The Design-Build Delivers Podcast Countdown: Fresh Content from the Top 5 Episodes of 2024

TRL may have given us the Backstreet Boys v. NSYNC* showdown, but we’re bringing you the ultimate design-build throwdown: the Top 5 Design-Build Delivers Podcast episodes of 2024! This isn’t just any countdown –– we’re going into the vault to bring you fresh content from your favorite conversations of the year. 

Which episodes made the cut? You’ll have to tune in to find out! 

You can relive the top episodes of the year in full as well as all our Design-Build Delivers Podcast episodes at your podcast app of choice.

Access all our free design-build resources and learn more about Design-Build Done Right® at dbia.org.

DBIA members are shaping the future, one successful collaboration at a time.

Chapters

• 0:09 Introduction to the Top Five of 2024
• 2:11 The Number Five Episode of 2024
• 6:50 The Number Four Episode of 2024
• 9:25 The Number Three Episode of 2024
• 16:21 The Number Two Episode of 2024
• 20:12 The Number One Episode of 2024
• 25:23 Wrapping Up 2024

Transcript

Erin Looney  00:00

Welcome to a very special episode of the design build delivers podcast brought to you by us, CAD, I am your host. Erin Looney from the DBIA national headquarters in DC, and we're closing out 2024 in style by celebrating you our growing, dedicated audience. Hi mom and the incredible conversations we've had this year. You've been listening, you've been downloading, you've been telling your friends all about us. And we couldn't be more excited to bring you a little treat. The top five episodes of 2024 That's right, we are going to do a top 40 style countdown, complete with sound effects and total cheesiness. These episodes were the biggest hits of the Year by downloads. And while, you know, all our conversations brought something valuable to the table, these five really stood out. But here's the twist, we're not just gonna rehash the episodes you already know and love. Instead, we're going back into the 2024 vault to bring you fresh bonus content from these all stars of 2024 think of this as the Directors Cut extra insights, untold stories, maybe even a few surprises. And if you hear a snippet today that grabs your attention, don't forget that all our featured episodes, along with the entire catalog of design build delivers podcast episodes are available on your favorite podcast platform so you can revisit, catch up on anything you missed, or share with a colleague. And don't worry, none of my terrible dad jokes about robots, sports or anything else that made you groan actually made the cut. I can't promise there won't be one or two new ones. And of course, just to make sure you get a fresh dose of embarrassing humor, why did the podcast host, bring a ladder to reach new heights in 2025 I'm so embarrassed. I am so sorry. Please don't stop listening. We'll wrap up this episode then with a quick, legitimate look ahead, where I'll share some exciting updates for the show. But for now, let's focus on celebrating what made 2024 so memorable. So whether you're traveling, baking holiday treats, enjoying some downtime from work or commuting as usual, settle in. It's time for the design build delivers podcast top five of 2024, number five, starting us off at number five is maximizing collaboration with us, CAD and our cons company, streamlining design build through common data environments. In this episode that originally aired in August, we looked at how technology is revolutionizing collaboration on design build projects. US CADs, Neetha, putran and Aaron Wagner, along with DBIA Brian skripak, broke down the power of common data environments like Autodesk construction cloud and overcoming communication barriers and streamlining project processes from real world examples of reducing RFIs to the growing influence of AI and machine learning and project management. This episode delivered practical tools and insights that really resonated with you. And while we packed a lot into the original episode, there's always just a bit more in this bit to celebrate this episode's number five status, we go back to the basics, defining common data environments and revisiting what Virtual Design and Construction is and is not. These terms are central to understanding how technology is driving collaboration and design build for both industry vets and rookies. It can sometimes be helpful to strip everything down and go back to square one. And this clip clears up some common misconceptions and highlights the value of trust, transparency and accessibility in project data. Before we go any further into this discussion, I want to make sure we understand some basics, because I didn't, judging by the notes you gave me on our discussion, and while I know the majority of our listeners will actually know the difference, we need to take a minute to clear things up for that one person who doesn't we're going to be talking a lot about a common data environment or CDE, and we have Brian, so we're also going to be talking a little about VDC. Can you all explain the difference? CDE

