May 2013
| Business World Magazine | 75
projects, constantly proving to be a more effec-
tive alternative to the traditional design-bid-build
model (a system of separate entities, separate con-
tracts, separate work).
While this methodology has long been em-
braced in Europe andCanada, over the last 15 years,
design-build has increasingly emerged throughout
the United States and continues to be one of the
most dynamic trends in design and construction
today. Owners are increasingly relying on design-
build to not only achieve best value, but also ad-
here to schedule, cost and quality objectives.
The proliferation of this process can be largely
attributed to the efforts of the Design-Build In-
stitute of America, the only organization which
defines, teaches and promotes best practices in de-
sign-build.
This year marks the 20th Anniversary of the
creation of the DBIA and Louis Jenny, the Insti-
tute’s Vice President, is encouraged to see how this
delivery system has not only been embraced by in-
dustry, but Federal and State government too. He
credits such achievement to a few forward thinking
engineers and contractors who resolved to define
and develop the delivery model which is being de-
ployed today.
Jenny says that all began in 1993 with princi-
pals from firms that included the Haskell Compa-
ny, Gray Construction and Panco. These organiza-
tions were essentially using a design-build formula
in their respective work and had realized the ben-
efits that could be achieved. And though both the
building and design industries were being served by
various trade associations with their own respective
