A familiar, if time-worn, cliché depicts owner-developers as cost obsessed and hostile to regulations, genuflecting at the altar of value engineering and choosing architects, engineers, and contractors on their track records for delivering projects within budgets so tight they squeak.
Owners, understandably, don’t see themselves that way. A more nuanced picture emerges from BD+C’s inaugural survey of owner-developers about what they expect from their AEC partners. Sure, cost control is a primary consideration for any project. And some owners voiced their frustrations at finding collaborative teams that listen to their cost concerns—and problem-solve accordingly.
Owners who responded to the survey also indicate they lean toward AEC teams that will expose them to new products, innovations, and delivery methods that make a building’s construction and operations more efficient. Energy management, occupant health, and wellness are priorities that owners expect AEC partners to integrate into their designs and engineering.
STEMMING PROBLEMS BEFORE THEY OCCUR
When asked about leading factors that restrict development, owners’ identified availability and cost of capital to finance projects, regulations, and economic uncertainty. Owners don’t have much control over any of these potential barriers, so their influence on a project’s course is more keenly wielded by their choices of AEC firms to work with.
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!
As owners weigh their partners’ suitability, their criteria centers on an AEC firm’s capacity to complete a project, its past performance, and how adeptly it interacts with clients. At least one owner said his company tests design and construction management teams on their collaborative skills, which “has led to teams who listen to the owners’ needs and design facilities, solving a multitude of problems such as durability, low maintenance, [and] ease of access.”
But some owners remain unimpressed with certain aspects of AEC firms’ expertise. One owner lamented many firms’ insufficient understanding of contract law. Another owner observed that builders, architects, and designers “need to get much smarter” about incorporating “amazing” technology into buildings, which this owner believes “is going to be the key to the new built environment.”
An owner who works for the U.S. Forest Service noted that his agency struggles to find technologically sophisticated AEC firms with LEED or Green Globes credentials to design and build small projects for rural areas.
THE ENVIRONMENTAL MELTING POT
More developers see the wisdom in making buildings energy efficient and sustainable, but with as few mandates as possible. One owner spoke approvingly of “prescriptive minimum program requirements” to achieve LEED Gold certification on 30 campus buildings, which led to a 30-35% reduction in site energy use and an 18-30% reduction in water use.
The top-ranked environment, health, and wellness strategies that owners polled expect their AEC partners to provide include energy-related modeling, products and systems, and mechanicals optimization.
Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, energy efficiency and sustainability are checkboxes on a longer list of essentials to create healthier and cost-saving environments. That list runs the gamut from upgrading HVAC systems for better air quality, to carving out wellness spaces within buildings.
An owner who was 18 months into a four-year, $615 million replacement hospital project in Pensacola, Fla., recounted how he “paused to reflect” on the COVID-19 outbreak, and then made “numerous adjustments” to this project’s design that touched the building’s critical care capacity, isolation room availability, and reduced its office space.
“Greater emphasis needs to be placed on the health and wellness of people, which in turn promotes stronger, viable, and more sustainable communities, as well as higher ROIs,” asserted another owner. An owner-developer whose company specializes in theme parks said that ROI derives mostly from savings on water and energy usage. Another owner has moved its projects entirely to heat pumps and 100% electric buildings (except for basements and garages), and maximizes indoor air quality.
Cost is inevitably in the background of these decisions. When injecting these strategies into a project, one owner said he asks his project teams for “reasonableness” that balances goals with budget resources. Another owner spoke of the “lack of professionalism” by design teams that “obsess” over sustainability “with zero regard for capital costs.” A third owner said that achieving net-zero energy and sustainability in buildings, while environmentally responsible, is difficult because their costs impact rents and, therefore, the willingness of financial institutions to lend for such projects.
‘NEW’ IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
Energy and environmental solutions have piqued owners’ interests over the past few years. Anything technological has also captured owners’ attention. For example, one owner spoke of converting a chilled water system into a low-grade heat system by running water through a surface condenser. Another recently started integrating all building systems into one graphical interface.
Just don’t expect owners to be pioneers. Among the products and construction techniques they cited as “innovations” were tilt-up concrete walls for building offices, 3D design to detect clashes, and UV lighting for infection control.
We can only speculate about why so few owners mentioned prefabrication or modular design and construction as something they’ve tried or are at least watching. One thought is that neither has caught on in nonresidential construction to the extent predicted. More likely, owners might not perceive prefab or modular as something new, as more projects have turned to offsite manufacturing to counter in-field manpower shortages and to control costs.
