CONTENT EXPIRES: December 31, 2027 The Practitioners’ Forum is your opportunity to engage directly with peers and DBIA leadership on issues critical to the continued success and evolution of design-build. This interactive session invites candid input from across the industry on challenges, opportunities, and strategies to strengthen design-build delivery. A key topic this year is the growing role of Owner Advisors. As more Owners embrace design-build—many for the first time— Owner Advisors well-versed in design-build best practices are helping bridge gaps in knowledge and capacity, guiding collaborative teams toward successful outcomes. With DBIA exploring a potential specialty credential for these professionals, your insights can help shape how we recognize and support Owner Advisors in driving Owners to embrace Design-Build Done Right®, while also driving whole-team success.

CONTENT EXPIRES: December 31, 2027 The past several years has seen a record number of bills across the country expanding design-build authority in numerous markets, and 2025 continues that momentum. Get an update from DBIA National Advocacy on the 2025 State Legislative Sessions, and the bills and their impacts on design-build authority. The session will also highlight how the Legislative Guide and Model Legislation Documents released last year are being utilized. Panelists from various regions and market sectors will discuss key legislative trends developing recently with several progressive bills including Tennessee, Texas and Washington, sunset and pilot program provisions and their impact in Illinois and Missouri, bonding funding for mega projects in Washington and Minnesota, sector/market wins in various States, playing defense in Texas, and how success in design-build legislation across the country provides avenues for others.

CONTENT EXPIRES: December 31, 2027 During construction of the new World Trade Center (WTC) in 2012, Hurricane Sandy inundated the worksite with 200M gallons of brackish water. The water was rapidly removed but the salt remained embedded, causing damage across the iconic structure’s first decade of service life. The saltwater caused corrosion and service life reduction along the lowest levels of WTC approximately 70 feet below grade. Beginning in 2021, the Port Authority of New York New Jersey (PANYNJ) embarked on a multi-year project aimed at remediating the damage and restoring structural capacity for WTC’s intended 100-year service life. Based upon the varied extent-of-damage conditions which drove the need for extensive investigation as a first step, PANYNJ’s desire for cost certainty and need to manage schedule constraints in a complex working environment, design-build delivery was selected. Learn detailed information on the project scope and implementation focusing on the benefits gained using DBIA’s updated Universal Best Practices. Explore the many lessons learned by PANYNJ and the Structural-Dewberry Design-Build Team, and how they can be applied to future projects to drive success through Design-Build-Done-Right®.

CONTENT EXPIRES: December 31, 2027 This session explores how early engagement, cost certainty, and collaborative problem-solving can dramatically improve outcomes in complex construction projects. Using the University of Arizona’s Grand Challenges Research Building as a case study, the session illustrates how progressive design-build fosters innovation, efficiency, and adaptability in high-performance environments. Attendees will learn how early and continuous stakeholder engagement shaped a flexible, interdisciplinary research facility that integrates seamlessly with existing campus infrastructure. The session will dive into the use of Target Value Design, showing how the team maintained budget certainty over four years by aligning scope with budget through iterative modeling and real-time collaboration with trade partners. The presentation will also highlight key innovations—including a prefabricated modular skin system, energy-efficient chilled beam cooling, all-electric infrastructure, and flexible lab modules—that enabled the facility to meet today’s needs while remaining adaptable for future advancements. Attendees will gain practical insights into applying these tools and strategies within their own projects. Whether you’re an owner, architect, or builder, this session provides a clear, actionable roadmap for implementing progressive design-build to deliver high-value, future-ready facilities through early collaboration, innovation, and disciplined cost management.

