Few industries can claim more success than the construction industry. Besides the sheer number of buildings that are present everywhere, each building is a monument to the successful cooperation of a large and diverse group of persons including owners, design professionals, contractors, subcontractors, building trades, laborers and suppliers of material, to name just a few. Each of these persons must work together to design and construct the owner’s project.

While the construction industry boasts many more successes than failures, the industry has also experienced a plethora of difficulties arising from such factors as the complexity of projects, the diversity of participants, and the many financial and other risks that accompany construction. When a dispute arises, the parties can easily become positional resulting in an expensive and destructive finger-pointing blame game.

The incidence of disputes is partly a result of the way that traditional project delivery methods have developed, e.g. design-bid-build, design-build, and construction management. Each of these methods involves, to varying degrees, a contractual allocation and shifting of tasks and risks that can result in real winners and losers. Instead of working together to produce a better project, the parties are cast in the role of protecting themselves.

Enter a relatively new form of construction project delivery called “Integrated Project Delivery” or “IPD.” The American Institute of Architects - California Council defines IPD as “a project delivery method distinguished by a contractual agreement between a minimum of the owner, design professional, and builder where risk and reward are shared and stakeholder success is dependent on project success.”

What makes IPD different from traditional project delivery methods is that IPD is a collaborative process that seeks to include key project participants in the early planning of the project for the purpose of designing and planning a more successful, efficient and cost-effective project with shared goals, risks and rewards. “Lean” construction techniques based on the famously successful “Toyota Way” and Building Information Modeling (“BIM”) are incorporated into the project to minimize waste, improve productivity, reduce clashes involving design elements and construction techniques, and so on. While some would say that IPD is still in the experimental phase, it has been successfully used in a number of projects around the country and case studies published by the American Institute of Architects (“AIA”), California Council, exist for several of these projects. Projects included in the AIA studies include the Sutter Health Fairfield Medical Office Building (Fairfield, Calif.), Autodesk Inc., AEC Solutions Division Headquarters (Waltham, Mass.), Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital Expansion (St. Louis), St. Clare Health Center (Fenton, Mo.), and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, Arizona State University (Phoenix). http://info.aia.org/aia/ipdcasestudies.cfm IPD projects offer the potential of increasing value to the owner, optimizing results, maximizing efficiency, and reducing waste - through a collaborative process involving an expanded group of stakeholders. In other words, the project tent is greatly expanded.

The growing interest in IPD is evidenced by the recent publication of standard IPD forms by the AIA and ConsensusDOCS as well as the opening of regional chapters of the Lean Construction Institute founded by lean construction pioneers Glenn Ballard and Greg Howell. The inaugural meeting of the Michigan chapter will take place Thursday in East Lansing at the Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center.

Harvey Berman, a LEED® Accredited Professional, is a partner at the law firm of Bodman LLP practicing in its Ann Arbor office. He is chair of the firm's Construction Practice Group and represents clients in construction, real estate, and business matters. Contact him at 734-930-2493 or at hberman@bodmanllp.com.