Skip to the main content.

Owner Approach

Focused on owner’s requirements, Conspectus offers an accurate, transparent view of how decisions made during the design process will ultimately impact project cost, construction quality, and building operations.

Services 
Resources

Owner Approach | Conspectus

 

Contact Us

    Architect Approach

    Focused on architect's requirements, Conspectus offers an accurate, transparent view of how decisions made during the design process will ultimately impact project cost, construction quality, and building operations.

    Services 
    Resources

    Architects | Conspectus Inc

     

    Contact Us

      Design-Builder Approach

      Focused on design-builder's requirements, Conspectus offers an accurate, transparent view of how decisions made during the design process will ultimately impact project cost, construction quality, and building operations.

      Services 
      Resources

      Design-Builders | Conspectus Inc

       

      Contact Us

        Construction Manager Approach

        Focused on construction manager's requirements, Conspectus offers an accurate, transparent view of how decisions made during the design process will ultimately impact project cost, construction quality, and building operations.

        Services 
        Resources

        Construction Managers | Conspectus Inc

         

        Contact Us

          Solutions For Design-Builders

          Support sound decision making

          Design influence and drive technology
          CMCI-Provider-Logo

          Our Approach

          Guided by the Owner's Requirements

          Design-builders assume total project responsibility — along with a large share of risk — for optimizing project costs and performance. Conspectus partners with design-builders to support sound decision making and to help maximize process efficiency, promote quality, and constrain costs.

          Construction Specifications and Documentation

          The Solution

          Conspectus understands that your ultimate customer is the owner and the decisions you make must focus on fulfilling the owner’s project requirements.

          The Conspectus approach to construction specifications and documentation is grounded in clearly documenting and communicating the owner’s requirements and enabling the entire extended project team to work in concert to meet them.

           

          Conspectus | Design-Builders
           
          Closing the Gap

          Reducing the Risks

          Traditionally, specifications are developed sequentially as discrete documents, a disjointed process resulting in critical information gaps that often increase risk. Conspectus approaches specifications as a seamless continuum of information gathering, analysis, and documentation that closes the gaps, reduces risk, and adds value for both owners and design-builders.

          Mitigate Risk by Enabling Early Buyout

          Recognize all the Risks

          The Conspectus approach helps enable early buyout by accurately and comprehensively documenting design decisions and their rationale from the very start of a project. This attention to meticulous documentation continues throughout, enabling you to focus buyout efforts at every milestone on the project’s critical path to avoid logistics problems and schedule interruptions. Design-builders should carefully examine the serious and potentially costly consequences that can result from a lack of transparency and the subsequent inadequate and poor documentation.

          Substantiating OPR Compliance

          At the launch of a project, the owner may provide a simple building program, detailed bridging documents, or something in between to communicate expectations and requirements for the finished building. The design-builder’s challenge is to interpret these requirements quickly, translate them into a design solution that fulfills the OPR, and ensure that at project completion all the requirements have been met accurately and completely.

          Establishing Design Intent

          Even though the visual imagery portraying the proposed design may properly reflect the owner’s vision and win design approval, reality can set in and change the game. Often, those early images, developed before the designed solution becomes final, must be adapted to meet building codes and performance requirements. While such changes are made out of necessity, they may nonetheless compromise design intent and sometimes significantly heighten the design-builder’s risk potential.

          Asynchronous Documentation and Construction

          Designers are conditioned to deliver completed design documentation before construction begins. Requiring designers to produce work packages consistent with construction sequencing can create inefficiencies in the design process and result in inadequate or conflicting documentation within and among the required work packages.

          Missed Deadlines

          Staying on schedule is a challenge for every construction project, and the blame for delays can extend across the full project team. For example, when specifications are not written to accommodate construction work packages and downstream contractors can’t understand or execute on a poorly written specification during construction, the design-builder’s risk of missing incremental deadlines or failing to deliver the finished project on time increases.

           

          Litigation

          Owners expect their completed buildings to perform as promised. When performance criteria are inadequately documented, the owner faces the increased risk of lower performance, reduced efficiencies, and higher than projected costs for the life of the building. The design-builder is responsible for the design and assumes the risk of meeting the OPR. Faulty design and documentation embed permanent risk for litigation, which can have lingering impacts well after the owner takes occupancy.

          The Benefits

          Why the Conspectus Approach Works for Design-Builders
          Informed Decision Making

          The Conspectus approach comprehensively documents design requirements and designed solutions, allowing comparative analysis of their potential impact on the functionality, quality, and cost of the project. This enables design-builders to make optimized decisions instead of best-guess choices. The result substantiates OPR compliance in easily understood documentation.

          Transparency, Access, and Collaboration

          The Conspectus approach helps ensure that every key stakeholder — designer, builder, subcontractors, material suppliers, and the owner — can know at every point what decisions are being made, the rationale behind them, and the implications for budget, schedule, and operations. This fosters collaboration among project team members as they make and implement critical design decisions, translate design into construction documents, and manage construction.

          Focused on Quality

          The Conspectus approach naturally integrates quality assurance from the start as part of our broader role in monitoring processes and raising critical issues to help make sure that inconsistencies, discrepancies, and errors are identified and promptly resolved. Conspectus is responsible to the design-builder and thus fully and properly aligned with quality assurance activities.

          Committed to Collaboration

          The comprehensive nature of the Conspectus approach enables design-builders to capture and pass on to owners deep insights that can be integrated into optimizing the building operation. This can improve operations of future buildings for those who own, develop, or operate multiple built assets. Likewise, the Conspectus approach enables owners to collaborate actively with design-builders who can contribute their own experience and expertise about what will and what won’t improve the process and eventual outcome.

          Owner's Standards

          Many owners have pre-established standards for their facilities, which may not be fully understood or appreciated by the extended project team. The Conspectus approach integrates the owner’s standards into the communications continuum from the start and can provide analytics to verify that the designed solution complies. This supports one of the design-builder’s primary goals: client satisfaction.

          Conspectus Capabilities Brochure

          Learn More about the Design-Builder's Approach

          For a more detailed discussion of how the Conspectus approach can help you can manage risks, control costs, and make sure owner requirements are fully met, view or download the accompanying PDF.

          Download Now

           
          Access Our Resource Database

          Design-Builder Resources

          At Conspectus, we help our clients and colleagues stay up to date on developments and trends that impact construction specifications by providing relevant, expert resources such as the Published Articles, Podcasts, Tech Tips, and more. 

          Learn More
          3 min read

          Design-Build Division 00 and Division 01

          Oct 29, 2012 by David Stutzman

          The architect asked that I review the "front end" documents written by the design-builder for a new construction...
          2 min read

          How Can Owners Protect Their Interests?

          Sep 17, 2012 by David Stutzman

          Building owners contract with architects, contractors, design-builders, or integrated project delivery (IPD) teams to...

          Start the Conversation

          We deliver the knowledge, insight, and expert judgment your project requires

          Contracting directly for specifications services, wanting a greater voice in choosing your specifications partner, or seeking independent guidance on how to mitigate risk? We're here to help.

          Contact Us