Source: https://www.lexology.com/, August 3, 2023
By: David A. Pogorilich and Eric Brodfuehrer, Ankura Consulting Group, LLC

The inclusion of “Delegated Design” scopes of work into the construction documents of a construction project blurs the roles of the design professional of record (DPR) and the constructor. The role of the DPR is to design and detail the project to define the expected configuration and quality of the completed project. The role of the constructor is to construct the project and be able to rely on the accuracy of the design developed by the DPR. Delegated design is the act of the DPR relinquishing design responsibility to the constructor for one or more specialty scopes of the work for the construction of a project. The conundrum that is created is the inability to allocate the design responsibility of the delegated design scope of work and the performance of the design. Case studies of projects where the delegated design scopes of work were found to be defective in their design have determined that the DPR is not responsible for that scope of work despite their primary role as the designer. Read more.