Section 1 - Project and Construction Management
Section 1 - Project and Construction Management
Section 1 tests how a landscape architect administers a project from contract execution through final acceptance: delivery method, procurement, cost and schedule control, and construction-phase documentation.
Delivery and procurement
- Design–bid–build: the owner holds separate contracts with the designer and the contractor. The designer issues 100% construction documents and addenda, answers bidder questions, and evaluates bids for responsiveness and responsibility - not price alone.
- Design–build and CM at risk compress schedule but shift design liability; the landscape architect may become a subconsultant to the builder.
- Addenda are the only legal way to change bid documents, and each bidder must acknowledge them on the bid form.
Construction-phase roles
- The landscape architect observes for conformance with the documents. Observation is not supervision: the contractor owns means, methods, sequencing, and site safety.
- Submittals, shop drawings, samples, and mockups are reviewed for design intent only. RFIs are answered in writing; time or cost impacts route through the change-order process.
- Pay applications are certified from observed percentages complete. Retainage is held per contract until substantial completion, which triggers warranties and the punch list.
Worked example
A contractor requests a change order for 1,200 SF of additional paving at the contract unit price of $9.50/SF plus 15% overhead and profit, and the owner deletes 400 SF of the same paving. Net cost = (1,200 × $9.50 × 1.15) − (400 × $9.50) = $13,110 − $3,800 = $9,310. The credit is taken at the contract unit price with no markup, because the contractor never performed that work.
Traps
- Reading "lowest responsible bidder" as "lowest bid."
- Accepting verbal direction from the owner as an authorized change.
- Confusing the owner's construction contingency with the designer's fee.
- Certifying a pay application without field verification.