Design-Build Delivery for Data Centers

Design-build puts one contract, and one responsible party, behind both the drawings and the construction. For a data center that simplicity has real value. The building is mostly equipment, the equipment is chosen early, and the structure around it has to bend to its dimensions, weights and clearances. When the designer and builder sit at the same table from the first sketch, the shell gets shaped around the gear instead of the gear being squeezed into the shell.

We deliver data centers under design-build agreements with architects and engineers the owner approves, or the ones we bring forward. The owner states the performance requirements: capacity, tier or redundancy level, cooling approach, expansion path and target date. The design team develops the drawings against those requirements and a price the owner can track. We do not pretend the model fits every project. A hyperscale operator with a standard prototype may prefer a different structure, and an enterprise owner with an in-house engineering group may want to hold the design. We explain the tradeoff before anyone signs.

What matters is accountability. If the cooling design and the slab design collide, there is one party to ask, and it is the party who has to fix it.

Design-build starts with a program and a budget, so the first phase is alignment. We set the owner's criteria down in plain terms: what must be true when the building is accepted, and what the budget will not stretch to cover. The design team then moves through concept, schematic and detailed design, with price checks at each stage. If a design choice causes the number to drift above the target, we say so while the choice can still be changed.

Procurement is part of the same conversation. Equipment selection drives the architecture, so we bring the electrical and mechanical vendors in during design, ask for their dimensions and weights, and plan the slab and the structure around the actual products. The earlier an order is placed, the more reliable the delivery date, a subject we cover in more detail under long-lead equipment procurement.

Value engineering is built into the rhythm, not saved for the end. When a price check shows a system running over, the team looks at alternatives together: a different slab thickness, a simpler roof framing layout, a mechanical yard that shortens a pipe run. Each option comes with its cost, its schedule effect and its effect on the owner's operations, so the owner chooses with the facts in front of them and the design keeps moving.

The main schedule benefit is overlap. Site work can begin while the building design is still under way, the foundation package can be released ahead of the interior package, and the long-lead equipment can be ordered before drawings are complete. The tradeoff is risk: early packages may need changes when later design decisions arrive. We manage that by identifying which parts of the design are firm enough to build and which are not, and by keeping a log of released work and open items.

Owners often ask how much time design-build really saves. The honest answer depends on how quickly decisions are made. A fast-moving owner with a clear program can gain months, and a committee-driven process may gain little. Our preconstruction work establishes the decision calendar at the start, so approvals do not become the critical path.

The design team owns code compliance, and the permit set is part of the design-build scope. Oklahoma's Uniform Building Code Commission exists to set minimum statewide codes, and it has adopted newer editions of the International Building Code and related codes. Cities then adopt their own editions with amendments. Norman's council approved the I-Codes and the National Electrical Code by ordinance, for example, and Oklahoma City lists editions as well. The design therefore has to fit whichever edition the local department enforces on the day of permit application.

Because the design-build team is also responsible for the permit schedule, we engage the local official during schematic design and again before the permit submission. Norman and other university towns have active development services groups, while a rural county may run a lighter local process that still has to be confirmed with the office before design is frozen.

Design-build suits owners who value speed and a single point of responsibility, and who can define requirements clearly. It is less comfortable when the program is still shifting, or when the owner needs the full competitive pricing of a design-bid-build process. Public owners face bidding rules that can limit or shape its use, and Oklahoma's Public Competitive Bidding Act, which governs many public contracts, should be reviewed with counsel before choosing a delivery method.

Multi-phase campuses are a natural fit. A developer that plans several buildings over time, as with a Tulsa County campus announced with up to four facilities and phase one due in summer 2027, can reuse the same design team and standards across buildings and improve each one. That is the logic behind our phased expansion work.

Colocation and enterprise facilities respond well to design-build, since the operator knows the product it wants to sell or run. The model fits a colocation data center where tenant demand drives speed, and it works for operators in the AI and GPU cloud segment, who often need dense cooling designs finished fast. For a retrofit, the existing building sets limits that a design-build team can study together before pricing, a theme in existing data center retrofit and expansion.

Share your program, capacity target and date. We will outline how a design-build contract would be structured and what it would take to start.

Who holds the design risk in design-build?

The design-builder does, within the owner's stated requirements. That is the main appeal. If the owner changes the requirements, cost and schedule change as well, so we document the program and track revisions.

Can we use our own engineer?

Yes. Many owners nominate their engineer, and we contract with that firm or work alongside it. The structure of the agreement depends on who the owner wants to hold the design responsibility.

Is design-build allowed on public projects in Oklahoma?

That depends on the statute and the agency. Public work is governed by bidding rules, so owners should get legal advice on delivery methods before issuing a solicitation.

When do we get a guaranteed price?

Usually once the design reaches a level of detail both sides agree is firm enough to price, often at the end of schematic design or partway through detailed design. Until then we provide estimates with stated assumptions.

What if the owner wants to change the program midstream?

Changes are possible and sometimes necessary. We price them promptly, show the schedule effect and let the owner decide, with the earlier design work credited where it can be reused.