How To Select A Project Designer It is no exaggeration to say that the most important ingredient, and lowest cost component, of any construction project is its design.
As shown in comparative terms by the following figure, the quality of design is the single most important factor in determining a project’s “life-cycle cost”.
Design is one of the very first steps in the construction process, but it dictates everything that follows: the size and layout of the facility; type of construction materials; capacity of mechanical and electrical systems; energy efficiency; and other factors. Not even the best contractor using the finest of construction materials can overcome the failings of a poor design. Professional design services — engineering, architecture or surveying — represent only a small percentage of the construction budget, and a far smaller percentage of life-cycle cost, so it makes sound economic sense to ensure your consulting engineer has the experience and qualifications needed to deliver a high-quality design.
QBS
"Qualifications-based selection" (QBS) is a process that enables you, the project owner, to obtain the services of a highly qualified engineering professional at a fair and reasonable cost, an investment in quality that will result in substantial savings over the life of the project.
Construction of any physical facility is a complicated and highly technical process. Yet, at the outset of most construction projects, many owners do not fully comprehend the complexities of the projects they envision and the wide range of design and construction services that will be required in order to transform their vision into reality. The consulting engineer or architect takes your general concepts and transforms them into technical documents — plans and specifications — that are used by the construction contractor to build your facility. In the construction process, the professional engineer serves as your agent, representing your interests in day-to-day dealings with contractors, suppliers, equipment manufacturers and others providing goods and services on the project. The engineer is also your “eyes and ears” on the construction site. Obviously, it is vital that you and your engineer share a professional relationship characterized by trust, respect, and effective communication.
QBS fosters this type of relationship by bringing you and your engineer together as a team to define the project in detail and agree upon the services that will be required to make the project a reality. No wonder, then, that QBS is the most widely endorsed method for selecting a professional consulting engineer.
The QBS process involves three distinct phases:
Phase I — Selection of the Most Qualified Engineer
To begin the selection process, prepare a brief written description of the project, which should include:
- The project name or identification and planned location.
- Project details, including intended size, function, capacity, and other general requirements. Is the project a renovation or modernization? Will it involve demolition, additions, new construction, or energy or land use studies?
- Project budget.
- Anticipated project schedule, including completion of design work, beginning of construction, and planned project completion date.
- Unique requirements or restrictions such as zoning or environmental problems.
- Specific services to be provided by the engineer, such as feasibility studies, program development, advanced planning, building design, construction administration, etc.
Once the preliminary description of the project has been prepared, interested and qualified engineering firms can be invited to submit statements of their professional qualifications. If you do not know firms to invite, contact similar facilities about their consultants, call the State’s construction management office, or contact the applicable professional licensing boards.
You must then evaluate the qualifications of those firms that submitted statements and narrow the field of interested firms to a “short list” of three to five firms. Qualifications should be evaluated on the basis of experience on similar projects, expertise of key professional staff, references, and other factors of importance to the owner.
It is generally true that any firm will provide reference information related to projects that were successful. Notwithstanding, getting full information on those projects can be very revealing. Call every reference listed!
There are a couple of basic steps that you should always take when you are starting the reference check.
First, ask the person you call whether he or she can spend a few minutes with you on the phone to answer some questions. If you get through to someone who is trying to rush off to a meeting, he/she will not be able to spend the time you will want to get comprehensive answers to your questions.
Second, find out what role the person you call had in the total project. If the person was only involved up front in the selection process and has no knowledge of how the project went, you may want to ask him or her for the name of someone who was involved during the life of the project.
You must then interview the short-listed design firms. By interviewing representatives of the short-listed firms, the owner has the opportunity to compare each firm’s interpretation and understanding of the project and the various technical approaches that the firms have proposed to accomplish the project. Interviews also give you an important insight into each firm’s management style and communications abilities. For this reason, you should require that all short-listed firms send managers or owners, as well as the key engineers and other professionals who will be responsible for the work, to these interviews.
Phase II — Definition of the Scope of Service
The selected engineering firm meets with you to discuss the proposed project in detail. These discussions enable the engineer to write a detailed scope of service, a document that specifies exactly the various tasks the engineer will perform on your behalf.
Phase III — Fee and Contract Negotiation
Once the scope of services is agreed upon, the engineer develops a fee proposal for your consideration. If the fee proposal is agreeable, the two parties enter into a contract. If the fee proposal is not acceptable, the two parties agree on revisions to the scope of the engineer’s services or the project scope and budget, then enter into a contract for the project.
Most design firms use one or the other of standard contract forms produced by professional organizations such as AIA, etc. These standard contracts usually work well and have the benefit of significant legal history behind them. Nevertheless, these contracts should be reviewed by your legal advisor before signing.
Fees should always be on a lump sum or “fixed” basis. However, hourly fees may be required in the early phases of the project (investigation and study, project definition, etc.), until the project scope can be well defined. Many designers work on an hourly basis through the “Schematic Design” phase of the project, but then establish lump sum fees for the “Design Development”, “Contract Documents”, and “Construction Administration” phases. This fee arrangement allows the engineer to be adequately compensated without the Owner running the risk of “run-away” design costs.