Services02
Design-Build
Design and construction under one contract — fewer handoffs, faster to permit.
Request a BidOverview
You sign one agreement and we carry the architect, the engineers, and the field crews. Pricing feedback happens while the drawings are still changeable, which is the only time value engineering is actually cheap. Most design-build projects reach permit two to four months faster than the same job bid traditionally.
What's included
- Architect and engineer selection and contracting
- Programming, test fits, and schematic design
- Continuous pricing at SD, DD, and CD milestones
- Permit strategy and agency coordination
- Single-source construction delivery
- One warranty, one point of responsibility
How we run it
The way this work actually gets delivered.
01 Program
We define what the building has to do and what you can spend before anyone draws a line.
02 Design to budget
Pricing updates at each design milestone so the drawings never outrun the money.
03 Permit
Parallel permitting and long-lead procurement while construction documents finish.
04 Build
The same team that designed it builds it, so RFIs are answered in-house in hours.
Related work
Design-Build in the field.
Foundry Works Adaptive Reuse
62,000 SF — Commercial Interior — Cleveland, OH
Structural surprises priced during design; finished $412K under GMP.
Ridgeline Distribution Center
184,000 SF — Industrial — Reno, NV
Steel released for fabrication before construction documents were sealed.
FAQs
Questions we get on every design-build job.
Do you have architects in-house?
We contract licensed architects and engineers directly and manage them under our agreement. You get single-source responsibility without paying for a design department you only need part of the year.
How is design-build cheaper than bidding it out?
Because constructability and pricing feedback happen while drawings are cheap to change. Traditional projects discover cost problems after the drawings are finished, when every fix is a redesign.
When do we get a guaranteed price?
Typically at the end of design development, once systems and finishes are set. Before that you get progressively tighter budgets at each milestone.
Can we bring our own architect?
Yes. We will contract with them under the design-build agreement, or run a construction-manager model instead if you prefer to keep the design contract yourself.
Who is liable if the design is wrong?
We are. That is the point of a single contract — you do not get to referee a dispute between your architect and your builder.
What clients say
Owners who hired us for this scope.
Design-build saved us four months of drawing ping-pong. One contract, one team, one person answering the phone when something needed a decision.
Tom Salvatore
Director of Facilities, Cannery Row Foods
Permit to occupancy in 11 months
A 1920s foundry is a nasty building to renovate. Mullarkey found the structural issues in preconstruction instead of month four, and that is the only reason we opened on time.
Marcus Reyes
Managing Partner, Foundry Works Development
$412K under the guaranteed maximum price