What Is Design-Build Delivery?

Design-Build Defined

Back to the question: what is design-build delivery? It’s a method of project execution that joins design and construction under a single contract, consolidating total project responsibility with the Design-Builder. Contracting with a Design-Builder provides a streamlined project structure that carries some immediate benefits:

• Eliminates separation of bidding for design and construction
• Enables construction to overlap and proceed simultaneously with design
• Provides common leadership that promotes faster, more flexible decision-making
• Reduces potential for protracted disagreements regarding cost, schedule, and risk

Each of these factors increases the speed at which a project can progress and ensures lower unit cost and cost escalation over the course of its execution.

Another of design-build’s inherent strengths is its capacity for team building. With design and construction united under a single banner from the beginning of the project, DB incentivizes collaboration through shared resources and continuous communication. Construction experts are encouraged to offer their experience-based insights to design before work is put in place without fear of being kept at arm’s length. Designers can continue to lend their expertise far into construction—a phase at which designers are typically less engaged under other delivery methods. The continued involvement and collaboration between design and construction teams facilitates a higher quality, more innovative project and reduces the amount of rework required.

Design-Build Emerges as a New Solution

Today, design-build is preferred because it prioritizes an early start, continuous collaboration, and efficient problem-solving. But it wasn’t long ago that DB was still a fledgling concept that sought to offer the industry a better way to build.

Like all good ideas, DB delivery started as a creative response to a looming problem. Back in the 1980s and ‘90s, the construction industry’s “traditional” project delivery method, design-bid-build (DBB), was causing headaches for a growing number of owners, design firms, and general contractors who needed a faster way to execute projects without sacrificing on quality or safety. In DBB, the designer and general contractor (GC) are hired by the owner on separate contracts. Design comes first and is performed to completion, well before the builder is brought on board. Following design development, the owner bids out the job to GCs to manage construction to the design firm’s specifications. In some cases, the owner is required to accept the lowest qualified bid from GCs; in others, the owner is free to use the bidding process as an opportunity to vet GCs not only for cost, but service capabilities, capacity, and subcontractor/supplier network. Naturally, this bidding and selection process can be lengthy as owners evaluate options. For businesses that are under no time constraints, DBB can offer peace of mind that owners are getting a completed design that meets expectations and a GC that’s a solid fit for the project. Plans are fully set in advance of project mobilization so that all contractors can execute work with clear direction. For owners looking to leverage efficiency into momentum for faster speed to market, however, DBB simply could not deliver projects with a shorter window of opportunity. Enter design-build—and Gray.

Gray and the DBIA

In 1993, Executive Vice President Jim Gray and a cohort of five prominent industry leaders formed the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA). This body became the preeminent association for the employ of design-build delivery. The group’s mission is to educate the industry and wider public on the merits of design-build, train its members on best practices in its implementation, and create opportunities to broaden its use.

More than once, Gray was asked “Why pour effort into creating an institute that helps your industry rivals?” To this point, Preston Haskell, owner and president of The Haskell Company, perhaps put it best: Our most dangerous competition came from someone who didn’t know what they were doing…and would give design-build a bad name.

Today, DBIA has chapters across the U.S. that support design-build firms, offering guidance on best practices, continuing education, networking, and certification.

Since helping to found DBIA, Gray has proven itself as a leading authority in the use of design-build, delivering increasingly complex projects and building facilities at scales that were previously unimaginable.

The Design-Build Era

There’s no question that as a professional delivery method, design-build has fully come into its own. In its 2023 Mid-Cycle Update report, FMI Consulting found that at $1.9 trillion, design-build delivery is on track to account for 47% of new construction spending across all assessed segments during the 2022–2026 forecast period. In that cycle, design-build is expected to triple its market share advantage over design-bid-build and comprise a higher share than all alternative delivery methods combined.

In 1998, the Construction Industry Institute (CII) published a definitive report that compared DB, DBB, and construction management at-risk (CMR) delivery methods. Using data from more than 350 projects of varying size, sector, and region, the study found that DB projects outperformed DBB and CMR in terms of unit cost, cost and schedule growth, and speed of delivery. Twenty years later, CII and the Charles Pankow Foundation conducted new research to re-evaluate these comparatives. The results were conclusive: after 20 years, DB projects are still delivered faster and with greater reliability in cost and schedule performance.

Is Design-Build Right for My Project?

While design-build offers benefits to projects of all sizes across all markets, these are amplified when owners’ priorities lean into its strengths regarding schedule and cost.

Design-build is best for customers who:

• Are experiencing rapid growth
• Prefer a straightforward chain of responsibility
• Place a premium on quick decision-making and speed to market
• Desire to cultivate long-term design & construction partnerships
• Must stay as close as possible to the project’s original budget

The advantages that design-build delivery can offer extend across the entire lifecycle of a project. Long before the first shovel breaks down, an experienced Design-Builder can provide consultation services to ensure the site is geologically sound and offers access to utilities with sufficient quality and volume to sustain industrial operations. Thanks to the overlap of design and construction, a Design-Builder can also work with the owner early to procure long lead-time equipment, materials, and other critical path items based on owner-provided specs. Combined with its advantages in speed and cost, DB gives owners the flexibility to adapt mid-project to emerging needs, such as including space for additional production lines or implementing automation & advanced control systems. While adaptation is still possible with other delivery methods, the longer lines of communication and separation of design and construction disciplines can make collaboration infeasible in the face of such challenges due to cost escalation.

Conclusion

Owners from every market sector and across the complete spectrum of projects can benefit the advantages that DB delivery offers. In the U.S. market—which is marked by its size, innovation, competition, and growth opportunities, employing a project execution method that emphasizes quality and efficiency can be the difference between success and stagnancy.

About Gray and Design-Build

Gray’s offers a deep foundation of design-build experience that spans facilities large and small across all our core markets. These projects involve complex operations such as automotive manufacturing, cold storage distribution, pet food production, big-box retail, solar module assembly, and processing for beef, pork, & poultry.

Our DB experience includes a wide range of acclaimed and award-winning projects:

• The largest solar investment in U.S. history and the only complete solar production facility in the country for Qcells
• Turnkey services for a state-of-the-art pet food production facility for Champion Petfoods
• A turkey processing facility honored with ProFood World magazine’s Manufacturing Innovation Award
• ABC Alabama’s 2023 Best Project—a 270,000 s.f. metal-clad cable manufacturing facility for Cerrowire
• A highly automated automotive production facility for Japanese joint venture YKTA
• A 1.6 million s.f. integrated paper mill and the first U.S. greenfield project for Sofidel