THE “PLAYERS” IN CONSTRUCTION

1. THE “PLAYERS” IN CONSTRUCTION • THE OWNERS AND RELATED RESOURCES • THE DESIGN TEAM • THE CONTRACTING TEAM • REGULATORY AGENTS

2. CONSTRUCTION PROJECTORGANIZATION CHART

3. THE OWNER AND RELATED RESOURCES • Definition:The owner is the individual or organization (of any business or contractual configuration) who is the instigator/initiator and ultimate buyer and possessor of the project. • The owner is totally responsible for the financing of the project. • It is also the person or firm who has identified the need(s) which could be resolved by a construction project.

4. THE OWNER AND RELATED RESOURCES (CONT.) • The owner is referred to as a Client when involved in the hiring of and relationship with legal, design, construction management, constructor, and other professionals. • The (Land) Developer is a speculator who purchases a tract of vacant land, installs the infrastructure and utilities, creates lots or sites, and then offers such sites for further development through building construction.

5. THE OWNER AND RELATED RESOURCES (CONT.) • User usually refers to the person or organization legally defined as lessee or tenant, who uses at least a portion of a project, but is not the owner of the entire complex. • Occupants are nontransient users. (who live or work in a facility)

6. THE OWNER AND RELATED RESOURCES (CONT.) • A Lessee is a person or organization who gains the right of access to and use of a property/facility through a relatively long-term agreement. (i.e. a lease) • Lessor is the person or organization who is usually the owner of the property/facility offered for use of others, the lessees, on a long-term basis.

7. THE OWNER AND RELATED RESOURCES (CONT.) • A Renter is one who gains access and use of property through payment of a rental fee. • Lender/banker/financer: An array of individuals and organizations that specialize in supplying (loan) money for the construction of projects. • Owner’s representatives are persons on the staff of the owner or hired separately to act in the owner’s absence and to offer the owner’s perspective in all matters. (Usually a person with design and construction background)

8. THE DESIGN TEAM • Design professional: A person (a firm) who has the education, training, experience, and other qualifications to meet the prevailing state laws which offer “registration” of professionals. • Architect: A design professional whose primary role is the compilation and analysis of information for, and the creation of, a detailed design for the project to meet the specific needs and desires of the client. • (Professional) Engineers: persons who are registered for participation, and practice in one or more of the many fields of construction oriented engineering areas (civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, architectural, etc.).

9. THE DESIGN TEAM (CONT.) • A principal is an individual who has the final responsible charge of work produced by the firm (usually one of the registered design professionals). • Partner is the term denoting a party to a business operation wherein fiscal and technical responsibilities are shared between persons legally combined as partners. • Associate is a person that is promoted “from the ranks” and is given added authority in the firm’s operations, with or without a capital investment.

10. THE DESIGN TEAM (CONT.) • Sole Proprietors are single registered professionals who own and operate a business or professional practice, with no partners or others having a financial interest in the business. • The term Designer can be applied as a short title for the design professional who develops the basic overall project design concept. • Contractibility Manager is an individual, or team leader, with strong construction background who can act in a formal program as a “third-party assessor”in a project; usually on the staff of the design or design/build firm.

11. THE DESIGN TEAM (CONT.) • Drafter/CAD Operator/Designer are terms currently used as names in lieu of the traditional “draftsman”. • Cooperative (Co-op) students are staffers who are usually college students enrolled in an academic program. • The Specifications Writer is usually a senior person or at least a highly experienced person in a firm, who is fully dedicated to production of project manuals and specifications.

12. THE DESIGN TEAM (CONT.) • Project Representative / Contract Administrator: These titles denote the professional firm’s on-site (field) representative. • The Project Architect (Engineer) or Job Captain is the individual member of the design professional’s staff who is in charge of and responsible for the technical development of the project, including contract documents and construction. • (Land) Surveyor is a person trained, qualified, and registered in the art of surveying and establishing land boundaries, and establishing grade (height) elevations, variations, and profiles.