Aaron Wagner  03:55

or common data environment is essentially that safe place for all of the project data. So it's, it's kind of this place where I can reliably go in, find the information that I need, and then also contribute my information and see my impacts on the overall project. And VDC is certainly a component to that. I think VDC is more akin to, like the models and constructability and just general layout and design of the project certainly an important aspect. It would probably live in a common data environment if we're doing it correctly,

Brian Skripac  04:29

just for the minutia of the terminology from DBIA, and not to confuse common data environment and VDC at all. But one of the ways that we delineate things are we talk about a building information model being a deliverable. It's an entity. It's an object that either the architect, the engineer, trade contractor, whoever's authoring that information, is providing. This is a deliverable for the project, where VDC is the process in which those models get aggregated, or federal. Simulated or analyzed in whatever means to drive value for the project. The hope would be that those individual models, plus much more of the design and construction information, would be hosted in a common data environment where that CDE allows for that transparency to the information, accessibility to the information, the opportunity to get those immediate updates and things that we're talking about, and kind of relying on trust, as opposed to, well, I have the most current version of the model. No, Aaron does, and then Nita says, Well, I thought I had the most current version of the model. No, we all know to go to that common data environment and rely upon the information that's there that really being the value of that additional layer of value for the whole project team and what they're delivering,

Aaron Wagner  05:48

adding to what Brian was saying is talking about VDC as the process to contribute to the bib model, and then the CD would be where it lived. Another way to sort of think about it too, is, you know, you might have an RFI or issue or punch list item or change order or something else that happens in the project, hopefully that also happens in the common data environment, and that would maybe influence what happens in those VDC processes.

Erin Looney  06:16

Are you interested in sustainable design and construction practices, but concerned about profitability? Us, CAD, an arc cons, company helps forward thinking. ENR, top ranked AEC firms in mitigating risk and driving profit through digitalization, using Autodesk AEC technology to learn more, contact us, cad.com/dbia for a free 30 minute consultation. That's us, cad.com/dbia com slash DBIA,

06:50

number four.

Erin Looney  06:51

Number four is one for the ladies. Well, non ladies too. The fourth most downloaded episode of 2024 is our April episode, blueprints to inclusion, championing women in design, build and beyond. This conversation was so impactful. It spawned not one, not two, but three bonus content episodes. And this really hit home with you, because it balanced challenges and opportunities for women in design, build, including soft skills, mentorship and some leadership strategies, but it also sparked questions about the future. How do we keep these conversations alive? Here's a unique clip that takes a bit of a fresh angle. ANNA Pridmore shared a fantastic perspective about how giving young professionals a chance to explore different roles early on helps them find their footing in the industry and build their confidence and then tying into that ladrina Dansby highlights how engaging with owners and meeting their aspirational goals can naturally foster diversity and inclusivity within design build teams, and that helps pave the way for more collaboration, more inclusion and a better future for the industry. What advice do you have for young women or non binary individuals, just non men interested in pursuing a career in construction.

08:01

So what Barbara said about as part of her early opportunities within her organization, getting out to the field, and that was a part of the rotation, our organization does something similar. So as part of structural group, both for interns as well as the entry level, what we call project engineers, they go through an extensive field rotation to get that hands on experience. And I would encourage anyone interested in this career to really take the opportunity, especially if you're still in college, to go through and do an internship and to explore jobs within the industry that may have some type of rotational program that allows you to have experience in different facets, that then allows you to figure out which area you may want to differentiate because it's hard sometimes to know right off the bat what you may want to do. So some organizations have that type of program, like artists do, where you get a chance to rotate through different divisions and gets you that broader experience. So that's another really good option to give you that insight.

Erin Looney  08:56

In what ways do you think DBIA can better support and encourage diversity of thought in construction,

LaDrena Dansby  09:03

I would say, continue to engage with our owners, because our owners are going to drive the diversity. Because we are a service provider, we are meeting the aspirational goals of our owners, so that, in itself, should add more diversity, inclusivity, and hopefully get more women into the C suite positions,

