Ruby+Associates, Inc., Structural Engineers

Headquarters: Farmington Hills, Mich. Number of offices: 2 Total number of employees: 37 Year firm was established: 1984 Total billings for last fiscal year: $6.8 million Website: www.rubyusa.com

The American Institute of Steel Construction published the Constructability Design Guide (authored by Dave Ruby, founder of Ruby+Associates) in February 2009, a work that has been in progress for the last two years. The timing is ironic, with construction activity reaching the lowest levels most of us have seen in decades. But maybe the timing is perfect. When construction begins again, and it will, how will we as (civil) design engineers be called upon to do things differently? How will owner expectations change? How will project financing change and impact the role of the design and construction team?

The need and demand for constructability in design will continue to grow. Designers will be under increased pressure to find better solutions, with less money, and collaborate more heartily with all members of the design and construction team. We will be expected to understand holistic project issues thoroughly and to ask good questions that can positively impact the overall project direction. We will need to understand how our design impacts other design disciplines and the entire project because that enables us to make better decisions. The focus will be on the bottom line—all members of the design and construction team will be expected to find ways to complete construction faster and more efficiently. That is what constructability is all about.

Civil engineering emerged from military engineering, where the civil engineer served as developer, designer, and builder. In the last few decades, contractual walls and pricing constraints have isolated the civil engineer/master builder from much of the concept development and construction process. This isolation hinders innovation and coordination in the design process, and inhibits efficient construction. Constructability addresses these gaps and fosters collaboration among all engineering disciplines, the construction team, and the owner.

While owners will continue to make do with less, they will be more risk averse. The design team will be expected to stretch available construction dollars and shorten the project schedule to reduce the bottom line without overlooking unknowns or variables. Owners will need their design teams to work hand-in-hand with the construction trades to find unique solutions that meet project goals as economically as possible while incorporating site-specific circumstances and local conditions. Owners will be focused more on total project costs—including life cycle costs—as design and construction decisions are made. Designers will have to consider the entire construction process and facility operational considerations. Designs developed for past projects will not meet these needs.

Consequently, every project will be viewed as a custom design with opportunities to maximize unique project circumstances. Engineers will be re-empowered to embrace the basic premise of our profession: to develop new, economical ways of providing facilities. Our clients will expect their design teams to find better ways of completing projects; we will be viewed as the stewards of others’ finite investment dollars. As designers, our definition of the completed project will move beyond our design drawings or calculations; the completed project will be defined as an efficiently functioning facility—the product of the constructability design philosophy.

Constructability expands the role of design, pushing back against the forces that have in many cases commoditized design services, and enabling the designer to add value to all stages of the project: conceptual design through construction. While the civil engineering profession will continue to utilize an array of computer models, our clients will rely on us to confirm the constructability of the solution generated by the computer, interpreting the results in the context of the unique project conditions and verifying design decisions in the context of other disciplines and trades. Owners will expect design teams to integrate construction considerations to deliver a facility that can be built easily.

The design profession will be changed by these times. Our firms will become leaner. And given the downsizing of the American workforce currently underway, we will be working with the best and brightest in our fields. We have all tasted a slice of "humble pie" during the last few months as our workloads have decreased, but the resulting refined workforce will be extremely motivated and be capable of amazing innovation. And we will be held to a higher level of innovation by our clients. We will be stretched to move beyond standard solutions, or solutions suggested by computer calculations, to develop unique applications for the site, the owner, and the local contractors and conditions.

Constructability is the application of in-depth construction knowledge and real-world experience to achieve the most efficient, effective, and extraordinary results. By focusing on constructability, our clients can count on us to make their projects not only possible, but smarter. Whether we’re involved from the beginning design stages or called in at the construction stage to address obstacles, we must continually look for the best answers to obvious questions ("How are we going to solve this problem?") and to not-so-obvious ones ("How can we use the final design solution to simplify construction or minimize the cost of construction?"). Every project is an opportunity to engineer or design something new, whether that means a better way to do the same thing or a new way to do something never dreamed of before.


Jay Ruby, P.E., is president and CEO of Ruby+Associates, Inc., Structural Engineers, Farmington Hills, Mich. He can be contacted at jruby@rubyusa.com.