A Response to the ‘Architect/Contractor’ Divide

All too often we hear about the discrepancies between design intent, the construction coordination process and the final constructed project. We as architects and designers have experienced this more than once. We spend countless hours designing and detailing buildings and interiors that periodically fail to meet the original intent of our vision after construction. The reasons are varied; from poor documentation, incorrect interpretation of the documents, poor coordination and budget constraints, to name a few. One method we recently implemented to help mitigate this was a process we called ‘Co-Location;’ where the design team, construction manager, subcontractors and owner worked together in an integrated work flow. This was done all under one location which was across the street from the project site at 75|125 Binney Street, a 338,000 GSF facility for Alexandria Real Estate.

This process benefits the project because the project architects, engineers and subcontractors work together earlier in this design process and all parties are included. The designers can explain the vision and design intent to the subcontractors while the subcontractors can explain their concerns and recommendations to the design team so that the final project is better off. Each group works together on the final documentation of the project so that all of the information shared is implemented into the final construction documents. This process is less about the technology used during the process (BIM) and more about the social exchange of vision, knowledge and information. The success of this process was everyone’s ‘buy in’ to the process. Because of this, the process itself seemed to be more successful than originally conceived.

Gilbane is the construction manager for this project and commissioned the short video to showcase this process. Payette employees even have a few cameos as well.