Design/build construction.

• Author: Ess, Charlie
• Position: Architects and contractors' teamwork

These days architects and contractors unite to save time, eliminate change orders and help projects stay on budget.

Teamwork. If the term isn't in the construction industry's vocabulary already, it will be in the near future as an increasing number of owners call for bids on projects in the design/build mode.

Design/build, like the melding of the words implies, combines two major facets of the construction industry, seating contractors and architects at the same table. Together, they come up with the design then build what they design-within the budget they propose to the customer.

In some ways, the arrangement is an unlikely one in an industry where motives in the various sectors were based in protecting interests as independent players. But times are changing in many building arenas and more players have decided to show their hands in exchange for the stability that comes with a symbiotic relationship.

The basic idea is nothing new, if you ask Gerald Neeser, owner of Neeser Construction. Neeser's awareness of design/build construction stems back to 1969. Now more than 60 percent of his work is under these combined contracts. "It's been around," he says of the system. "It's just gaining momentum."

And for several reasons.

Owners have been quick to grasp the concept for its merits of saving time. Neeser says the most immediate advantage to the concept is in acquiring permits at a faster rate, which shaves up to 90 days off a project's completion date.

And the closer relationship to the designer, he says, has netted time savings all the way through the building process. Several years ago, Neeser's construction company completed the $8 million Williwaw Elementary School a year ahead of schedule.

NO CHANGE ORDERS

But owners say they love design/build most for displacing a construction process they loathe: change orders. In the past, some contractors have made immense profits on change orders arising from the disparities between a design, which has been done by an architectural firm, and the reality of the construction, done by the contractor. To the chagrin of the owner, the reconciliation of the two steps usually comes in the form of extra time and materials.

"Some contractors have the hit of coming in low (on the bid) and picking apart the documents to find the gray matter, then going for the change order," says Neeser. "In design/build it's apples to apples."

"Theoretically, you're not going to have any change orders," says Richard Hancock...