CONTENT EXPIRES: December 31, 2027 The use of the Design-Build delivery method requires and engaged and collaborative Owner. For Owners (or specific staff members) this delivery method can be new and require making certain "mental shifts." Setting new expectations is best done by thoughtful training and early engagement. An Owner's Team will typically include a wide variety of individuals with differing life experiences. A "one-size fits all" training program will not accomplish the goals of bring staff to the point of understanding the value of Design-Build or assure best practices are followed. A highly customized and Owner specific training program was implemented to provide the necessary knowledge at the time when the information would be needed. A series of training modules were created to bring the Owner along as a large group of CIP projects were delivered. Open dialogue, early lessons learned and specific training based on DBIA's best-practices was used to align the Project Team members with a framework that has resulted in success and meeting stakeholder expectations.

CONTENT EXPIRES: December 31, 2027 Since its inception over thirty years ago, Design-Build has been promoted as a revolutionary delivery methodology that improves Project success through collaboration. Over that time, an evolved approach to the effective use of Design-Build has developed. This session will examine how owners and contractors can better position themselves for design-build success through careful planning and a realistic assessment of the project and its stakeholders. Often taken for granted, true collaboration is rarely achieved on American design- build projects, particularly when one of the parties lacks the necessary understanding and experience with the design-build model. This session will focus on how all parties, both contractually and through proper implementation of best practices derived, can facilitate more real and meaningful collaboration leading to greater success and fewer disputes.

CONTENT EXPIRES: December 31, 2027 What do a multi-billion-dollar nuclear reactor, coastal resiliency project, and transit expansion have in common? Progressive Design-Build (PDB). As projects grow in size and complexity, PDB is emerging as a transformative delivery method—one that fosters collaboration, drives innovation, and applies equitable risk mitigation strategies on a scale unmatched by other methods. Moderated by the lead researcher from ACEC Research Foundation’s groundbreaking study on alternative delivery performance, this panel features Owners behind some of the nation’s largest PDB efforts. Together, they’ll explore how PDB is reshaping project culture and enabling success on projects where the stakes couldn’t be higher.

CONTENT EXPIRES: December 31, 2027 The Clackamas County Courthouse is one of the first courthouses in the U.S. delivered through a Public-Private Partnership (P3) model and offers a case study in managing risk, fostering collaboration as well as long-term sustainability. The session will focus on how the different types of P3 contracts relate to this project’s competitively procured Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Maintain contract. Perspectives from the owner will provide insight into the County’s decision to adopt the P3 model, and explain the assessment and stakeholder engagement process. The panel will also discuss how collaboration and communication around the onboarding process were essential to project success within this unique delivery model.

CONTENT EXPIRES: December 31, 2027 Dallas Fort Worth International (DFW) Airport is the third-largest airport in the world by land area and ranks third globally in passenger traffic and operations, serving nearly 88 million travelers annually across 265 destinations. The International Parkway (IP), DFW’s primary landside transportation corridor, is undergoing a critical transformation through the International Parkway Modernization Design-Build (DB) Project. This initiative replaces three aging left-hand exit flyover bridges serving Terminals A, B, and C with more intuitive and efficient right-hand exits to improve traffic flow and user experience. Maintaining uninterrupted access for passengers and operations throughout construction has required a meticulously planned approach, initiated during procurement and sustained through the project’s engineering phases. The successful management to minimize/mitigate impacts has been made possible through the close collaboration and integration of the Project Team—Owner, Owner’s Consultant, and Design-Builder with its Designer. This presentation will highlight how the team is applying Design-Build best practices, including early stakeholder engagement, the use of technology for innovative collaboration processes, and integral risk management. Together, these and other strategies presented are driving a coordinated and effective delivery of this vital infrastructure improvement.

CONTENT EXPIRES: December 31, 2027 The EPVA Health Care Center represents one of the largest and most complex Design-Build projects ever undertaken by USACE and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Delivered through a highly collaborative DB approach, the $600M+ medical campus has set a new benchmark for speed, innovation, and integrated delivery and has successfully aligning designers, builders, and the VA to meet mission-critical needs for our nation's Veterans. This project is a showcase of Design-Build Done Right, demonstrating how the right people, relationships, tools, and governance can deliver a facility of extraordinary scope and quality.