Is it me?

Encouragement and cautions for contractors who want to try design/build on for size

By Steve Schultz

Design/Build firms can't be all things to all people, contractors and architects say. Partnerships with those experienced in working with clients' specific needs are most successful. Potter Lawson Architects joined longtime partner J.H. Findorf & Son Inc. to build the DeanCare HMO headquarters in Madison shown above. Photo: Potter Lawson Architects

The explosion of design/build projects over the past few years has fattened the portfolios of contractors who have hopped on the bandwagon.

But industry observers say those who chose to wait and see will have to decide soon whether to add design/build in order to keep pace with the market.

General contractors, architects and dedicated design/build firms caution newcomers to look past the hype and decide how design/build fits before proceeding.

"If you're a general contractor and you're saying, 'Geez, this new trend of design/build - it's going crazy, there must be some money to be made in there - I'm going to jump on board,' you should know you are taking on new and added responsibility," said Randy Scoville, vice president and chief operating officer of designer/builder Peter Schwabe Inc. "There's a lot more to design/build that meets the eye."

Many Wisconsin contractors that have joined the ranks of designer/builders are big names which practiced only the tried-and-true plan and spec for years. But beginning in the early 1970s, and at an ever-increasing pace in the past decade, customers demanded streamlined projects.
Designer/builders and their customers say that when a single entity runs the job, customers believe their projects are under control. They have a single person to hold responsible and the sense that work will be completed on time.

"You realize you're responsible for everything, so you're in the mode of solving your own problems, versus plan and spec," said Les Blum, senior vice president of Opus North Corp., a nationwide design/build firm that has been active in Wisconsin since the early 1970s. Companies that do not do design/build "are looking for someone else to blame."

Consider the hassle factor

Close coordination between the owner or developer and the contractor and architect tends to eliminate change orders and lawsuits, factors some say are often more likely to occur in what is derided as "design/bid/build/sue."

"I think the design/build process lets the owner and the architect and the contractor know early in the game whether you've got a synergy or a process that's going to be successful," said F. William Harvat, vice president of business development at Menasha-based Miron Construction Co. Inc. "You (might) end up with people pointing fingers. If you're in it from the beginning, most of the problems ... are cleared up before you get into the actual project."

Company after company cites a single ingredient as the "make-or-break" factor in design/build: trust between the owner and the contractor.

"There has to be a respect and trust between those parties, and if there is, a lot of things can happen very comfortably on the project," said Lou a principal at Kahler Slater Architects Inc. who also does project management for Venture Architects Inc.

Stippich points to the Pettit National Ice Center in West Allis, constructed by the design/build team of Venture Architects in Milwaukee and Madison-based contractor J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., as an example of how animosity can evaporate in the right work atmosphere.

"On the Pettit Center, the superintendent typically came to us with a solution for every problem he identified," Stippich said. "And it wasn't always the solution we bought, but he would tell us ... what he thought was the best way to resolve a particular issue, and in some cases, if it fit the design concept, we said, 'Yeah, go for it.' If for some reason it didn't quite fit, then we'd come back to him with a different solution. But the fact that he told us how he could do it best helped us frame the way we proposed alternatively solving the problem for him."

Trust me

Venture Architects Inc. worked with J.H. Findorf & Son Inc. on the Pettit National Ice Center in West Allis, a design/build project. Photo: Pettit National Ice Center

That trust can also be forged through shared responsibility. David E. Lawson of Madison-based Potter Lawson Architects said his company's first design/build job was divided equally between the architect and contractor, so that neither business could control the project itself.

Trust depends in part on whether a contractor or a start-up company decides to bring design in-house or forge partnerships with other firms. As with the definition of design/build itself, opinions vary widely.
"In order for us to be a design/builder, we have to have associates in the various fields who are designers of different products," Harvat said. "So if a church says, 'We want a design/build church,' we go to a church architect," he said. "If an industrial guy says, 'I want to design/build a plant,' we go to a guy that does industrial plants. A lot of design/builders, or for that matter a lot of architects, think they can build anything and everything, and that's not the case."

As much as 40 percent of Miron's work is design/build, an increase of 30 percent from only five years ago, Harvat said.

By working with separate architects and engineers, companies that do traditional general contracting or construction management say they won't alienate companies with whom they plan to do plan-and-spec work.

However, companies with architects and engineers on staff say they've eliminated more variables. They say they choose their architects and engineers based on individual talent, rather than rolling the dice on an entire firm's reputation and getting the talent assigned to them.

"The success that evolves from the ability to constantly interact and communicate and problem-solve" was one factor in merging what was once Schwabe Construction with PSI Design to create Peter Schwabe, said Lori Layne, the combined firm's director of business development.

Dare to be different

Regardless of their approaches, successful contractors say design/build firms should not be all things to all people. They should specialize or have outside experts in place even when architects and engineers are just down the hall, according to those in the industry. Oscar J. Boldt Constru-ction Co., for example, has architects and engineers on staff, but will go outside the company when needed, said Daren J. Mazier, a member of the company's corporate development staff.

Many other companies that also have architects and engineers on staff go outside for specific technical projects as long as the company is confident that it can handle the job.

"I don't know why a client would hire a design/build firm that wasn't familiar with that type of building," Stippich said. "Just like hospital owners rarely hire a design team that has never done a hospital. Owners don't like to pay for your learning curve."

Contractors can gauge their comfort with design/build by evaluating the work of their estimators. Design/build contractors must have conceptual estimators who can work from design ideas and incomplete blueprints, rather than detailed drawings.

"Cost-wise, a lot of the projects we do now are fast-track," said Bryan J. McGann, president of Padley-McGann Construction Inc. in Madison. "It's really important that they get in the ground and this design/build allows us to guarantee a price up front and then design it to meet the owner's budget. We can concentrate on the foundation plan, get pricing on the foundation, and then start the concrete while we're still working on final drawings."

Go with your gut

Evaluate the talent on hand, take all the advice, study all the options, and then realize that your first foray into design/ build is a gamble, contractors say.

"I don't think there's any one magic bullet," said Mazier of Oscar J. Boldt Construction. Ten percent of his company's business is design/build after a decade of providing the service. "I think it really comes down to a trial-and-error approach to what seems to work best, and I think that would be different for each and every company."

Sudden conversion might be deadly to your business, say general contractors who dedicate only a percentage of their business to design/build.

"Avoid the one-size-fits-all syndrome," said Steve Holmgren, director of business development at J.H. Findorff & Son Inc. in Madison. "You have to understand the owner, you have to understand his priorities and objectives. If you're a firm that relies on 100 percent design/build process, there will be lots of projects that come along where that may not make the best sense from the owner's standpoint."