Implementing Progressive Design Build, a Case Study: UW West Campus Utility Plant

Design-Build (DB) contracts have been used for many years in the United States of America. The award of a DB contract frequently relies on evaluating which DB team provides for the best value through a multi-criteria evaluation process with price being one of the most important criteria for team selection. To ensure project success, the owner usually has to spend adequate efforts and time during scoping and early design to prepare a program, scope, and budget, which are defined enough to undergo procurement and price generation. This, however, has become a potential burden for the owner, and may lengthen the project development duration. As an alternative to traditional Design-Build, Progressive Design-Build (PDB) provides for the selection of the DB team prior to deciding the program and/or budget for the project. PDB has the advantage of maintaining a single point of accountability and allowing to select a team based mainly on their qualifications with a limited price consideration. Under PDB, the selected team will work with the agency’s stakeholders during the early design while helping the owner to balance scope and budget. The key to understanding PDB, however, lies in the ongoing and complete involvement of the owner in the early design phase. Due to the differences between PDB and the other project delivery methods (e.g., traditional DB), several factors must be considered carefully to assure the successful implementation of PDB. However, information on PDB is lacking because of its novelty. This paper aims to investigate the implementation of PDB by conducting a case study of the University of Washington’s pilot PDB project for completing the West Campus Utility Plant (WCUP). The project’s entire delivery process and organizational structures are summarized and presented.