A Three-Inch Beam, Fourteen Reception Desks, and a $28,000 Change Order

Verify before you concede or defend

• Measure the beam yourself or send a field observer. Confirm the elevation of the beam, the deck, and the finished floor at the desk locations.
• Compare against both the structural drawings and the interior elevations. If the beam matches structure and the interior elevation was drawn without checking it, the conflict is internal to the design documents - that is the likely finding, but confirm it.
• Pull the RFI log. If the contractor identified the beam height earlier and proceeded anyway, the picture changes.

Control the work

• Issue a field observation report documenting the condition, then a written design revision with a sketch - not a verbal direction, and not an email telling the fabricator to 'work it out.'
• Cost at least three options: lower the transaction top and hold the reveal; add a fascia or soffit to restore the 6-inch reveal; furr down the ceiling over the desk run. Pick the one that preserves design intent at the lowest cost.
• Release the desks that are not affected. Do not freeze fourteen units for a condition that may affect one or two.
• Confirm in writing that no change order work proceeds without the owner's written direction.

Internal

Notify your professional liability carrier if a claim is asserted or a demand is made. Do not admit liability in project correspondence while the facts are still being established.

Assessment framework

• Designer. Coordination of the interior drawings with the structural drawings is within the designer's scope. A 3-inch conflict between an interior elevation and structure, where structure is correct, points to the designer.
• Contractor. The contractor built to the structural drawings, which is correct. Shop drawing review by the designer does not transfer design responsibility, and equally, the contractor's review does not cure a design error. But the contractor has a duty to report discrepancies it discovers and not to proceed with known conflicts - check whether that duty was triggered and when.
• Fabricator. Contractual relationship is with the GC, not with you. Do not negotiate directly with the fabricator.

Who directs

The owner directs the change order, through the GC, under the construction contract. The designer's role is to advise and document - to give the owner a written recommendation with the facts, the options, and the costs. A designer who tells the GC to proceed and 'we'll sort out the money' has created a problem for everyone.

Scale

$28,000 against a $60,000 contingency and a $180,000 fee. The contingency exists for exactly this. The question for the owner is not whether the designer's fee can absorb it, but what the documents say and what the facts establish. Allocation is the owner's decision and may be resolved by agreement or, failing that, by the dispute provisions of the agreements. Recommend the owner's counsel review the allocation before any setoff is asserted.

Within a week, a written analysis

1. Facts and sequence, with dates and the documents relied on.
2. The options with costs, schedule, and a design-intent assessment of each.
3. A recommendation, stated plainly.
4. An acknowledgment of the coordination lapse and a specific proposal - for example, the designer absorbs the cost of the redesign effort (the sketch and coordination time) while the fabrication delta comes from the owner's contingency.

Tone and framing

• Lead with the fix, not the fault. The owner's immediate need is a decision on the desks before the four-week lead time burns the schedule.
• Do not argue from fee size. 'The fee is only $180,000' is not a defense; it invites the response that the fee is irrelevant to the obligation.
• Do not accept responsibility on the phone and then document a different position. Consistency between conversations and correspondence is what protects a professional relationship through a claim.

Prevention to offer, unprompted

• Coordinate every soffit, beam, and ceiling-height condition against structure at design development, not at shop drawings.
• Hold a millwork coordination review with the fabricator's field dimensions before fabrication release on any custom casework package.
• Keep a single coordination log of ceiling-height exceptions by room.

Offering the systemic fix is what converts an error into a service the owner can see value in. The exam is testing whether you can separate the technical fix, the contractual allocation, and the relationship - and handle all three at once.