Erin Looney  09:25

number three. You know, it's funny, our number three episode was the runaway leader for most of the year. Then along came the episodes that took our numbers one and two spots. Now, if you'd have asked me about halfway through the year. What our most popular episode was, it would have been this one hands down, and it is still getting plays. It's definitely, definitely a big winner. So landing at number three is January's tackling state design build legislation, California's PDB bill as a starting point. We talked about how design build advocacy is true. Transformed over the last 30 years from only three states allowing design build for public projects to a record breaking 78% of related bills passing in 2023 among the standout efforts was California's SB 706 which expanded PDB authority to all agencies in the state. And while the episode covered a lot, there's still more to uncover. Beau biller shared a behind the scenes look at the early days of DBIA advocacy, highlighting how the organization built coalitions and tackled resistance to lay the groundwork for legislative success today. Adding to that, Marianne O'Brien brought the practical perspective where she got into how PDB integrates construction techniques early in the design process to improve efficiency and innovation, like our number four episode, January's one also launched three bonus content episodes that went deeper into strategies and stories behind state level legislative wins. If you're passionate about the future of design, build, authority, this episode and its bonus content episodes are must listens. Let's talk about your work with DBIA legislative efforts. This isn't your first design build bill, and I will say, everyone else we've spoken to just gushed about the work that you did that made it a whole lot easier to get through this process. But what we didn't touch on yet was exactly what your role was and how you came into their efforts with SB 706, specifically, and you know, kind of a little of your background as well.

Beau Biller  11:23

So I've been with design build Institute of America, Western Pacific region. I think if I were to round up to say about 15 years, in the early days, we were just getting design build socialized in the legislature overcame some major obstacles with labor and others that were not a big fan. Now today, I would say 1012, years later, design build, not progressive, design build, but design build is commonplace, is accepted. People may not even know what it really means, but they just think it's a common, efficient method for procurement, and everyone thinks it's a good thing getting to the next step of progressive design build took some time required that we reach out to the various stakeholders that care about the issue. But I think importantly, and to the credit of the Western Pacific region in particular, is they really embraced the owner side of their membership. So when we go to meet with the legislature, the policy makers, they're generally suspicious, if it's on behalf of corporation, or, in this case, a builders and contractors. They think that perhaps we're trying to do something to gain an advantage, but to the credit of the Western Pacific region. In the association, they've embraced the owner side of the membership equation, giving us credibility with those that are charged by way of election, whether it's a municipality, a city, a county, a special district, whoever that may be, ultimately, they are elected, and they have a duty to make good decisions when they spend billions of dollars to spend that money wisely, and when they ask for these types of tools such as progressive and design, build and other alternative methods, it helps get the job done. And I think that helped us get and secure our author, Senator Caballero, the chair of the committee which would receive this bill to put her name on it and be the lead author of the bill, along with co authors from both houses, both parties, that's what led us down the path of starting off on good foot. Now, Marianne,

Erin Looney  13:35

let me preface this with any time we talk about progressive design, build, people pay attention. We actually have a blog post from 2016 that still comes up as one of our highest viewed posts every month, our conference sessions, our webinars, podcasts, anything that focuses on PDB always makes a great impression. And SB 706 was about California's authority to use PDB in state and local projects. And in fact, one more connection. Our 2023 Project of the Year winner, the 1020 1o Street State Office Building, was a California based PDB project. So that kind of just begs the question, right? Why is PDB such a hot button issue?

Marianne O'Brien  14:16

It boils down to a few factors that it's perceived as an incredibly fair, innovative, efficient and customizable process. So if we were to break that down point by point, it's fair because all of the parties in the process have a reasonable assurance of payment for the intellectual property delivered and product delivered. It's innovative because it brings the latest techniques in construction forward into the design process. So it's factored in right from the start. All these bright minds come together, and it's efficient, because those construction processes come into the design process, so that the. What's drawn, what's agreed to initially, really don't have to be reworked later, in terms of shop drawings, they can carry forward all the way through, because those construction techniques are factored into what's drawn right from the start. And so to take a look at customizable The process allows for the parties to take a detour, if something comes up that's really important, and go explore that as part of the process. It's not already set in stone with metrics and criteria, they can go explore that, and in the end, it allows that product to be incredibly tailored to the owner and the stakeholders that will be using that facility. So hearing all of that, and knowing all of that, the board decided that it was important to listen to our members and provide the best value for them, and we could collect all these voices of why this was important, and speak with the collective voice, it would resonate more and so it was worth making the investment. So that's why we did it. That's why, fundamentally, you know, it was important, and why the board decided to move forward. Number two, coming

