High Performance Outcomes

What's on the last sheet in a set of plans? A: electrical drawings. What's on the third or fourth sheet? A: Site Plan, maybe the landscape plan. How about opening up the set of plans to the center...wall sections and details? If one provides Division 6 services, they are a carpenter. If they provide Division 9, they install 'sheet rock' or lay-in ceilings. The point is that the traditional set of A&E Plans and Specifications have become such a convention that everyone in the Design & Construction Industry knows the answers to these questions, almost without hesitation. Conventions are a wonderful thing. They improve communication since everyone knows where to look. They save time due to their predictable nature. They allow designers and builders to form a basis of understanding as to the prescriptive scope of a project, even if the designer and builder have never met. At their core, conventional "Plans & Specs" are the glue that holds the commu...

Design-Build is like "getting married" I can't remember who said this quote, but I think it applies to many projects. I notice many folks in the Integrated Delivery World speak of "trust"; an unnatural state for strangers, I think. A delivery-model that prefers objectivity over trust is more likely to succeed. Why…if a design-builder can verify that their decisions are compliant with the contract, independent of the owner's opinion, then they are secure and not dependent on the owner for their 'contractual' success (only perceived perfection).