Design-build, solved while drawings are cheap to change
Design-build puts drawings and construction under one roof, so the team pricing the work is the team building it.
Design-Build Services · Greater Central FloridaIn a traditional bid process, design happens in one office and construction problems get discovered in the field, priced as change orders. Design-build closes that gap: constructability, budget, and schedule get answered while the drawings are still cheap to change.
Owners usually arrive at design-build because a previous project taught them something. A finished drawing set that priced out well above budget and had to be redesigned on the owner’s time. A change order log that grew every month. A schedule that slipped because nobody owned the space between the designer and the builder, so every question took two meetings to answer.
The tradeoff is worth stating plainly. A competitive bid on a complete drawing set produces the sharpest number available on a fully defined scope, and when the scope really is defined, that is hard to beat. Design-build trades some of that for a team that prices the work while it is still being drawn, catches constructability problems before they are on paper, and carries one accountable name from concept through close-out. Which one fits depends on how settled the project already is.
For tenant improvements and interior alterations, that usually means a faster path from letter of intent to open for business, because design, permitting, and early construction can overlap instead of waiting on each other. It is the same accountability that makes general contracting and ground-up work run under one contract here, applied one step earlier in the project.
What's included
- Concept and construction drawings coordinated with the build team
- Budget checkpoints during design, not after
- Permitting managed in one contract
- Value engineering grounded in field trade knowledge
- Constructability review while drawings are still cheap to change
- Overlapping design, permitting, and early construction
- Single accountability from drawings to close-out
Questions, answered
What is the difference between design-build and design-bid-build?
In design-bid-build you contract a designer and a builder separately and referee between them. In design-build one team owns both.
Is design-build faster?
Usually, because design, permitting, and early site work can overlap instead of running in sequence.
Who owns the drawings?
Deliverables and ownership are spelled out in the contract, and drawings are produced and permitted for your property.
How does pricing work on a design-build project?
You get budget checkpoints as design progresses and a hard number before construction starts.
When is design-build the wrong choice?
When the scope is already fully defined and drawn. A competitive bid on a complete, well-coordinated set gives the sharpest number available, and design-build has nothing to add to a project that has already answered its own questions.
Does design-build make sense for a small tenant improvement?
Often it makes the most sense there. On a small build-out the schedule pressure is a lease date, and overlapping design, permitting, and early construction is exactly where the weeks get recovered.
One Partner. Every Project.
Scope walk and a hard number before contract.