Masonry Magazine October 2000 Page. 13
DESIGN/BUILD-CON
The owner loses the benefit of collecting 3, 4, or 5 (or whatever number) general construction bids for his project and no longer enjoys the historically comfortable "checks and balances" system inherent in competitive-bid. Entrenched in a doctrine of total trust in his team-mates (particularly the GC), the owner does potentially leave himself open to abuse, through puffed-up pricing, sub-standard construction, or just a general skirting of a thorough construction process. This is, of course, a particular peril when the owner lacks adequate construction knowledge and/or unluckily finds himself in the hands of a less-than-reputable contractor (and, unfortunately, there are one or two out there).
This next one is a hybrid of the "con" above - but not so scheming. Being no longer employed directly by the owner, the architect tends to fade into the background - allowing the GC greater latitude to run the show. Therein lies the risk to the owner. With the architect not omnipresently and doggedly monitoring the owner's interest throughout the project, the owner could conceivably end up with less of a project than he'd intended - through lapses in detail, specification, installation procedure, and overall quality. What's worse is that this degradation can be quite subtle and hidden more the product of lack of attention to detail than premeditated deceit.
Then there's the "what happens if the owner fires the GC" question. Is the architect (who remember is employed by the GC now) fired too?
This next one is not so much a Continued on page 16
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