Under this contract format, an Owner hires a Construction Manager early in the process, often as a project is in programming or concept phase, to partner with both the owner and design team to establish project parameters in a team environment. The Construction Manager is heavily involved in all pre-construction efforts including budgeting, value engineering and scheduling to meet the Owner’s budget while the Owner holds a separate contract with the architect and appropriate engineers.  Payment to the Construction Manager is typically under a guaranteed maximum price, sometimes with provisions for shared savings.

This contract form is best described as an instance where an Owner hires the design team to a complete bid package of plans and specifications to be competitively bid by a group of general contractors, either as an open bid or as following prequalification of select firms.  The architect generally completes preliminary budgeting.  Frequently, following receipt of the bids, the architect aids the Owner in making a decision about which contractor will receive an award to construct the project, with the award generally made to the lowest responsive bid under a lump sum price.

Under this contract form, an Owner engages a Design/Build Contractor under whose purview the design and engineering is completed, budgeted, value engineered, permitted and constructed.  In some instances, major trade contractors hold contracts for both the design as well as completion of their work.  Payment can be by lump sum, cost plus a fee or guaranteed maximum price.

On-call contracts allow an owner to mobilize professional services quickly and easily under pre-negotiated terms and conditions or to selectively bid work to a specific group of pre-qualified firms.  Often the contracts have a projected annual maximum of construction expenditures.  Contracts of this type generally have a specified duration, often with opportunities to extend the duration for multiple additional terms and provide a convenient format for fast track completion of work.  Firms typically provide unit pricing for personnel, general conditions items and fees for both change order work and the total contract itself, to which trade contractor pricing for specific project items are added. Contracts may be let under either a guaranteed maximum price or lump sum as preferred by the Owner.