Collado Engineering

May 3, 2010    Newsroom

Over the last 25 years, engineers and architects have strayed from the core values of their professions and pursued policies that reduced their involvement in projects for the sake of maximizing profits. This shortsighted policy of withdrawing from the central role in projects has had a devastating effect, reducing the design professional ’s influence and creating the need for other entities such as construction managers (CMs) and owner’s representatives to emerge and fill the vacuum created by the retreating professionals. Due to the absence of the design professionals from the construction site, CM’s and owner’s reps have had to rely heavily on the input of contractors, who may not always understand the nuances of the design and who, at any rate, have a different objective; consequently, too often negating the value and benefits of the design.

In addition to the voluntary reduction in services, design professional’s acceptance of a trend to minimize the time required to develop design documents greatly increases the likelihood of errors and omissions. These, in turn, increase the construction cost extras, which further erodes the standing of the design professional and threatens the legitimacy of the profession itself.

Until now, the new project delivery systems, including design-build, have only had marginal success. Coupled with the owners’ continued dissatisfaction, this lack of success has today given rise to a whole new group of consultants and entities to try to meet the demands of the marketplace. LEED, Commissioning and Energy Services are all new growth areas that many firms have rushed to include in their scope of services. While this is a positive trend, unless there is a basic change in the philosophy of how these and all design services are provided, it will only be one more step in the market’s search for true value.

While we should and must strive to develop new and better solutions through the application of new technologies and methods, the lack of value to the client has been less affected by a reduction in innovation than by a lack of attention and follow-through. It is in this area that there exists the greatest opportunity for improvement and where Collado Engineering excels.

Al Collado, P.E., CEA