by Neal Roseberry, AIA, Principal, Lemay Erickson Willcox Architects
Having practiced church architecture here in the Washington Metro Area for over 30 years, Iâve personally experienced and enjoyed the shift from an âold schoolâ concept of Design-Bid-Build, that most often resulted in an adversarial relationship between the Architect and General Contractor, to what we now term in its purest form an âIntegrated Design Teamâ or IDT approach to meeting our clientâs building project needs.
The IDT concept is simple, really: all three parties, Owner, Architect and General Contractor (GC) work together to achieve the clientâs goals. This means the Contractor joins the team about the same time that the Architect does (if not before), advising on important factors of budget, constructability and schedule in a collaborative manner throughout the design process, and helping ensure a âsoft landingâ on cost once the design documents are completed for construction.
Inherently, the IDT approach is trust-based, with all parties working transparently to meet project design and budget goals. From our perspective as the Architect, this means that the GC is working with us to find potential problems and issues in the documents, rather than submitting an artificially low number on bid day, just to win the competitively bid job, and then waiting to sign a contract before bringing potentially costly change-orders to the table. As we often tell our clients, weâre excellent architects, but weâve still never completed a 100% perfect set of design drawings. Having a GC on the design team does get us a bit closer to that goal, though. And the GC can also help suggest an appropriate contingency for the Owner to carry into construction for the remaining unforeseen conditions that inevitably arise during construction.
Protecting the Ownerâs wallet, the IDT approach still allows competitive subcontractor bidding for the various trades under the GC, so costs can still be managed. At the same time, the Owner is likewise a part of the Design team, and can review who the subcontractors proposed are, and decide whether their bid represents good value relative to experience and reputation in the industry.
The net results of an IDT spirit are these: fewer cost surprises throughout the course of the project, a higher quality of work product, and a positive, non-adversarial working environment for all concerned. So we encourage all of our church clients to consider the merits of interviewing and selecting a General Contractor up-front and early in a project, developing trust and transparency in the process, and in our experience, delivering the churchâs expected project as a team.
Consider some form of an Integrated Design Team approach for your church.
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