When an architect is a sub to a contractor leading a Design-Build team, the architect’s primary allegiance is typically to the contractor and not to the owner. The Design-Build contractor is likely to control the architect’s scope of services and…
Blog Archives
QA and QC inform each other
Until I recently studied for the CDT exam*, I had considered QA (Quality Assurance) and QC (Quality Control) as synonymous – the same thing with different names. They are different, but they are closely related. Considering construction, QA establishes the…
Planning a Phased School Renovation and Expansion
School renovation and expansion projects are commonly related to overcrowding and/or obsolete facilities. Construction in phases may be the only choice when school operations must continue in the same building or on the same site during renovations and expansion. Phasing…
A Few Predictors of Building Failure in New Construction
The following suggested predictors of building failure in new construction are based on years of experience tracing building failures to their causes. While the failures may express themselves as discrete detail flaws, underlying causes are often found in contractual decision…
Planning for Concealed Site Conditions
Discovery of concealed site conditions can raise havoc with a project, possibly disrupting the construction schedule and adversely impacting the project budget. Here’s a link to an article I wrote a few years ago to share some of my experience…
Delegating for Architects
Project results are directly related to the effectiveness of project communications. Successful delegation of responsibilities and tasks depends on effective communication. Download “Delegating for Architects” to read more about this. Copyright Albert R. Russell 2009
Value Engineering
Any discussion of value engineering (V.E.) is likely to produce a rush of criticisms of the process if you work in an architecture or engineering practice. The architects and engineers are likely to recall bad experiences when V.E. was started…
Manage Design Costs with Early Project Overtime
One of Mike’s PM tips for managing design costs on a project: “If you know you are going to have to work overtime on a project,” he said, “do it in the beginning. It costs less to do overtime when…
Posted in Project Administration, Project Management
Value Engineering can add value
Architects and engineers may be used to thinking of Value Engineering as a form of design torture, where value is stripped out of a project design in order to save money. But Value Engineering can also provide an opportunity to…
Posted in Project Administration, Project Management
It takes timely money to make a project go
A project owner was feeling frustrated that the contractor, who was doing work of good quality, was not going fast enough. Considering the contractor’s monthly application for payment, the owner decided to not pay the contractor for the previous month’s…