Erin Looney  16:22

in at number two is our August episode, the human side of progressive design build with Jeff Neumeyer. If there's one thing DBIA knows, it's that you cannot get enough of PDB or Jeff for that matter, whether you've been following progressive design build since its early days, or you're just getting in on the hype, or maybe you aren't sure yet what the hype is. This episode stood out because Jeff brought something different to it, the human impact of not just PDB, but design build broadly, instead of focusing solely on the technical aspects, Jeff shared what makes PDB thrive in dynamic, complex environments. And in this bonus clip, he gets into why its short procurement process and trust building validation phase make it a true game changer, all with the side of Jeff's unrivaled energy and passion. I asked you broadly then about the impact of collaborative delivery on infrastructure modernization, affordable housing demand, sustainable and climate conscious, construction safety, durability, technology advances. So talk more about what progressive design build specifically brings to the game that can help with those and any other issues that are related.

17:27

When we talk about a lot of those concerns, I kind of briefly started to touch on this, about how we're expanding what the cost of a project is, and looking at full life cycle value, what progressive design build allows us now to do is have those conversations about what those long term goals are before we actually determine what we're going to do in the capital project we're taking on at one project, it allows us to explore various iterative processes of what that is, because many times you have to do some portion of a design to see, you know, so you might go through three different things to kind of say, Okay, what's the most economical way to do this, given all these other factors that are out there in terms of performance, it also allows a comfortable level of as you develop those that you can sort out who's going to take the risk for what as you go through these things. Because once people feel like risk is unfairly being put upon them. I would say, in this case, let's say we're talking about energy use intensity of a building, for example, you can still perfectly model everything and a model before you ever design it or build it, or even after you should design it, and say it's going to be have this energy use intensity. Then you go and build and then you actually test it. And it could be close, but not quite there, because it's not an exact science, even through the design process. So it allows you, as an owner, to meet with your folks that are responsible for it and say, Okay, here's what we're going to do. Is we all agree that this is what the model says, but we have to have some sort of level of quality control on this. This is going to be maybe a measurable performance of this criteria that we know we have pretty good assurance that we can get for this piece and this piece and this piece and this piece and this piece, but we agree, when we put them all together, we will agree that if we do all these things that we did together, we will get this result, versus saying, I don't care how you do it, you're responsible for it if you don't make it happen up with your head. Progressive allows us now to have these different conversations so that people aren't going, Okay, I'll do it. Because what's going to happen now is they'll just overdo it. If you're going to hold them accountable, they overdo it, they'll be very ultra conservative. Guess what? Now the money's disappearing. Now we're getting into cause problems. That's that relationship. Part to it is that you can have these discussions, like, if you're going to hold me to that, I gotta not do it too on this. I gotta do a 10 on this and a 10 on that 10. So that's what progressive allows. That's why that relationship is really important to achieve these things we've been talking about. We're no longer looking at projects, as I mentioned, just on a GET or done. It's get her done and operate and maintain it effectively. That's what progressive design build is really built upon. Is that. That long term durability for complex, technologically complex, but also just performance based, complex problems. I'm gonna

Erin Looney  20:08

use get her done in the title of the episode, just so you

20:11

know, get her done number

Erin Looney  20:15

one. And now the moment you've all been waiting for, it's time to reveal our number one design build delivers podcast episode of 2024 this one, it didn't just edge out the competition. It crushed it since its release, it has skyrocketed to the top, claiming the biggest seven day download trend since at least I started hosting in May 2023 so what made it such a hit? This episode centered on a somewhat famous city on the East Coast. You know her and you love her, and it featured two of the low key funniest guys and one high key goofball in the DBIA community proudly and aggressively taking that number one spot just like a New Yorker. Is our October episode, from legislation to landmark projects, how the New York City Department of Design and Construction is doing design build right where we were joined by DDCS, Tom Foley and David varouli and dbias Richard Thomas, New York City delivered its first design build project, the Queensborough Hall garage and community center in just 22 months, earning it a slate of accolades that includes dbia's 2024 inspired Owner Award, as well as a national award of excellence and a national award of merit for federal, state, county and municipal facilities, The episode also gets into how New York City's design build successes are setting a precedent for other states and local governments. For this clip, we're going to let David varoule take the spotlight. Don't worry, Tom, who is our incoming national board chair, gets plenty of air time elsewhere in the episode and in next month's episode. As a matter of fact, here, David shares the behind the scenes story of New York City's design build legislation and how it transformed the way the city delivers projects. So how have design build contracts been adapted to address these unusual challenges, and were there any unexpected legal hurdles? New

