Posted on March 12th, 2010 by 
Experts Say Trust-based Partnerships are the Solution
Churches and Christian schools have a wide range of options when it comes to designing and building a new facility. It can be a confusing process to decide not only which architect and builder to partner with, but what construction delivery method will best meet its needs from a ministry and stewardship perspective.
Adding to this confusion is the alarming state of the commercial construction industry. According to The buildingSMART Alliance, an initiative that operates within the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), as much as fifty-percent of the construction process is consumed in waste. It has become common in the industry for projects to result in huge cost overruns, scheduling delays and poor quality.
Much of the poor performance within the commercial construction industry can be linked to standard delivery methods that create adversarial relationships between the architect, builder, subcontractors and owner. Each party is looking out for its own best interests and not necessarily the interests of the client. Many times innovation and the best ideas are held back due to a lack of coordination and cooperation.
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In the typical design/bid/build industry approach (left), the owner contracts with an architect and the architect designs a plan based on the client’s feedback. The plan is then released for bid to a select group of builders. This contains several inherent risks that can be detrimental to a ministry’s ability to actually complete the building project.
• The plan is often designed without construction input and may not prove to be cost effective when the estimate is finally received.
• These plans are also usually designed without substantiated budget numbers and may be designed outside of funding capacity.
• The ministry is forced to select a builder based on the bottom dollar, which may result in ongoing conflict, excessive change orders, or lower quality workmanship.
• The responsibility rests with the ministry if the final bid numbers are beyond budget; the architect is not as accountable to support the ministry with creative cost saving measures to meet budget requirements. |
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In the design/build approach (left), the owner contracts with a builder who contracts with an architect for the project. The owner assumes the risk of a single contract with one organization and “all eggs are in one basket”.
• The ministry loses direct control over the design and architectural process – as the architect can be influenced by the builder.
• The ministry loses direct control over product specifications and third-party accountability of building quality, ongoing operation and maintenance costs.
• The ministry loses the objective review and accountability provided during construction when an architect is under a separate contract.
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Trust-Based Partnerships
In this radically new way of doing business, the architect and builder partner together and assemble a local subcontractor team. Each party comes together early in the design process to find ways to employ lean construction, value engineering and special wisdom within each craft toward a common goal of delivering a top quality building on schedule and on budget.
“All too often projects suffer because the design and construction team are cobbled together for the first time and have no expectation of ever being together in the future. Worse still, most of them will have been selected on a lowest price basis, where profit margins have been squeezed to the bone and the only way of making a decent profit may well be through claims against other team members, or against the client”. —Clive Thomas Cain, Profitable Partnering for Lean Construction
Some of the benefits for churches in using a trust-based delivery method include:
• The ministry has direct control over the design process.
• The builder is integral to the design process and can share feedback on cost-effective elements and construction benefits of the design.
• The builder provides budget info to the architect to define overall design scope.
• The builder and architect partner through construction, bringing solutions without conflict and minimizing change orders.
• The builder and architect are accountable to the ministry for building quality and ongoing maintenance and operation costs.
• The architect holds the builder accountable for building to design specifications.
Susan S. Szenasy, Editor in Chief of Metropolis Magazine makes an important observation about finding the most efficient, productive way to approach the building process. “It’s the human element that needs our full attention today” she says, “How can an array of strong personalities, all used to working self-protectively, become members of a smoothly functioning, integrated team based on trust?”
Building God’s Way proposes an answer to this question with an approach called the Trinity Partnership, in which the architectural team, builder and owner work together, placing God at the center of their efforts. Through a unique process called Pre-Construction Stewardship (“PCS”), the partners work together to assemble a team of subcontractors early in the design process. The overall result is a commitment to a unified ministry vision, consistent high quality, timely delivery and reduced costs on construction, operation and maintenance.
For more information on the Trinity Partnership go to bgwservices.com/partnership or contact Scott Griffin at 800.552.7137 or sgriffin@bgwservices.com
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