Posted Apr 25, 2012, 11:00 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Englewood, CO
Posts: 1,998
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mhays
Any negotiated contract can bring the contractor on board early to provide input, not just the bid format. That would be a three-legged team with the owner in the lead equally over the contractor and designer, and everyone working together perhaps through the entire design process. That's typical in the private sector, and also common in some states under the public GC/CM format. Design-build combines the two into one contract, which is typically led by the contractor because only they (we) have the financial wherewithal (bonding capacity etc.).
Under the bid format, in the states I'm familiar with at least, the owner (not the designer) manages the contractor. Same three-legged stool. But with low-bid, the price is a surprise at the last minute (often +/- 10-25%), vs. a negotiated or design-build approach where fairly reliable estimating is happening along the way by the contractor.
Design-build also puts much of the price risk on the design-builder rather than the owner. Unforseen conditions can still be the owner's responsibility, but the cost of any missing design details or other certain forseeable elements will fall to the d-b. It also heavily incentivizes the team to think about ways to save money both during procurement (to win the job) and along the way (to make a profit, hopefully with clear basis of design / quality / schedule contractual requirements so the public gets what it bought).
Low-bid often gives projects to the contractor who interpreted the drawings and specs in the most lawyerly way, omitting as much scope as possible from the price, followed by arguing their way to change orders later, meaning a contentious process and a higher final price. The public sector is often forced to use this method, but the private sector has moved away from it.
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What he said  I'm just a lowly structural engineer and only know the specifics anecdotally, that's really a well thought out description.
And thanks for the response Wong, that is what I remember as well. I wonder how they are offsetting the parking in the mean time with the loss of the wing lots? Or maybe they don't care or it doesn't really matter much until the east line comes online.
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