David Varoli  22:03

York is, I think, the definition of urban again, where DBIA was so resourceful for us, at least in terms of the starting point. And I heard this loud and clear when Tom and I think, attended our first DBIA National Conference, which I believe, was in 2018 where the contract is not a design contract that is then smashed with a construction contract. That real design build done right is that you're going to create a contract that is going to deal with both the design and the construction, if you're going to take your old forms and just put it together and call it design build, well, you could call it design build, but it's not designed, build done, right? That was the beginning of us saying, Okay, well, we need to understand what that means in terms of our ability to draft a contract. We did a lot of background work before we ever went out with our first procurement. And the big thing we did was this listening tour. We run out to all of the different associations, including DBIA. But we spoke with A, C, E, C, A, I, a, here in New York, the New York Building Congress, the General Contractors Association, and we heard what they had to say about our contract. A lot of it was not good. We have a very stringent contract, but hearing what design build is, and design build done right, we understood that we had to be more of a partner. We had to look at risk in a different way. We couldn't just take all the risk and dump it on the design build winner or team hearing all of the feedback as to what a good design build contract was. We sat down internally, and I work with an amazing group of lawyers here, and as well as we wanted to understand and really, we did a lot of research, and we working with people like Richard and others from DBIA, we got copies of other contracts and design build, but we also realized we needed some additional help, and so we did our own little procurement. We met with five absolutely amazing, amazing law firms who work in this space and are really big on drafting contracts and in the design build space as well. And we were very lucky. We picked an amazing firm, the Oric law firm. We worked with a partner by the name of young Lee and Matthew nurringer, and together with their team, they helped draft for us a design build agreement that we think addresses a lot of the issues that were in our standard low bid contract, as well as really looked at risk from the perspective of, okay, what is the risk the city of New York can take on, and then what is the risk that design builder can take on? And as Tom mentioned earlier, we completely changed our approach to disputes. We know design build doesn't eliminate 100% all disputes or claims, and it doesn't eliminate 100% all change orders, but it is a dramatic break away from the low bid world of claims, claims, claims and change orders. Change orders, change orders. And I only share this because some of the other public owners in New York City have approached me. And have said, Hey, we were doing a procurement and so and so firm said, can you guys please use the DDC contract that made me very proud, made me proud of the agency and also proud of our working relationship with orc. We wanted to be the owner of choice, and to be the owner of choice, we knew we were gonna have to change our policies, our procedures and our contract documents,

Erin Looney  25:23

and that's it. That's a wrap. The top five. Design Build delivers podcast episodes of 2024 we couldn't have done any of this without you, our amazing listeners. It's your downloads, your feedback and your shares that have made this year a record breaker for the podcast and a true reflection of the passion that exists in the design build community. Can't wait to see what floats your boat, tickles your fancy, get your heart racing, or whatever cheesy idiom you like. In 2025 speaking of 2025 in January, we will talk to DBIA Ed CEO, Lisa Washington, and our new national board chair, Tom Foley. Yes, he is officially a recurring character now, podcast stardom, conference stardom seems to suit him. They're gonna share what's next for DBIA and design build in the coming year. We've also got exciting episodes featuring FMIS, new market data, inspiring stories from award winning projects and so much more in the works, whether you're tuning in from your commute, your home, your holiday travels, or that hopefully not ill fated resolution to get to know those peloton instructors a little better. We can't wait to bring you along for the ride. But before we sign off, a huge thank you to our sponsor, us, CAD, for supporting design build delivers this year. Learn more at us, cad.com/dbia, and of course, none of this would be possible without Fred Yi and Danielle Hall, who makes sure every episode runs smoothly, and we bring you the best guests in the AEC industry. A heartfelt thanks to all of those best guests for sharing their expertise and to you our listeners for making this podcast a success. I am Erin Looney, wishing you a joyful and restful holiday season. Here's to a fantastic 2025 See you next year on the design build delivers podcast you.