By the Numbers

1999 Zweig White & Associates national survey of 96 contracting-company presidents, CEOs and chief financial officers focused on growing design/build markets and builders' attitudes toward project-delivery innovations.

Zweig White is an independent architectural, engineering, planning and environmental contracting consulting company.

Who's stopping you?

• Some 65 percent of the design/build executives surveyed say they've encountered significant barriers to using design/build.
  
  
• Among those reporting that they have been barred from practicing design/build, 60 percent said public clients pose the greatest problems and 52 percent say private customers have resisted the delivery method.
  
  
• State laws pose the greatest barrier to design/build, executives report, but other obstacles are formidable.

Attitude is everything

• Design/build firms surveyed expect their design/build revenues to grow by a median of 20 percent in three years, 30 percent in five years and 50 percent in 10 years.
  
  
• Large firms predict greater three-year growth than smaller firms.
  
  
• Many believe that design/build projects are more profitable due to the larger scope of work and increased efficiency created by having architects, engineers and builders under one roof. Others say they have developed stronger cost controls.
  
  
• All are a little less optimistic today than they were in 1997. The percentage of construction executives who believe design/build projects are more profitable than design/bid/build projects has fallen steadily over the last three years.
  
  
• Nearly all the design/build contractors surveyed (94 percent) said they expect there will be an increase in the use of public-sector design/build over the next five years. Larger firms are among the most optimistic.