De Chiara of Zetlin & De Chaiara featured in Construction Today

Michael De Chiara, Zetlin & De Chiara LLP

New York, NY Michael  De Chiara, founding partner of Zetlin & De Chiara LLP, was featured in the March/April 2016 edition of Construction Today with an analysis of the fallacy of Intergrated Project Delivery (IPD). The article focused on the idea that while IPD sounds desirable in theory, in practice it struggles to keep up with the expectations of the parties. 

Below is an excerpt from the article:

“Integrated project delivery (IPD) is a concept that, in practice, can’t work in accordance with the initial expectations of the parties. And if you don’t believe me, you either are naïve or have not been involved in an IPD, or are an owner who has used an IPD to take advantage of contractors and design professionals.”

As discussed in this article, IPD means a three-party agreement among the owner, the design team and the construction team. In this construct, the owner agrees that the total cumulative liability for damages in connection with the design and construction of the project of the design team and the construction team will be limited to the collective profits of the design team and the construction team (the “project team”). In return, the owner is supposed to have a project team that is totally in sync, working cooperatively and collectively to lower costs and speed up the project schedule – and thereby deliver a superior product at a lower cost to the owner. The IPD construct includes a pool of shared savings, which could increase if the project comes in under budget and ahead of schedule.