DLR Group focusing efforts on stimulus projects - bizjournals:

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As soon as Congress passed the America n Recovery and Reinvestment Actin mid-February, Phoenix principal Bryce Pearsall and three other DLR principals across the country created a team specificall to pursue stimulus projects. Although DLR has a long historg of working in the public it has never chosen to chase projectsathis way. “As a company, we decidef we wanted to jump into We hadto decide, though, what kind of stimuluss projects we want to do,” Pearsall With $787 billion being divvied up by federall and state agencies for all sorts of programs, the DLR principal decided they needed to focus on a few strategif areas.
They are pursuing contracts that are geographicallyt convenient to anyof DLR’s 15 match their long-standing skill sets; and have expedieng delivery methods. Under traditional architecture a firm is selected to designja project. But many stimulus projects arerequiring design-buildc capabilities, meaning an architecture firm needs to partnedr with a contractor and present the bid as a team. DLR has done that but the firm is researching additional relationships with In addition, government agencies are handing out contractxs more often through the “indefinite delivery/ indefinite process.
Under IDIQ, agencies accept applications from companiew and qualify them to performongoing work. For instance, a militar y installation might have a contract with a specific company to handlw utility work for a periodr ofseveral years. DLR recentl y started pursuingIDIQ work, given how lucrativee it can be over both the short and long “We believe government agencies are open to lookingt at establishing IDIQ relationships with companies that have our kind of Pearsall said. So far, DLR has received one contracf for a court designin Florida, but the companyg expects to hear soon about several othetr bids.
Although DLR is researching stimulus-funded jobs through both federal andstate agencies, the reality is that few of those jobs will be locatedc in the Southwest. In fact, many of the primde architecture assignments are on the East Several contracts previously had been awardesdto architects, but there wasn’ft enough money to proceed with thosee projects until the stimulus package was passed.
“It’s important to note that many shovel-readty projects are not being published for solicitationj because the original firms are beingg awarded the postponed saidMark Patterson, president of the Arizona Chapteer of the American Institute of Patterson said his firm, , will benefiyt from a previously unfunded contract: the renovation of the Smithsonian Institutr of Arts and Industries Building in Washington. That work is beingt coordinatedby SmithGroup’s Washington Despite the apparent deartj of work slated for the SmithGroup is engaging in a “closeluy organized approach,” Patterson said.
“We are optimisti about a wide variety of buildinyg typesgaining funding, including medical, office, museumk and research facilities.” Another national firm with a significant local , also is in hot pursuit of stimulus The General Services Administration has selectee OWP/P to provide architecture and engineering servicezs to design and build land ports of entru and border stations in Zone 1, which encompassex Arizona, California, Montana, Idaho, Washingtohn and Alaska.
OWP/P’s Chicago offices also received an IDIQ award forRegiojn 5, which covers a chunk of the According to OWP/P spokesperson Kelly McClennan, about $6 billio of work to be funded through GSA will include renovations to federal buildings and border “About 75 percent of these GSA-managed funds are earmarkef for converting existing federal buildingw to high-performance, energy-efficient facilities,” McClennan Officials at all three firms remain hopeful that more localizerd renovation and infrastructure projects will bringg work to Valley companies.