What Is Design-Build?
Once considered “an alternative form of project delivery,” design-build is now the fastest-growing and most commonly used project delivery method in the United States. FMI Corporation projects that design-build will represent over 47% of spending by 2028 and account for $2.6 trillion in construction spending over the 2024 – 2028 forecast period. It is widely used in both the private and public sectors (federal, state, and municipal) and across all project types, including vertical (building) construction, transportation, and water/wastewater markets.
In all other project delivery methods, there are separate contracts for design and construction. The single contract for both design and construction is the fundamental difference between design-build and other project delivery systems.
But design-build is more than a sole-source contract. It is as much a mindset as it is a process. It is intended to be a highly collaborative, fully integrated undertaking that is built on trust, mutual respect, teamwork, innovation, and creative problem-solving. Design-build works best when everybody makes the mental shift to think and act as a single entity focused on achieving shared project goals.
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About DBIA Rocky Mountain Region
What is DBIA?
Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) is a membership organization that was founded in 1993 to advocate and advance single-source project delivery within the design and construction community. The Rocky Mountain Region of the DBIA was founded in 2002 to focus on this objective throughout Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. The design-build method of project delivery embraces architecture, engineering, and construction services under a single contract, thereby re-integrating the roles of designer and constructor. The DBIA Rocky Mountain Region’s members include practitioners from all project phases, as well as public and private sector project owners. The DBIA works to disseminate best practices by hosting and conducting educational programs and conferences throughout the year. In addition, within the Rocky Mountain region, the organization supports research and education focused on the design-build process through its annual design-build award contest for collegiate chapters.