Design and build system catching on

When the great floods of 2010 washed out the Laurel Avenue bridge in Coventry, Rhode Island transportation officials were under pressure to rebuild it faster than the state’s traditional bidding rules for construction projects would allow.
So R.I. Department of Transportation leaders looked for a faster way, one they had just started using on the Wickford Junction train station project in North Kingstown, an alternative project-delivery system known as design-build.
Unlike the traditional project-procurement process, where DOT engineers would design the new bridge and then seek bids from contractors interested in erecting it, design-build would see the whole package, design and construction, put out to bid. Whoever won the bid would then be responsible for designing and building the project under one contract.
The winning bid was for $2.9 million from Cardi Corp. and was finished $500,000 and one year below initial estimates.
“Because of the flooding we wanted to get it done as quickly as possible,” said Bob Smith, deputy chief engineer at DOT. “Using this method we were eliminating a phase, materials could be ordered immediately and the contractor could get to work right away. With that project and Wickford Junction, we were probably able to save 12 to 18 months.”
The idea of putting the responsibility for design and construction of building projects under one contract is not new. It’s been growing in use in the United States for the last decade. Before the advent of the design-bid-build method it was the default delivery system for European master builders.
But the momentum behind design-build delivery is spreading into new segments of the market and areas of the country, such as Rhode Island, where it had been slow to catch on.
“We definitely see an increase in the volume of our work that is going the direction of design-build,” said Dave Prengamen, principal at Vision 3 Architects in Providence, which has collaborated on design-build projects in recent years, including the Polyrack North America headquarters in Cumberland, the Miles Standish Medical Center in Taunton, the University of Rhode Island’s “surge building” in South Kingstown and Falvey Cargo Underwriting’s headquarters in North Kingstown. “It is becoming a more popular delivery method because there are advantages, particularly to owners who might not have a well-defined budget and schedule when they start,” Prengamen added. “The owner gains the advantages of scheduling and budgeting expertise, as well as design expertise.”
Delivering projects through a design-build process, instead of the design-bid-build process, has caught on fastest in the private sector, especially commercial projects, with the public sector slower to change its procurement procedures, laws and regulations.
Building projects where speed, efficiency and cost are the key drivers – such as office buildings, medical offices, schools and industrial spaces – have been obvious candidates for design-build.
On the other end of the spectrum, single-family houses, large or complex infrastructure projects and high-profile buildings like museums and cultural institutions still largely seek the services of an independent architect.
On the government side, Rhode Island has been slow to embrace design-build even as it catches on in neighboring states. The Wickford Junction train station, which was just completed last fall, was the first state transportation project to employ it.
“From a trend standpoint, the majority of design-build has been west of the Mississippi River, where 50 to 60 percent is now design-build and that number has tripled in the last 10 years,” said Mark Hanchar, director of pre-construction services at Gilbane Construction Co. “Here in the East around [one-third] is design build and Rhode Island is a little bit behind that curve.”
It wasn’t until three years ago, when the state was angling for federal stimulus money and needed projects to be “shovel ready,” that Rhode Island officials began pursuing design-build, first for the Providence Viaduct (which wasn’t initially funded) and then Wickford Junction. State law was changed to make it possible to use alternative project-delivery methods last year. Ned Capozzi Jr., president of Modern Design and Construction in Providence, which recently changed its name to emphasize its design-build work, said “fewer surprises” for the owner are a major benefit to design-build.
As an example, he pointed to a traditionally designed project the company recently bid in Boston where the architect’s blueprints called for an 8-foot door with three hinges.
Capozzi knew that the door would need four hinges for a warranty, but under the system he would have to start with three hinges and then send a letter to the owner later saying why they should add another hinge. If it was a design-build project, Capozzi said he could have just included four hinges in the plan from the start.
“In design-bid-build, you get a lot of inefficiencies: the system is beset by change orders,” Capozzi said. “In design-build there are cost savings and time savings because we are judge and jury.”
For those wary of choosing design-build, the main concerns are that the owner will have less direct control and that creativity could be stifled by giving more responsibility to the builder.
Capozzi said those concerns can be legitimate in cases where a design-build firm insists on keeping everything in-house, but Modern Design, like most design-build firms, brings in independent architects to collaborate on projects.
From the architects’ perspective, design-build can be a refreshing chance to collaborate with builders instead of dealing with them in what can be an adversarial relationship in the design-bid-build process.
“Our experience was fantastic,” said Chris Bardt, principal of 3Six0 Architects in Providence, about its work on Wildflour bakery in Pawtucket with Trac Builders. “The advantages of design-build are it’s really a team approach and the clients love it because there is one bill to pay.”
But because design-build puts the architect in a subservient role to the builder, Bardt said there are some projects where design-build isn’t the best fit.
“Design-build is a production machine, but not a template for creativity,” Bardt said. “You will never have a big museum done design-build.” •

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