“Resources to figure out new ways”

In the construction industry, the power tends to reside with the owner. After all, its their money and investment. The designers, namely the architects and engineers, serve that client, but do not have much financial capital. The designers certainly bring knowledge Capital, and that is why they exist.

But often its the contractor who is second in the food chain after the owner. Hes the one who actually delivers the product. Contractors have much larger financial stakes in the physical building while construction is underway, in the form of labor and materials.

Jerry Yudelson, a writer and green architecture pundit, who I respect for his insight in this business, said

“…Also, do not forget about the large design/build mechanical contractors who have the resources to figure out new ways to design and construct green buildings and the credibility to sell their services directly to building owners.”

source January 2008, HPAC Engineering

Whoa! Ive been thinking the same thing for many years now but I must have forgotten. Thanks for reminding me, Jerry Yudelson.

It just so happens that I am currently designing a central utility plant that has a “design-assist” format contract. We have just begun to get through an iterative design process that required us to do considerable value analysis and re-evaluating. But we have a team now and it wil be interesting to see how much they can support the design of this plant. I have seen some of their work and it has helped us already to get over some cost and economic feasibility issues