US: Partnership for Washington Wine Science Center

An innovative development process promises to ensure Washington state’s wine industry receives the best possible value for its investment in the $23 million wine science center planned for the Washington State University Tri-Cities campus in Richland. Overseen by the Wine Science Center Development Authority—a partnership between Richland, WSU, industry and other stakeholders—the new center is following in the steps of the Robert Mondavi Institute at the University of California, Davis, by pursuing a design-build approach. Design-build projects proceed under a single architect between the project owner—in this case, the Wine Science Center Development Authority—and a consortium that includes the architect and general contractor. The contract specifies a single price for the project and streamlines the process by bringing the owner, the architect and the construction team together from the get-go. “There’s better vetting of the design with the owner, and so there’s better buy-in, sooner, faster, and better decisions can be made,” said Rusty Pritchard, a senior project manager with Hill International Inc., the firm handling project management for the authority. “The typical design-bid-build (process) is a little disjointed; here it’s more collaborative, and everybody’s working to find design solutions.”

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