Architecture & Design Services

SDS manages and coordinates the design process on behalf of our clients. We focus on integrating construction realities into the design. In this way, scope, schedule, site logistics and budget remain tightly linked from start to finish. In addition to design activities, we perform constructability reviews for our projects. This proactive review of design documents for completeness, system function, construction logic, and material tolerances results in an uninterrupted construction process and reduced number of changes. Specialties include the planning and design of buildings with complex technical requirements. SDS is equipped with state-of-the-art computerized design, production, and modeling capabilities.

Preconstruction

The success of our projects is rooted in our emphasis on preconstruction planning. The earlier the planning begins, the more opportunities there are for time and budget savings. Our project planning includes civil, structural, architectural, mechanical, electrical, systems control estimating, and value engineering in-house and outsourced. Our estimating approach reflects the maximum level of detail known about any component of the project and an understanding of how costs in one area affect the project as a whole. We create cost models to predict a building’s ultimate content in advance of completed construction drawings. Our modeling process combines information from past projects and proprietary data bases, in addition to project-specific information. This model serves as a check on the cost of the project as it progresses from schematics to design development to contract documents. Working from an extensive and continually updated database of costs, sorted by building type, project type and locality, we know what a specific project should cost in a specific market.

We analyze all aspects of a project with a cross-disciplinary team that includes mechanical, electrical, building controls, and civil estimators that meet to discuss their findings. In this way, we know how choices in one area affect another, and can deliver a well-tested estimate. We continuously link scope and budget using our cost modeling process and monitor changes as design evolves. Reconciliation reports highlight the line-item differences in scope, and their cost impact to assure compliance with the budget. This “value engineering” provides a cost-effective evaluation of options for long and short term, to ensure the comfort and efficiency of building users.

We analyze all aspects of a project with a cross-disciplinary team that includes mechanical, electrical, building controls, and civil estimators that meet to discuss their findings. In this way, we know how choices in one area affect another, and can deliver a well-tested estimate. We continuously link scope and budget using our cost modeling process and monitor changes as design evolves. Reconciliation reports highlight the line-item differences in scope, and their cost impact to assure compliance with the budget. This “value engineering” provides a cost-effective evaluation of options for long and short term, to ensure the comfort and efficiency of building users.

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