Errors, omissions, inefficiencies, delays, coordination problems, cost overruns, productivity losses—the list of complaints against (and often by) architects and contractors is a long one. The Construction Users Roundtable (CURT) has characterized the difficulties experienced in typical projects as “artifacts of a construction process fraught by lack of cooperation and poor information integration.” The historical reasons for this dysfunctionality are many, including a multiplicity of participants with conflicting interests, incompatible cultures, and limited access to necessary information. In an influential 2004 white paper titled in part, “Collaboration, Integrated Information, and the Project Lifecycle,” CURT said, “The goal of everyone in the
Adapting the alliancing model Here in the U.S., it appears that no major owner has taken the plunge by sponsoring a “pure” project alliance on the National Museum model. However, a number of owners have committed themselves to collaborative, single-contract project delivery systems, in which interests are aligned and risks are shared to a greater extent than in traditional contractual structures. One such owner is Sutter Health Care in California, which has been using a multiparty “integrated agreement” for its $6.5 billion building program. The project alliancing method teams contractor and consultant early on, and provides them with financial incentives
Each year RECORD publishes the Top 150 Architecture Firms list, based on information collected by its sister publication, Engineering News-Record, for its Top 500 Design Firms Sourcebook. According to the latest survey, 2006 was a good year for architects, who reported a combined $8 billion in revenues. (Incidentally, there was a five-way tie for the 147th spot, so 151 are listed.) The 15 firms at the top of the list earned 37 percent of that, about $3 billion. To put those figures in context, it is helpful to know that architects’ offices with more than 100 seats make up
The inefficiencies inherent in the process of design and construction are necessitating a shift to greater multidisciplinary collaboration and information sharing among project team members This is an exciting time to practice architecture. Architects and engineers seem to be able to design and construct almost anything they can imagine, and the data they use enables these buildings to be well managed by their owners. Architects, consultants, and owners are also working together more closely than ever. Integrated practice (IP) is the term that is being assigned to this collaborative process. IP is a meaningful response to the ongoing marketplace mandate
The inefficiencies inherent in the process of design and construction are necessitating a shift to greater multidisciplinary collaboration and information sharing among project team members Contract documents Integrated practice will drive changes to contracts in order to facilitate working in teams, sharing information, and fairly allocating liability risk, compensation, and responsibility. Changes will most likely occur incrementally with “the continued growth of design-build, tweaked conventional contracts, and increased experimentation with transformational methods like ‘project alliancing,’ ” according to Cambridge, Massachusetts, attorney Chris Noble, of Noble & Wickersham. In this transition period, Noble believes that “there will be increased use of
The inefficiencies inherent in the process of design and construction are necessitating a shift to greater multidisciplinary collaboration and information sharing among project team members Implications for architectural education Many academic programs still produce students who expect they will spend their careers working as heroic, solitary designers. But integrated practice is sure to stimulate a rethinking of that notion. Pedagogy must focus on teaching not only how to design and detail, but also how to engage with and lead others, and how to collaborate with the professionals they are likely to work with later. Renee Cheng, AIA, associate professor and
The inefficiencies inherent in the process of design and construction are necessitating a shift to greater multidisciplinary collaboration and information sharing among project team members Will using integrated practice challenge intellectual property norms? One question on many minds is whether the advent of integrated practice, with building information modeling as a primary tool for facilitating it, will change customs regarding copyright of information and intellectual property. In other words, who owns the data? According to Volker Mueller, Assoc. AIA, design technology manager at NBBJ, “Authorship of BIM is analogous to authorship of other construction documents. Every discipline authors their scope
Freelancers and firm culture No architect would say that avoiding hassles from the IRS over who’s an employee and who’s not will make them sharper at their craft. But whether your firm decides its priority is to train and retain or to run lean and mean says a lot about a firm’s culture internally, as well as what strengths it may offer its clients. Many architects say that leaving employment terms loose can lead to excessively casual attitudes about the quality of the work, since freelancers may not have the same level of commitment that employees do. Tim Love, AIA,
Architecture firms may need to lure extra hands for all sorts of reasons. One might be to staff up for a sweet opportunity that’s too good to pass up, but is just a bit beyond the capacity of the office. Another might be to get the benefits of a specialist whose skills are perfect for a current project but might or might not be needed in the future. Those sorts of situations always present principals with a dilemma: do you hire new staff permanently or expand temporarily using hired guns? At first glance it appears that if the good times
The just-released AIA firm survey, The Business of Architecture, is essential reading for the profession’s observers because it is the most complete benchmarking of trends such as firm size, economy, project delivery methods, and many other practice concerns.
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