Cost isn’t the only thing on building owners’ minds these days, but it certainly informs their choices of AEC partners, projects, and products. This is one of the many takeaways from BD+C’s inaugural Owners Survey Report, which collected input from 156 building owners and developers throughout December 2020 and January 2021 on a variety of topics: their top development challenges, what they look for in AEC firm partners, and their most promising innovations.
The survey findings point to a growing demand for collaboration and partnership during these chaotic times—and mounting frustration over a lack of focus and discipline among their AEC firm partners around project costs.
“Architects and designers need to work within a budget,” said Michael Vachio, LEED AP, Vice President of Development and Construction for JL Capital in Hawaii. “The value engineering phase of a project is becoming longer and larger.”
Time and again, in their comments, owners asserted that AEC firms don’t listen to their concerns, especially—but not exclusively—about taming a project’s cost. Owners also claimed they want closer collaboration with their teams, subs, and suppliers, some to the point of encouraging integrated project delivery methods that ultimately speed the construction process.
At the very least, AEC firms might reconsider how they pitch projects, with an eye toward appreciating the owner’s perspective.
AEC firms also need to overcome some owners’ lingering skepticism about investing in strategies that are environmentally responsible but whose implementation costs “impact the rents tenants are willing to pay and [what] financial institutions are willing to lend in some markets,” said Cassie Paben, Director of Business Development for Tetrad Property Group.
Click To Download BD+C's 2021 Owners Survey Report
This exclusive BD+C survey of 156 building owners and developers explores the changing and most-pressing needs of this highly influential group. From project financing to client service to design, construction, and operations, this research breaks down emerging trends, innovations, and the biggest wants and needs among owners/developers. The survey covers:
• What owners/developers look for in an AEC firm
• Biggest development challenges
• Top health/wellness/environmental strategies on projects
• Single-biggest innovation implemented on projects
• Response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Download the 16-page PDF report with the complete findings from BD+C's 2021 Owners Survey. Thanks!
That being said, AEC firms should also test those waters to see if owners are prepared to enter into contractual commitments necessary for establishing accountable and financial collaboration on both sides.
Owner–AEC relations that work usually boil down to trust. Our survey reveals that, perhaps more than ever, owners are turning to their AEC partners to help their companies and projects take advantage of the
latest products and best practices in such areas as technology, building systems, energy efficiency, and sustainability.
Our survey’s respondents sounded eager to try out new ideas that deliver predictable ROIs. But as one owner conceded, the industry is moving faster than any one company can keep up with. AEC firms only increase their value when they provide practical solutions for projects that factor in an owner’s budgetary, marketing, and operational parameters, as well as end-user and occupant comfort.
Download the Owners Survey Report at: BDCnetwork.com/OwnerSurvey2021.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
New hospital expands Idaho healthcare options
Ascension Group Architects, Arlington, Texas, is designing a $150 million replacement hospital for Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello, Idaho. An existing facility will be renovated as part of the project. The new six-story, 320-000-sf complex will house 187 beds, along with an intensive care unit, a cardiovascular care unit, pediatrics, psychiatry, surgical suites, rehabilitation clinic, and ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Green HQ going up in Miami
Formgroup, Coral Gables, Fla., has been commissioned by communications company CIMA Telecom to design its 24,000-sf headquarters in Miami. The nine-story, LEED Gold pre-certified office building will get 25% of its power from solar panels and will minimize energy usage with the help of automated window shades and occupancy sensors.
| Aug 11, 2010
Aloft hotel opens at Washington National Harbor
A partnership of five developers, including the John Hardy Group and Peterson Companies, have completed a 190-room aloft hotel at Washington National Harbor, a mixed-use retail/entertainment development in Oxon Hill, Md., near Washington, D.C. Designed in conjunction with David Rockwell and the Rockwell Group, the aloft prototype offers atmospheric public spaces designed to draw guests from the...
| Aug 11, 2010
Perkins Eastman awarded Indian School of Business campus
The New York office of Perkins Eastman has been commissioned by the Indian School of Business for a 70-acre, 1.5 million-sf new business school campus as part of a 300-acre “Knowledge City” in Chandigarh, Mohali, India. The sustainable campus will accommodate four centers of excellence: healthcare management, public policy, manufacturing/operations, and physical infrastructure manag...
| Aug 11, 2010
Colonnade fixes setback problem in Brooklyn condo project
The New York firm Scarano Architects was brought in by the developers of Olive Park condominiums in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn to bring the facility up to code after frame out was completed. The architects designed colonnades along the building's perimeter to create the 15-foot setback required by the New York City Planning Commission.
| Aug 11, 2010
Wisconsin becomes the first state to require BIM on public projects
As of July 1, the Wisconsin Division of State Facilities will require all state projects with a total budget of $5 million or more and all new construction with a budget of $2.5 million or more to have their designs begin with a Building Information Model. The new guidelines and standards require A/E services in a design-bid-build project delivery format to use BIM and 3D software from initial ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Manhattan's Pier 57 to be transformed into $210 million cultural center
LOT-EK, Beyer Blinder Belle, and West 8 have been selected as the design team for Hudson River Park's $210 million Pier 57 redevelopment, headed by local developer Young Woo & Associates. The 375,000-sf vacant passenger ship terminal will be transformed into a cultural center, small business incubator, and public park, including a rooftop venue for the Tribeca Film Festival.
| Aug 11, 2010
Opening night close for Kent State performing arts center
The curtain opens on the Tuscarawas Performing Arts Center at Kent State University in early 2010, giving the New Philadelphia, Ohio, school a 1,100-seat multipurpose theater. The team of Legat & Kingscott of Columbus, Ohio, and Schorr Architects of Dublin, Ohio, designed the 50,000-sf facility with a curving metal and glass façade to create a sense of movement and activity.
