New research shows that America’s design-build projects continue to deliver faster, and with greater reliability in cost and schedule performance, than other delivery methods. It’s been 20 years since the seminal CII/Penn State research showed that design-build projects consistently delivered projects more efficiently. Over the decades, even as projects have evolved in complexity through many diverse economic cycles, design-build continues to provide improved value to communities.
Design-Build Delivers Better Schedule

Design-Build Delivers Better Cost

“As our nation continues to struggle with the unmet needs of crumbling infrastructure and budgets stretched thin, it’s no surprise that most states have embraced design-build as a better way to deliver projects vital to our economic growth. Whether it’s a billion-dollar airport or small community library, this research confirms design-build continues to deliver innovative projects that save time and money. Design-build is clearly a better way to build.”…Lisa Washington, CAE, DBIA Executive Director/CEO.
Research Highlights
Project Cost: On average, projects using Design-Build (DB) cost 1.9% less per square foot when compared to Construction Manager at Risk (CMR) and 0.3% less when compared to Design-Bid-Build (DBB). Design-Build projects also average 2.4% less cost growth than a comparably scoped project using CMR and 3.8% less cost growth than a project using DBB.
Project Schedule: Design-Build was the best performing project delivery system in terms of schedule growth, delivery speed and construction speed. DB projects see 3.9% less schedule growth than CMR and 1.7% less than Design-Bid-Build. They’re also 13% faster than CMR during the construction phase and 36% faster than DBB. From design through completion, DB projects are delivered 61% faster than CMR and 102% faster than DBB.
The Revisiting Project Delivery Performance research summary is now available online. If you’d like interview researchers, Keith Molenaar, PhD, DBIA, K. Stanton Lewis Professor and Associate Dean, University of Colorado Boulderor Bryan Franz, PhD, Assistant Professor University of Florida, please contact the DBIA Communications department contacts listed below.
The Design-Build Institute, based in Washington, D.C., is the only membership organization bringing together thousands of organizations and individuals representing architects, engineers, Owners, contractors, manufacturers (and more) to define, teach and promote best practices in design-build.
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