The success of commercial construction projects depends on teamwork and the ability of all the parties involved to cooperate and communicate. This doesn’t always happen.

In traditional commercial construction projects, a developer starts by hiring an engineer or architect to design a facility, and then puts it out to bid to find a contractor to build it. This model often leads to confrontational projects. If something goes wrong, the designer and contractor can end up trying to blame each other. If the plans are missing details or information, the contractor can request additional funds and/or time in order provide the additional work. Often the contractor is forced to play this game in order to have a competitive edge against other bidding contractors.

What is Design-Build Construction?

There is another way. Commercial developers can enlist the help of a design-build construction team — meaning a construction firm works with a designer from the start of the project. As Design-Build Institute of America notes, the design-build model can allow for a more streamlined, efficient construction process:

The owner manages only one contract with a single point of responsibility. The designer and contractor work together from the beginning, as a team, providing unified project recommendations to fit the owner’s schedule and budget. Any changes are addressed by the entire team, leading to collaborative problem-solving and innovation, not excuses or blame-shifting. While single-source contracting is the fundamental difference between design-build and the old ways, equally important is the culture of collaboration inherent in design-build.

Improved Teamwork and Communication

At Leon Williams Contractors, we’ve found that a design-build construction approach offers significant advantages to our clients in East Tennessee. It allows for a higher level of cooperation and coordination between the contractor and the designer.

A design-build construction team can make better, more informed decisions, improve the efficiency of work that needs to be done — and minimize the paperwork, delays, and cost of fixing problems that can result from coordination problems between two companies.

We have decades of design-build construction experience in East Tennessee. If you want to learn more about the advantages of partnering with a design-build construction team, contact Leon Williams Contractors today.