FIRST DESIGN PHASE IN THE BRIDGING METHOD OF CONSTRUCTION PROJECT DELIVERY
Phase 1. The design work and documents prepared in this phase are the same in every respect in both the traditional Design-Bid-Build and the Bridging methods. Prior to this phase, in both methods, the Owner will have selected the design architect, whether an individual, a team, or a firm. The design architect team or firm will include consulting engineers for at least mechanical, electrical, plumbing and structural (“MEPS”) engineering disciplines. In the traditional Design-Bid-Build method this team is referred to as “the Architect’. In Bridging, this team is referred to as the Owner’s Design Consultant (“ODC”) including the ODC’s engineering consultants. The ODC nomenclature is used in Bridging to make clear that this design team is not the architect/engineer-of-record. Another entity that will enter the process later is the Contractor’s Architect or the “AE” which will be the architect/engineer of record. Some owners or architects prefer that the ODC be referred to as the “Bridging Architect” or “Design Architect”.
In the Bridging method, as in the time honored approach that most architects believe produces the best and most imaginative design, the most significant design work with its documentation is created by a single architect or architectural design team that has direct contact with the Owner and has no conflict of interest with the Owner.
By the end of the Schematic Design phase, the basic architectural design, including site development, will have been settled and illustrated with site development plans, preliminary floor plans, all major elevations of the building(s), outline cross sections of any non-typical spaces or structural aspects, major materials, character-defining typical details, along with an architectural model or models or one or more architectural renderings. A basic outline of specifications will have been prepared and approved, and the project budget and design/construction schedule reconfirmed or amended as necessary. It is recommended that Building Information Modeling (BIM) be utilized and that the rights to the BIM output and access for manipulation belong to the Owner throughout and should be implemented by the ODC on behalf of the Owner during this phase.
Tags: BIM, bridging architect, design architect, ODC, phase, schematic