clients.

As stated previously, we have developed and used a new strategy with several of our recent clients with excellent results. This new strategy combines the assets of both of the aforementioned methods into one. We call it design-bid/design-bid-build. This is when an architect is selected by the client, completes a preliminary design/construction document set, bids this set to several experienced general contractors, and helps the client preliminarily select the appropriate bidder. The input of the architects, engineers, general contractors, subcontractors and clients is gathered, value engineered, then applied to the final construction document set. As the value engineering is completed prior to the continuation of the construction document set, there are no additional architecture/engineering costs. The preliminary general contractor then solely rebids the project. If they meet the original bid, minus any pre-determined value-engineered savings, they are issued the final contract to construct the building. If they bust the bid, the client reserves the right to re-bid the other original general constructors in order to reduce construction costs.

This method gives the client maximum budgetary control by allowing the general contractor and their subs to participate in the value engineering process during, not after, the design/construction documentation set is complete. The client now has the opportunity to adjust his or her budget or building quality prior to finalizing the construction document set. By moving the value-engineering process to the middle, as opposed to the end, of the design/construction documentation process, extra architecture/engineering redrawing fees are no longer applicable. It also gives the client maximum cost control by maintaining a competitive bid between multiple experienced general contractors. And finally, it allows the client to maintain his or her quality assurance agent, the architect, during the construction process. The design-bid/design-bid-build method brings all of this to one neat package.