Owners’ wish lists can be edgier. One owner would like to see a device that measures indoor air quality like a thermometer measures temperature. Another craves hydrogen-powered backup generators (which some companies, including Microsoft, have been using for a while). Several owners put robots on their wish lists. Others are waiting for less-expensive options to meet Passive House standards and for cogeneration, electrical storage, even curtain wall for arctic construction.
Some owners listed alternate delivery methods that smooth projects’ completions and reduce costs. “A lean IPD poly-party agreement that includes critical equipment and materials suppliers as signatories” is one owner’s dream contract. Another owner observed that “teams have demonstrated, when using structured collaborative partnering on all types of projects, that time and money can be saved while maintaining or increasing quality.”
Owner-developers also want better methods to track projects during and after construction. One owner envisions a “Google Street View” for construction sites that allows teams to remotely monitor progress and quality control, perhaps through drones or camera-equipped robots.
Dashboards and command centers are gaining acceptance among owners to manage a building’s programming and obtain real-time data to assess its performance, especially when changes are made in such areas as lighting and airflow. “It’s always a struggle to get the data and display it so others can understand it,” said one owner about dashboards.
DOWNLOAD THE BD+C 2021 OWNERS SURVEY REPORT
Related Stories
Office Buildings | Oct 19, 2023
Proportion of workforce based at home drops to lowest level since pandemic began
The proportion of the U.S. workforce working remotely has dropped considerably since the start of the Covid 19 pandemic, but office vacancy rates continue to rise. Fewer than 26% of households have someone who worked remotely at least one day a week, down sharply from 39% in early 2021, according to the latest Census Bureau Household Pulse Surveys.
Contractors | Oct 19, 2023
Poor productivity cost U.S contractors as much as $40 billion last year
U.S. contractors lost between $30 billion and $40 billion in 2022 due to poor labor productivity, according to a new report from FMI Corp. The survey focused on self-performing contractors, those typically engaged as a trade partner to a general contractor.
Urban Planning | Oct 12, 2023
Top 10 'future-ready' cities
With rising climate dilemmas, breakthroughs in technology, and aging infrastructure, the needs of our cities cannot be solved with a single silver bullet. This Point2 report compared the country's top cities over a variety of metrics.
Higher Education | Oct 10, 2023
Tracking the carbon footprint of higher education campuses in the era of online learning
With more effective use of their facilities, streamlining of administration, and thoughtful adoption of high-quality online learning, colleges and universities can raise enrollment by at least 30%, reducing their carbon footprint per student by 11% and lowering their cost per student by 15% with the same level of instruction and better student support.
Architects | Oct 4, 2023
Architects and contractors underestimate cyberattack risk
Design and construction industry firms underestimate their vulnerability to cyberattacks, according to a new report, Data Resilience in Design and Construction: How Digital Discipline Builds Stronger Firms by Dodge Construction Network and content security and management company Egnyte.
Building Materials | Oct 2, 2023
Purdue engineers develop intelligent architected materials
Purdue University civil engineers have developed innovative materials that can dissipate energy caused by various physical stresses without sustaining permanent damage.
Giants 400 | Sep 28, 2023
Top 100 University Building Construction Firms for 2023
Turner Construction, Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., STO Building Group, Suffolk Construction, and Skanska USA top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest university sector contractors and construction management firms for 2023, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2023 Giants 400 Report. Note: This ranking includes revenue for all university/college-related buildings except student residence halls, sports/recreation facilities, laboratories, S+T-related buildings, parking facilities, and performing arts centers (revenue for those buildings are reported in their respective Giants 400 ranking).
Construction Costs | Sep 28, 2023
U.S. construction market moves toward building material price stabilization
The newly released Quarterly Construction Cost Insights Report for Q3 2023 from Gordian reveals material costs remain high compared to prior years, but there is a move towards price stabilization for building and construction materials after years of significant fluctuations. In this report, top industry experts from Gordian, as well as from Gilbane, McCarthy Building Companies, and DPR Construction weigh in on the overall trends seen for construction material costs, and offer innovative solutions to navigate this terrain.
Multifamily Housing | Sep 26, 2023
Midwest metros see greatest rent increase in September 2023
While the median monthly price of rent has increased by 0.71% in August, the year-over-year estimates show a national change of -0.06 percent.
Data Centers | Sep 21, 2023
North American data center construction rises 25% to record high in first half of 2023, driven by growth of artificial intelligence
CBRE’s latest North American Data Center Trends Report found there is 2,287.6 megawatts (MW) of data center supply currently under construction in primary markets, reaching a new all-time high with more than 70% already preleased.
