If you are
one of the many who are very concerned about control over how money is spent on
your project and ensure proper spending, there is a way to do it. This decision
however, must be made from the outset of your project and this requires you to
have a licensed architect working with you, for you to reap the benefits of
such a method of executing your project.
The
traditional way of executing and delivering a project is through
design-bid-build method where the designer or architect is a separate entity that
provides the design and documentation only and a winning contractor from a bidding
process to take up the construction contract. This method does not give you
much of control over your project’s spending due to a separate contracting
entity that will only be controlled with the terms of the contract, leaving the
contractor to have more control over how to spend your money according only to
agreed scope and specifications of the project.
 |
| Design-Build Method VS Traditional Design-Bid-Build Method; Project Pacing |
The best
method for your project if you want greater control and expedite the process of
design and construction is that you must select an architect who has the capability of both designing and constructing your project and use the “design-build
by administration” service of an architect. This type of service by an architect is a special type of project delivery method that only architects can
provide the best outcomes. This way the client-architect collaboration
replace the traditional method’s client-architect-contractor adversarial arrangement, where eliminating the third entity (contractor) made the process
more simple.
To give you
an idea of how this method could apply to you, let me share with you an example
of one of my clients who opted for this type of service and how our
arrangement was. My clients who were
a couple in their early 40’s had an initial meeting with me and told me that the husband was an OFW and runs an online business while his wife works at a local bank. They told me that they talked to other architects and some engineers, however, they were not having a good sense of these other professionals' proposals which were of the traditional method. They thought that this method seems very confusing to them, that they don’t have much control over the process and are very unsure how their huge sum of money once they hand it to these engineers could exactly be spent. I sense a lot of reluctance from the couple in agreeing to such terms where the engineer or architects are demanding 30% of a couple of million pesos be given upfront even without any detailed design and estimates yet. They didn’t decide to go with these providers and asked around for some other opinions, they told me someone had advised them to get a project manager to manage their project, they think that way they can have more control by hiring a manager that directly reports to them and not have a direct contract with a contractor.
a couple in their early 40’s had an initial meeting with me and told me that the husband was an OFW and runs an online business while his wife works at a local bank. They told me that they talked to other architects and some engineers, however, they were not having a good sense of these other professionals' proposals which were of the traditional method. They thought that this method seems very confusing to them, that they don’t have much control over the process and are very unsure how their huge sum of money once they hand it to these engineers could exactly be spent. I sense a lot of reluctance from the couple in agreeing to such terms where the engineer or architects are demanding 30% of a couple of million pesos be given upfront even without any detailed design and estimates yet. They didn’t decide to go with these providers and asked around for some other opinions, they told me someone had advised them to get a project manager to manage their project, they think that way they can have more control by hiring a manager that directly reports to them and not have a direct contract with a contractor.
With this
context, I immediately recognized that they want an arrangement that they can
have direct participation in the process because they were very enthusiastic in
sharing their capabilities in talking to material suppliers and arranging
purchase orders to get discounts and another business acumen that are viable
construction supply chain management and they wanted to have flexibility in
choosing finishing materials when the project gets to the finishing part. Once this information was uttered to me, I knew they want a design-build by
administration type of service from an architect and when I tried to explain to
them what it was and how it fits their desired arrangement, they were overjoyed
that there is such a thing and it was to pick an architect such as myself to
become their personal and professional architect who could provide that kind of
service. What they understood was that I will be paid for my design-build
service to be their project designer and manager (although my term was “administrator”)
in the form of a negotiated fixed professional fee or fixed monthly salary or
combination in contrary to a traditional contractor’s profit or cost-plus type
of contract. This means that there is no general contractor and instead they
will function as their own general contractor with the financial administration
in their total control while my service as an architect is to only administer
the project’s technical, human resource, and operational aspects. I will design
with them from start to finish and build with them until they are satisfied by
letting them kind of rent my know-hows within the duration of the project,
everything paid by them.
With this type
of service arrangement, the architect’s code of ethics was central together
with the client relationship management. They were able to leverage their own
know-hows with my own expertise to deliver a fast-paced project and a lot of
flexibility in design changes even during construction. The real challenge for
this type of arrangement for a client is the investment of their own time to
do the financial part of the project management and their close communication with
their architect throughout the process, but of course this can also be delegated
to other people who are qualified to represent the client if they so choose.
Besides having more financial control and flexibility in change-orders in implementing your project with this method, there are tremendous cost cuts in not hiring more layers of people like the main contractor that acts only like a middle man, without the bidding phase given in a traditional method, you can immediately start construction as soon as possible, expediting the process and saves you time and money.
If you want to learn more about this type of service, contact me so we can arrange an appointment to see if this is the right project delivery method for you.
Read other articles:
- The Project Planning Workshop
- Five most essential things to know before deciding to design and build
- How Much Does Hiring an Architect Cost
- Why contracts are essential when engaging in services
- The Architect's Basic Design Service
- 7 reasons why Architects are seen as expensive and an unnecessary cost in building projects
- How to create a Design Brief for your architect
- Philippine architecture practice and P.R.C.'s position with Civil Engineers' encroachment in the architecture profession
- Architects and Architecture: Myths vs Reality
No comments:
Post a Comment