Press Releases

In February, the city released its annual Design-Build Progress Report to the State Legislature, detailing 42 projects across several agencies using design-build. On those projects, the city is saving 50 years of project time and $1.4 billion using design-build instead of lowest bidder contracting.

The report shows that 13 DDC public buildings and infrastructure projects that are now using design-build are on track to be completed an average of 1.5 years faster and with anticipated 10 percent cost savings, eliminating more than 20 years of total construction time and saving taxpayers more than $85 million. An additional 24 years of construction and $1.35 billion is being saved in the Borough-Based Jails program for site preparation and design and construction of the four new, more humane facilities closer to courthouses and the family members of detainees.

“The proof is in the building: Design Build works—not just to deliver projects years early and millions under-budget, but beautiful, functional buildings that will be a pleasure to inhabit year after year,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi. “Thanks to advocacy in Albany, we are now expanding this model to rehabs of cultural and civic institutions and environmental infrastructure investments to meet the moment. Thank you Commissioners Foley and Donoghue and your teams at DDC and Parks for this excellent collaboration and symbol of what can and must be.”

“Design-Build is proving to be much faster and more efficient than anything we’ve seen before at delivering the projects New Yorkers need,” said DDC Commissioner Thomas Foley, who in January was named Chair of the National Board of Directors of the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA). “We are going to keep expanding our use of design-build to more projects and we’re going to keep the pressure on in Albany to expand alternate project delivery to more methods that can save taxpayers additional time and money.”

"This new and dedicated maintenance building will enhance Parks operations support for Orchard Beach, increasing efficiency for our staff and ultimately creating a better experience for visitors,” said NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue. “We're proud that the building was constructed with a green roof and solar panels to maximize environmental sustainability, and also received a 2024 New York City Public Design Commission award for design excellence. We're grateful for DDC's partnership in completing this project at least 30 months ahead of schedule and at a cost nearly $3.59 million lower thanks to design-build contracting, ensuring that the city is delivering for New Yorkers more effectively than ever before."

The $35.9 million Orchard Beach Maintenance & Operations Building is a new, two-story, 11,538-square-foot structure on a 33,000-square-foot raised lot near Orchard Beach and the Promenade in the southeast Bronx. It features office and storage space for Parks operations, a large yard with parking, a fueling station and electric vehicle chargers, and is accessed by a new service road and is surrounded by a restored woodland habitat. The building’s many features will make it easier for Parks staff to service the beach and visitors.

The building utilizes a green roof and includes solar panels as well as materials with reduced amounts of volatile organic compounds, and is expected to meet LEED Gold standards for environmental sustainability. The project received a 2024 Public Design Commission Award.

The design-build team began its work in March 2022 and the completed building is scheduled to be turned over to NYC Parks in April 2025. The design and construction of similar buildings using the lowest bidder system typically takes up to six years to complete under ideal circumstances.

With 46 additional design-build projects in planning and procurement across several agencies, the City continues to expand the use of design-build even as it advocates for additional construction reforms that integrate construction expertise in the design process, provide cost control, and reduced timelines and mitigate risk. Last November, Governor Hochul signed state legislation – sponsored by New York Senator Leroy Comrie and New York Assemblymember Ed Braunstein – that expands the city’s ability to use progressive design-build and construction manager-build (CM-Build), two additional contracting models which cut time-consuming and expensive steps out of the outdated lowest bidder model, resulting in faster, more efficient project delivery.

DDC successfully used CM-Build during the COVID-19 pandemic to build field hospitals, clinics and testing and vaccination centers in record time, including a 470-bed field hospital in Queens in just 11 days. The average DDC construction timeline using CM-Build for 28 COVID testing sites was seven days.

These additional project delivery tools were preliminarily authorized by the State for use by DDC only, and only for certain buildings projects and for resiliency infrastructure, in an ‘expanded alternative delivery’ bill that passed as a single piece of legislation that was signed into law in November 2024. This year, the Governor included in her Executive Budget proposal an expansion that would give additional City entities (NYCHA, H+H, DCAS, DEP, DOT, and Parks) the ability to use those same tools, paving the way for even more construction reforms in the future.