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Late in 1997, a small group of contractors and design professionals met at the Rideau Club in Ottawa to discuss the creation of a national voice for the design-build industry in Canada.
"We spent most of the day putting our heads together as to how best we could approach this -- how we could structure an organization that spoke for the industry, that helped deliver a message on what were good practices and standards but also wouldn't be another cost burden for practitioners," recalls David Morgan, a principal in Dunlop Farrow Architects Inc.
That meeting culminated in the establishment several months later of the Canadian Design-Build Institute (CDBI), which operates as a special committee of the Canadian Construction Association. Its mission is to promote and enhance the proper utilization of the design-build method of contracting.
The institute now has about 150 members, drawn from a broad cross-section of individuals, firms and organizations with an interest in the process -- from architects, consultants, contractors and subcontractors to insurance companies and project owners.
"It's a forum where everyone can sit down and talk about this method of project delivery," says contractor Barrie Fordham, senior vice-president of Buttcon Ltd. and the new co-chairman of the institute.
"That's important. I don't think we have ever had that before in the construction industry."
The CDBI held its annual general meeting in Toronto in late March on the...