The decisions of selecting design consultants and a custom homebuilder are some of the most important made during your journey. The standard practice is to begin with an architect, then bidding those plans to a variety of general contractors – a process known as “Design-Bid-Build.” While effective, it carries a certain level of risk to the owner since the responsibilities of the project fall on multiple entities.
An alternative approach, known as “Design-Build” helps mitigate those risks by simplifying the process. This approach is the center of the business and service strategy that Structure Home has embraced to produce many successful projects and satisfied clients over the years.
Wikipedia defines Design-Build as “a method to deliver a project in which the design and construction services are contracted by a single entity known as the design–builder or design–build contractor.” In contrast to “Design-Bid-Build,” the process relies on a single point of responsibility contract and is used to minimize risks for the project owner and to reduce the delivery schedule by overlapping the design phase and construction phase of a project. The design–build procurement route changes the traditional sequence of work, and more importantly, answers the client’s wishes for a single point of responsibility in an attempt to reduce risks and overall costs.
A primary benefit to this approach is the ability to select a general contractor at the beginning of the process with a pre-negotiated fee agreement. By doing so, the process becomes more organized – directed broadly to the entire scope of the development with full transparency and without financial surprises.
More info on our unique approach can be found here. In our next post, we will take a closer look at how this process translates to the actual project schedule – one we call the “Journey Timeline.”