Top educators say defining
design/build is all academic

By Steve Schultz

Open a textbook in any university construction course and you'll find concise formulas for making sure that the right gauge of structural steel is in place, enough concrete is poured for floors and just the right amount of dirt is removed during excavation.

Saeed Karshenas Professor Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Marquette University

But defining the method used for managing projects isn't as precise. For educators who teach construction management, in-structing has meant working in shades of gray.
"When I was going through the process, I thought everything had to be black or white," said Lisa Riedle, a professor in the construction area of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville's Department of Civil Engineering. "It had to be this way or it had to be that way. And maybe that was just naïve, that you had to follow this and it had all of these rules to go with it."

Who leads?

As the industry has become more savvy, the distinctions between how projects are managed are getting fuzzier, leading interest groups to seek clarity with strict definitions that favor their approach.
Officials of the Design-Build Institute of America, the country's top design/build lobbying group, jump at the chance to precisely define their craft.

"Design/build is a method of project delivery in which one entity forges a single contract with the owner to provide for architectural/engineering design services and construction services," said David A. Johnston, director of technical programs for the institute. "It's single-source responsibility."
But although industry officials agree with the idea of design/build amounting to simply having one phone number to call, whose number is it?

Architects want their phones to ring.

"You'll probably get several stories about design/build depending on really who's leading it, who's holding the risk and how much," said Robin M. Ellerthorpe, a Chicago architect who is directing work on the 13th edition of the "AIA Architects Handbook of Professional Practice."

Ellerthorpe maintains that designers are a key part of design/build and can even lead a joint effort.
But for Christopher S. Monek, executive director of market services for the Associated General Contractors of America, design/build is more about builders than designers. And its use among contractors is growing.

"In design/build, you're basically talking about a system where the contractor is the single point of responsibility for design and construction services," Monek said. "Under design/build, we're finding that it's a system used more often by contractors than architects."

During the group's annual convention in March, about 150 construction executives were surveyed about design/build. "We asked the group ... 'How many of you have been involved in design/build in the last year?' and 66 percent said they had been," Monek said.

Meet the Experts Robin M. Ellerthorpe Wicklund Pigozzi & Peterson Architects Inc. David A. Johnston Design-Build Institute of America Christopher S. Moneki Associated General Contractors of America Saeed Karshenas Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering Marquette University Lisa Riedle Dept. of Civil Engineering University of Wisconsin-Platteville Jeffrey S. Russell Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Wisconsin-Madison

Academic perspective

Architects say they take the lead, contractors say they're in charge. But those who teach project management aren't willing to commit to either side.

"The design industry says you need designer-led because you can't trust contractors because they won't look out for public safety, health and welfare," said Jeffrey S. Russell, who teaches construction project management in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "And there are others that say if you look at the risk and who has the money, it has to be contractor-led because if you've got stiff financial consequences, the contractors are the only ones with any money to be able to pay significant liquidated damages."

Russell adds that the entire industry is focusing too much on which segment leads. Instead of any business taking charge, it's the customer who must be in control.

"I personally think that owners have to sit back and ... become ... well-educated buyers of design and construction services," Russell said, "and they need to define in their project up front what are their major objectives that they have associated with their project. That means they sit down and decide how to manage risk associated with cost, time, safety and quality."

What is "turnkey?"

Responsibility in so-called turnkey construction is even less clear.

"In its simplest form, the owner gives the turnkey builder general directions as to what is wanted, and the turnkey contractor is expected to provide the project that will satisfy the owner's needs," said Saeed Karshenas, who teaches construction in the Depart-ment of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Milwaukee's Marquette University. "In turnkey contracts, the contractor obtains project financing, in some cases procures the land, designs and constructs the project, and provides interior equipment and furnishings."

Sometimes, the turnkey contractor actually owns the building and either leases or sells the completed job to the customer. In other circumstances, turnkey contractors work for a private developer or owner who, once the project is completed, turns the job over to a public entity.

From an architect's or contractor's perspective, a business would be irresponsible to take on such a job without highly defined specs.

"The spec has to be extremely detailed, all the way down to dry and wet bulb temperatures, the insulation performance, the glass performance," Ellerthorpe said. "It gets into a pretty prescriptive specification before you even turn a shovel."

Who's watching?

A construction manager is one part Big Brother and one part shepherd. For Riedle, a manager takes on not only coordinating, scheduling and quality assurance, but a watchdog role as well. "Somebody making sure it's done up to code - kind of like a second set of eyes," Riedle said.

Construction management applies to both someone who reviews contracts and another who supervises workers on the job.

There are two ways to use construction management. In "agency," the manager is an agent who doesn't take any risk for cost overruns, delays or other problems. The actual construction is handled by another business, but the manager will do estimating, bidding and other office functions, Karshenas said.

With "at-risk," the construction manager will guarantee the maximum price and essentially becomes a general contractor, responsible for hiring subcontractors directly or doing the work itself, Karshenas said.
Each method carries a different level of liability. An agency construction manager is typically held to the same standard as an architect or engineer, but an at-risk construction manager incurs as much responsibility as the typical general contractor.

No there there

The academics who teach all these systems shrug when asked whether one method will emerge as the most common.

"In the marketplace, people will spend whatever they need to spend to sell it," Russell said. "You've got a lot general contractors marketing themselves as construction managers and design/builders when in fact if you really look carefully, there's nothing there."

Ultimately, educators have agreed to teach facets of each method and let students sort it out for themselves.

"We talk about when you want to use what method and when you don't want to use what method, and we get to a little bit of comparing them," Karshenas said. "I tell them they all can lead to disaster or they all can lead to success, depending how you apply them and how much the owner knows about what they want."

Schultz is The Daily Reporter's Jobtrac editor.