Every time I see another project in which the Architect and Engineer designed a building way over budget, I wonder what they were thinking. I will be the first to admit, I’m an estimator not an engineer – but even I can tell when a building is overdesigned.
On a recent project, it appeared the A/E decided to see how many different systems they could incorporate into one building. And can you believe the project was over budget? I knew it was going to be with in two minutes of unrolling the plans.
Just like sole specifying equipment, overdesigning will increase the overall cost of the project without necessarily adding value to the owner. This project – which was going for LEED points – had a so many systems that 12 pumps were required for the HVAC system. The pumps were needed to handle the geothermal loop, chilled water and heating hot water systems for the air handling units, chilled beams, VAV boxes, under the floor fan powered boxes, heat pumps, and what ever else equipment I have left out. All of this was packaged into a 100,000 square foot building. After just a couple of value engineered items, the cost was reduced by roughly 20% for the mechanical systems.
The whole problem revolved around the owner wanting a very nice facility and the architect and engineer taking that notion and running with it. At least they were smart enough to have an estimate completed at the schematic design milestone, rather than finding out when the bids from contractors were submitted. Still this overdesign costs everyone time and money.
No matter what field you are in, you have to listen to your clients and ask the right questions to find out what they really want and/or need. You need to remember that what your client is saying may not be what they actually mean. Like in my example above, the owner wanted the best building around… as long as it was within their budget.
