Design - Build
Design-build saves time and money while allowing for more innovation, collaboration, and better projects.
Design-build is a method of project delivery in which one entity – the design-build team – works under a single contract with the project owner to provide design and construction services. One entity, one contract, one unified flow of work from initial concept through completion. Design-build offers a compressed schedule with concurrent interdependent design, procurement, and construction activities. EDiS and the designer work together as a team to provide unified project recommendations to fit the owner’s schedule and budget. Changes are addressed by the entire team, leading to collaborative problem-solving and innovation. The culture of collaboration inherent in design-build is what separates it from older methods, and what sets it apart as a growing choice among EDiS clients.
Design-build provides our clients with an integrated approach to design and construction that shortens delivery schedules, optimizes design, and reduces costs. The contractor-led design-build contracting method places EDiS as the single point of contact to manage projects with the clients’ best interests in mind.
Minimize Risk
Historically, an owner engaged a design firm to design a project and create bid documents, then bids were solicited from contractors to execute the project. The designer is required to design the facilities to an industry accepted standard of care, and the contractor is required to construct the facilities per the plans and specs. Neither party is contractually obligated to provide a fully functioning facility, leaving all performance risk with the owner, as well as some cost and schedule risk. With design-build, the contractor assumes design, schedule, cost, and performance risks. The design-build contractor is contractually obligated to design and build a fully functioning facility while adhering to cost and schedule constraints.
Innovative Solutions
When a team works together from start to finish in a setting with open communication and purposeful collaboration, it becomes fertile ground for innovation. Bringing owners to the table with a collective of designers, builders, engineers, and estimators allows for all minds to work together and bring forth the best ideas. Design-build paves the way for creative solutions to be born from differentiated insights, resulting in minimized cost, streamlined schedules, and efficiencies achieved.
Manage Costs
EDiS works with our clients to manage their costs regardless of delivery method, but design-build tends to allow for better cost performance on average. Studies show that design-build projects are 1.9% less expensive than construction management projects on a per square foot basis, and 0.3% less than design/build/bid. These cost savings are found through the increased innovation and collaboration that take place when design and construction teams are working in tandem.
Reduce Schedules
Design-build projects complete faster. The ability to effectively fast-track projects is one key reason owners choose design-build contracting, and EDiS maximizes the opportunities that design-build provides to expedite the schedule and deliver faster. Not only does design-build allow us to create tighter and shorter inception to completion schedules, but it also results in less schedule growth as the projects progress since design and construction teams are in constant collaboration.
The future of design-build looks bright.
Not even ten years ago, design-build was considered an “alternative” contracting method. Now, the benefits have made it the fastest growing method in the industry, and EDiS is ready . According to industry research, more than half of all construction projects will be delivered via design-build by 2021.
54%
0%
of design-build teams are contractor-led.
47%
0%
of all construction projects are being delivered via design-build.
102%
0%
faster delivery speed than design/bid/build.
