Contracts and Project Delivery

So, one interesting thing here is that it might be interesting to think about the relationship of the contract to the project delivery in terms of various points of responsibility, so, let's think about for ... How about responsibility ... So I'm gonna say response for decision making. So, when we say decisions, what we're really talking about is the architect's role, the conceptual, code-compliant, the, is this the right project for this particular client, all of that.

Those are the decisions that are getting made by the architect, and who has that? Well, under design/bid/build, that is absolutely the architect who is responsible for all of that decision making. Under design/build, well, that's actually the sort of design builder, so it's essentially the contractor who is responsible. It's a different entity than just a plain, regular architect, architecture practice. So, the design builder has a different set of responsibilities that now is including all the liabilities that come with the making of the thing, along with all the liabilities that come with the decision making about the thing.

That's kind of interesting, or it's sort of switching all of that around. Fast-track, as we've said a bunch of times, is such a mess, because things are happening at the same time, that it's actually a little complicating. It's a little hard to discuss.

It doesn't really even quite fit into the decision making. Technically, the architects are still responsible for all the decision making, but because there's so many things happening on the job site at any one time, it's a little hard to claim that. Multiple prime, as long as it's still a typical design/bid/build type of situation or even a negotiated bid type of situation, that would still be with the architect. That's where all that decision making responsibility is. The integrated project delivery, which I'm gonna pair with construction manager, both of those two, those are kind of interesting, because the way that that's set up is that everybody is making decisions together.

The construction manager is actually taking responsibility for quite a bit of the project from the design standpoint, because they are there early on, and they're trying to control the money, and so there's a very interesting moment, like what happens if a construction manager says, nope, take out the second exit stair.

That's ridiculous, nobody would ask that, but imagine that the construction manager says that you have to take out the second exit stair, 'cause otherwise, the budget won't work. Well, you can't just do that. So if they then went ahead with the project without that, that means that they would be taking responsibility for that decision making. They would essentially be taking responsibility for all of the decision making by making that happen, but you, as an architect, can't do that.

You can't just let the health, safety, and welfare of the public not be of primary concern. So, the construction manager and the integrated product delivery, because there's so much input from the other ... Other players, the contractors and all that, it gets a little bit murky on how some of those decisions were made and who's taking responsibility for them.

Technically, if you're the architect, and you're stamping the drawings, you're taking responsibility for it. But if there's a ... If it's a more murky situation than that, then that can be a little bit complicated. So, that's an example of, there are straightforward aspects to the contracts and to the project delivery, and then there's other ones that are much less straightforward, and so, harder to ask questions of.

The scenario has to be fuller for you to be able to respond to a question about it. So, all right, who has responsibility for the site? Let's think about that for a second. Under design/bid/build, it's absolutely the GC. There's no question. Under design/build, it's the design builder, so it's the contractor designer. That is, that design builder has responsibility for the site. Under fast-track, this is when it's kind of interesting. It depends on exactly how those contracts are done, how those packages are done.

If it's done as a series of packages to the same GC, then it would be just like any other contract situation, where the GC has the overall responsibility for the site, but often, the way that fast-track is done, is actually that each one is bid out as it goes along, and you might have two, three, four, or five different potential GCs on the site at the time who are the full GC for that part of the package. So who has responsibility for the site is, let's just call it, confused.

Under multiple prime, that's the main point about the multiple prime. Who has responsibility for the site would be which prime has responsibility. That would be part of the contract. Like, you couldn't just let that float. That would be, you know, somebody would have to be taking responsibility, and it would have to show up in the contract who's responsible and who isn't responsible. Under integrated project delivery and under construction managers, in both of those, the ...

The site, the control of the site, is actually at least partly with the owner, so it's a little bit odd to talk about, right? Because the owner, by taking on the construction manager as part of their team, they're taking on all that risk, and they're taking on all that liability. So that becomes sort of part of their world. They have full control over that site.

Under integrated project delivery, it's similar, but it depends on how the actual contract is. It might still be a GC, depending on how that plays out. So you start to see, you could go through lots of different of these things. Like who's responsible for the outcome? It's gonna be the GC. It's gonna be the physical outcome of the project. It's gonna be the responsibility of the GC. Same with the design builder. some of these more complicated ones ...

It's probably the construction manager, which is the owner. It's probably one of the primes, but it may be both. Depends on the situation. So some of these start getting a little complicated, but you immediately see where they're complicated, because of the nature of the set of contracts, the set of relationships, that is built in by this idea of this project delivery type.

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