13. THE DESIGN TEAM (CONT.) • Consultant (various disciplines): persons or firms who specialize in a narrow aspect of a project are called consultants. • Structural • Safety • Environmental • Geotechnical • HVAC • Value Engineering

14. THE CONTRACTING TEAM • Contractors are the persons or organizations that actually perform the construction work on the project. The term in its most common form is used to mean the traditional “General Contractor” who oversees the entire project, may perform portions of it, and hires or supervises the work of specialty subcontractors. • A more current term, Constructor, means much the same as Contractor. It refers to and emphasizes “constructing” and not so much to “contracting”. The term is quite valid, but carries no meaningful change in responsibility, expertise, or legal status.

15. THE CONTRACTING TEAM (CONT.) • The contractor’s or subcontractor’s Project Manager is an office staffer who coordinates all aspects of the work assigned or under contract. • The contractor’s primary on-site person, the Superintendent, has overall responsibility for the construction of the project. • The Foreperson is an individual who is in direct charge of a work crew or of a subcontractor’s entire workforce on the site.

16. THE CONTRACTING TEAM (CONT.) • Value Engineer is a person who seeks to identify unnecessary costs in both design and construction, and proposes alternative schemes or technology, without sacrificing project quality. • The Estimator is an individual whose task is to gather and maintain actual costs of work items, materials, and subcontractor bids and prices. • In some cases contractors have separate staffer, Expediters, who are specifically assigned to “make things happen” (e.g. scheduling crew and material deliveries, and coordinating operations with deliveries and crew availability).

17. THE CONTRACTING TEAM (CONT.) • Construction Managers are individuals or firms placed under separate contract with the owner to evaluate design approaches and contractibility and to provide value engineering and management in a project. • Subcontractors are the individuals or organizations with expertise in one of the specific and narrow ranges of work required on the project (e.g. supplying and installing ceramic tile).

18. THE CONTRACTING TEAM (CONT.) • Worker is the general, all-inclusive term to describe those who have particular skills, education, training, and knowledge about specific types of construction work. • Tradesperson: Workers trained and skilled in a narrow-scope trade, usually involving a single or fairly limited range of materials or systems. • Journeyman indicates a worker who has served a term of prescribed apprenticeship and has acquired requisite training, knowledge, skill, and a level of experience in the trade.

19. THE CONTRACTING TEAM (CONT.) • Apprentice is the name and program which has been carried over from the historical system of a young person learning a trade in the shop, or working with a “guild” craftsman who was highly skilled and experienced in the work. • Technician is: • a mechanic or person doing repair or other work o f adjusting, testing, or calibrating of an item or equipment. • a person who operates in technical support role to a design professional.

20. THE CONTRACTING TEAM (CONT.) • Installer is a trained worker whose principal function is to locate, assemble as necessary, anchor, and adjust materials, equipment, or apparatus for full and proper functioning. • Job clerk is a person who tracks documents, monitor costs on-site, and generally engage with the documentation involved in the progress of the work. • Site Secretary: A secretary for on-site administration. (heavily engaged in clerical pursuits)

21. THE CONTRACTING TEAM (CONT.) • Clerk-of-the-Works is the predecessor to the construction manager. Hired as a full-time on-site representative of the owner, the clerk ensures compliance with contract documents through daily exposure to and inspection of construction work and process. • Supplier is a company that provides various building and construction materials, systems, devices, equipment, and so forth for use on the project work. • The Manufacturer’s Representative is basically a “contract salesperson” hired by a manufacturer to service a specific geographical territory.

22. REGULATORY AGENTS • (Chief) Building Official: An employee of the local governmental jurisdiction, the primary person for enforcement of a building code within that jurisdiction. • Plans Examiner: This official reviews contract documents submitted for a project building permit. • Building (Field) Inspectors: One or more persons who work in the same office as and for the chief building official.

23. REGULATORY AGENTS (CONT.) • Inspectors (governmental agency/disciplines/trades): Persons who perform various on-site inspections to ascertain compliance with agency regulations and who monitor in-progress work where complying elements will be hidden from sight in the final work. • Cost (Controller) Clerk/Project Controller : Persons monitoring the actual costs of the project functions both on-site and in the office, comparing them with the budgets and anticipated expenditures, payrolls, effort hours, and other trends. (primarily a function of the contractor)