Cost isn’t the only thing on building owners’ minds these days, but it certainly informs their choices of AEC partners, projects, and products. This is one of the many takeaways from BD+C’s inaugural Owners Survey Report, which collected input from 156 building owners and developers throughout December 2020 and January 2021 on a variety of topics: their top development challenges, what they look for in AEC firm partners, and their most promising innovations.
The survey findings point to a growing demand for collaboration and partnership during these chaotic times—and mounting frustration over a lack of focus and discipline among their AEC firm partners around project costs.
“Architects and designers need to work within a budget,” said Michael Vachio, LEED AP, Vice President of Development and Construction for JL Capital in Hawaii. “The value engineering phase of a project is becoming longer and larger.”
Time and again, in their comments, owners asserted that AEC firms don’t listen to their concerns, especially—but not exclusively—about taming a project’s cost. Owners also claimed they want closer collaboration with their teams, subs, and suppliers, some to the point of encouraging integrated project delivery methods that ultimately speed the construction process.
At the very least, AEC firms might reconsider how they pitch projects, with an eye toward appreciating the owner’s perspective.
AEC firms also need to overcome some owners’ lingering skepticism about investing in strategies that are environmentally responsible but whose implementation costs “impact the rents tenants are willing to pay and [what] financial institutions are willing to lend in some markets,” said Cassie Paben, Director of Business Development for Tetrad Property Group.
Click To Download BD+C's 2021 Owners Survey Report
This exclusive BD+C survey of 156 building owners and developers explores the changing and most-pressing needs of this highly influential group. From project financing to client service to design, construction, and operations, this research breaks down emerging trends, innovations, and the biggest wants and needs among owners/developers. The survey covers:
• What owners/developers look for in an AEC firm
• Biggest development challenges
• Top health/wellness/environmental strategies on projects
• Single-biggest innovation implemented on projects
• Response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Download the 16-page PDF report with the complete findings from BD+C's 2021 Owners Survey. Thanks!
That being said, AEC firms should also test those waters to see if owners are prepared to enter into contractual commitments necessary for establishing accountable and financial collaboration on both sides.
Owner–AEC relations that work usually boil down to trust. Our survey reveals that, perhaps more than ever, owners are turning to their AEC partners to help their companies and projects take advantage of the
latest products and best practices in such areas as technology, building systems, energy efficiency, and sustainability.
Our survey’s respondents sounded eager to try out new ideas that deliver predictable ROIs. But as one owner conceded, the industry is moving faster than any one company can keep up with. AEC firms only increase their value when they provide practical solutions for projects that factor in an owner’s budgetary, marketing, and operational parameters, as well as end-user and occupant comfort.
Download the Owners Survey Report at: BDCnetwork.com/OwnerSurvey2021.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Special Recognition: Triple Bridge Gateway, Port Authority Bus Terminal New York, N.Y.
Judges saw the Triple Bridge Gateway in Midtown Manhattan as more art installation than building project, but they were impressed at how the illuminated ramps and bridges—14 years in the making—turned an ugly intersection into something beautiful. The three bridges span 9th Avenue at the juncture where vehicles emerge from the Lincoln Tunnel heading to the Port Authority of New Yor...
| Aug 11, 2010
World's tallest all-wood residential structure opens in London
At nine stories, the Stadthaus apartment complex in East London is the world’s tallest residential structure constructed entirely in timber and one of the tallest all-wood buildings on the planet. The tower’s structural system consists of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels pieced together to form load-bearing walls and floors. Even the elevator and stair shafts are constructed of prefabricated CLT.
| Aug 11, 2010
Setting the Green Standard For Community Colleges
“Ohlone College Newark Campus Is the Greenest College in the World!” That bold statement was the official tagline of the festivities surrounding the August 2008 grand opening of Ohlone College's LEED Platinum Newark (Calif.) Center for Health Sciences and Technology. The 130,000-sf, $58 million community college facility stacks up against some of the greenest college buildings in th...
| Aug 11, 2010
School Project Offers Lessons in Construction Realities
Imagine this scenario: You're planning a $32.9 million project involving 112,000 sf of new construction and renovation work, and your job site is an active 32-acre junior-K-to-12 school campus bordered by well-heeled neighbors who are extremely concerned about construction noise and traffic. Add to that the fact that within 30 days of groundbreaking, the general contractor gets canned.
| Aug 11, 2010
CityCenter Takes Experience Design To New Heights
It's early June, in Las Vegas, which means it's very hot, and I am coming to the end of a hardhat tour of the $9.2 billion CityCenter development, a tour that began in the air-conditioned comfort of the project's immense sales center just off the famed Las Vegas Strip and ended on a rooftop overlooking the largest privately funded development in the U.
| Aug 11, 2010
University of Arizona College of Medicine
The hope was that a complete restoration and modernization would bring life back to three neoclassic beauties that formerly served as Phoenix Union High School—but time had not treated them kindly. Built in 1911, one year before Arizona became the country's 48th state, the historic high school buildings endured nearly a century of wear and tear and suffered major water damage and years of...
| Aug 11, 2010
Top of the rock—Observation deck at Rockefeller Center
Opened in 1933, the observation deck at Rockefeller Center was designed to evoke the elegant promenades found on the period's luxury transatlantic liners—only with views of the city's skyline instead of the ocean. In 1986 this cultural landmark was closed to the public and sat unused for almost two decades.
| Aug 11, 2010
200 Fillmore
Built in 1963, the 32,000-sf 200 Fillmore building in Denver housed office and retail in a drab, outdated, and energy-splurging shell—a “style” made doubly disastrous by 200 Fillmore's function as the backdrop for a popular public plaza and outdoor café called “The Beach.
| Aug 11, 2010
Integrated Project Delivery builds a brave, new BIM world
Three-dimensional information, such as that provided by building information modeling, allows all members of the Building Team to visualize the many components of a project and how they work together. BIM and other 3D tools convey the idea and intent of the designer to the entire Building Team and lay the groundwork for integrated project delivery.
| Aug 11, 2010
High Tech High International used to be a military facility
High Tech High International, reconstructed inside a 1952 Navy metal foundry training facility, incorporates the very latest in teaching technology with a centerpiece classroom known as the UN Theater, which is modeled after the UN chambers in New York. The interior space, which looks more like a hip advertising studio than a public high school, provides informal, flexible seating areas, abunda...
