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Burns & McDonnell’s new 350,000-square-foot
headquarters expansion offers a compelling example of the firm’s design-build capabilities.
when things go wrong, has design-build poised for big things as the public sector confronts its ailing infrastructure, and as the private sec- tor develops real estate for various uses. An important player in the design-build industry is Kansas City, Mo.- based Burns & McDonnell, a 5,700-employee-strong power firm with more than 50 offices across the globe. Fresh off the completion of a 310,000-square-foot, $75 million world headquarters expansion, and in the middle of a three-tower construction project for VanTrust Real Estate in Kansas City, Burns & McDonnell is all about, and will con- tinue to be all about, the design-build delivery model.
Design-bid-build. It now seems almost quaint, the idea of hiring one firm to design a project, going out for bid, and then hiring another firm to build it. An enduring business model used to deliver much of what we see nationwide, design-bid-build, entrenched in state procurement laws — and for many projects, simply the right fit — is by no means going away. But as public-private partnerships (P3s) increase, and as owners look for more efficient ways to deliver their roads, bridges, water treat- ment facilities, and retail and residential structures, a refined delivery method — design-build awarded on a best-value or low-bid basis — is increasingly gaining market share. A response to the demands of speed-to-market, and in part driven by the effort to manage or transfer risk, design-build is lauded for its abil- ity to cut through the clutter of getting a project out of the blueprints and into the ground. One team, design-as-you-go, best value, and per- haps most importantly, less finger-pointing between concerned parties Design-Build The delivery method is gaining market share in both the public and private sectors, but design-bid-build will remain. By Richard Massey
“We typically don’t build what we don’t design, but we will design things that we won’t build,” said Ken Schaefer, the Burns & McDon- nell project manager for the headquarters expansion, in summing up the firm’s approach to the industry. “We’re an engineering firm at heart.” An old firm with a long and impressive list of projects to its credit, Burns & McDonnell is charting new territory for itself with the de- livery of cutting-edge office buildings. The headquarters expansion, packed with amenities, delivered in 2016, and under construction when
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csengineermag.com
june 2018
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