A Design Team’s Approach to On Budget Vertical Construction Projects

By Ryan King

What is one of the most dreadful realizations for a significant building project? To some, it is likely the dreaded phrase, “we are over budget.” If you are an architect, contractor, or owner that does building projects, I would almost guarantee you have paid witness to at least one over-budget project. Why does a project go over budget? There is always a myriad of things that can cause it, and a whole lot of finger-pointing happens if the team is not set up to succeed even from the beginning.

One of the best strategies to employ is having the contractor selected simultaneously as the design team or, at a minimum, have a cost estimator on the team upfront. Competent designers can do a good job of estimating a project cost, but designers do not know the current market. Typically, designers use past project examples and data to determine future costs. That is somewhat accurate for construction cost but does not always accurately identify the subcategories of work and materials. The subcategories’ accuracy is the key to identifying strategies for moving a project towards the budget and keeping it on budget.