BR+A Project Spotlight September 2015 | CCHMC, Liberty Proton | Page 3

DESIGN ASSIST
DELIVERY
MODEL
BY MICHAEL FAHEY,
MANAGING PRINCIPAL,
NEW YORK
Our industry is rapidly embracing alternate methods to deliver
projects beyond the traditional Design–Bid–Build and GMP
models. IPD, IPD Lite and other versions of Design Assist
partnerships with Trade Contractors are fast becoming the
norm for delivering a higher quality, more cost effective
product to our clients while helping them to control and
manage their financial risk.
Due to the highly complex nature of Healthcare projects and
Proton Therapy projects in particular, BR+A has utilized the
Design Assist approach for many years. In working with our
trade partners we can navigate through the more complicated
areas of the project, such as the mass concrete embedded
utility zones, with a higher degree of speed and accuracy.
Using this approach on CCHMC, our team was able to
significantly reduce the project cost by streamlining the
overall design and construction process. The goal of this
project delivery method was to deliver a lean project in which
both the designers and contractors collaborated in creating
the overall design model. In doing so the designers leveraged
the contractor’s knowledge of constructability during the
design phase and the contractors leverage the designer’s
awareness of engineering principals to streamline the final
field coordination process and the overall completion of the
construction process.

Key ingredients
that made this project
successful included:
•

Communication. The Design Assist
Partners meet weekly (virtually and face to face) to
address key issues at every step of the way. Open and
constant dialogue was encouraged.

•

Team Chemistry. It was critically important that all
personalities were compatible and each partner learned
to trust and respect one another.

•

Tools. The team used Revit to create a BIM model and
all trade partners worked in a single model. BR+A
established real time access through a cloud based
server for each of the trade contractors involved in the
project. This allowed the team to control and eliminate
redundant tasks, efficiently implement the clash detection
/ resolution effort and focus on key critical path issues.

Through this process the team was able to successfully meet
and exceed the project expectations, ultimately delivering a
final product with much higher quality to our client.

BR+A has been an exceptional partner on our Cincinnati Children’s
Cancer Therapy Center. The BR+A team brought their engineering proton
experience and meshed it with our design assist subcontractors. All
parties worked in the Revit model, which was new for the majority of our
team. The BR+A group brought the national expertise and leadership to
our project, always willing to assist in finding the most valuable result for
the construction team and our owner!
— Craig Fredrickson, Vice President, Cli [