True Design-Build vs Design-Bid-Build (Holes and Busts)

PDG's delivery method is 100% True Design-Build with heavy Value Engineering. This is fundamentally different from the traditional Design-Bid-Build (DBB) method.

Why DBB fails (in Pereff's words):

• Holes — things that are supposed to be in the plans that an architectural firm misses entirely.
• Busts — things that don't fit correctly or are designed wrongly, that won't work or won't fit during construction.

Design-Bid-Build creates both Holes and Busts because the architect designs in isolation, then hands plans to a contractor who bids them. Nobody with construction knowledge validates the design before the owner commits. This leads to expensive change orders, delays, contractor-architect conflicts, and in bad cases, litigation. Most contractors exploit this by giving a fake cheap price upfront, then hitting clients with $10,000s in daily change orders.

Why True Design-Build wins:

• PDG designs and builds as one team — construction knowledge informs design from day one
• No over-design that puts the client over budget
• No Holes, no Busts — the plans reflect what can actually be built at the agreed cost
• PDG creates a loan proforma for the banks during the construction document phase, so the client knows exactly where they'll be financially before breaking ground
• Change orders only occur if the city requires one or if the client requests a change mid-construction

Stephen's analogy: asking for a construction bid before construction documents is like asking a dentist to price dental implants before taking an X-ray. You have to know what's there. The construction documents are the X-ray.