Client Coordination

Client coordination manages the critical relationship between design team and building owner, ensuring design solutions meet owner requirements, obtain necessary approvals, and incorporate end-user input. This coordination balances technical design requirements against owner budget constraints, operational priorities, and stakeholder expectations.

Owner Progress Meetings

Regular owner progress meetings maintain communication throughout design phases, typically occurring monthly or at design milestones. These meetings update owners on design progress, present technical decisions requiring owner input, discuss budget implications, review schedule status, and address owner concerns or new requirements emerging during design.

Meeting formats vary by owner sophistication and project complexity. Experienced facility owners may prefer technical discussions with detailed system explanations. Less technically-oriented owners need higher-level summaries focusing on functionality, costs, and impacts on building operations. Effective engineers adapt presentation approaches to audience technical background.

Design Milestone Presentations

Major milestone presentations occur at completion of Schematic Design (30%), Design Development (60-65%), and Construction Documents (90-100%). These formal presentations summarize design decisions, present layout drawings and equipment selections, review budget estimates, confirm compliance with program requirements, and obtain owner approvals to proceed to next phase.

Presentation materials include floor plan drawings showing equipment and distribution layouts, equipment schedules with capacities and features, system diagrams illustrating configuration concepts, energy analysis results, and cost estimates. Visual presentations help non-technical owners understand system operations and spatial requirements. Physical or virtual walkthroughs of modeled systems enhance understanding of complex installations.

Design Review Submissions

Formal design review submissions package drawings, specifications, calculations, and supporting documentation for owner review at each milestone. Submission requirements are established in owner-designer contracts specifying deliverable formats, quantities, submission methods, and review durations. Electronic submittals via cloud platforms increasingly replace paper submissions enabling broader distribution and concurrent review.

Review periods allow owner representatives to examine submissions, prepare questions, and coordinate internal stakeholder reviews. Typical review periods range 2-4 weeks depending on submission completeness and owner organization complexity. Extended review periods should be reflected in design schedules to prevent compression of subsequent phases.

Owner Approval Process

Owner approval workflows vary significantly by organization. Some owners empower project managers with approval authority while others require board approvals, multiple department sign-offs, or lengthy internal review processes. Understanding owner approval procedures early prevents schedule delays and frustration from unexpected approval bottlenecks.

Approval documentation should be explicit - written approvals, signed drawings, email confirmations, or meeting minutes documenting owner concurrence. Verbal approvals without documentation create risk when personnel change or memories fade. Major decisions affecting cost, schedule, or functionality require particularly careful approval documentation protecting both owner and designer interests.

User Group Meetings

User group meetings engage building occupants, operations staff, and department representatives who will ultimately use the facility. These stakeholders provide practical input on equipment access requirements, maintenance considerations, operational preferences, and functional adequacy. Their perspectives complement owner project managers who may have limited familiarity with day-to-day operational realities.

Medical facilities typically conduct extensive user group coordination with physicians, nurses, and department managers. Educational facilities involve teachers, administrators, and maintenance staff. Laboratory buildings engage researchers and safety officers. This stakeholder engagement improves design functionality while building user buy-in reducing resistance to new systems.

End User Input Sessions

End user input sessions focus on specific system features affecting occupant experience including thermal comfort, indoor air quality, noise levels, and control accessibility. Office buildings may survey employees about workstation temperature preferences, airflow complaints, or desired thermostat control. Retail facilities gather input on customer comfort and merchandise protection requirements.

Input collection methods include surveys, focus groups, interviews, and observation of existing facility operations. Users often articulate problems more clearly than solutions, requiring engineers to translate operational complaints into technical requirements. “The space is always too cold” might reflect thermostat location issues, poor air distribution, or excessive outdoor air rather than inadequate capacity.

Budget Coordination

Budget discussions occur throughout design as costs become better defined. Schematic Design establishes conceptual budgets. Design Development refines estimates based on specific equipment selections and system configurations. Construction Documents produce detailed estimates approaching bid-level accuracy. Discussing budget implications proactively prevents late-stage owner shock when costs exceed expectations.

When estimates exceed budgets, value engineering explores cost reduction options. This requires presenting alternatives with honest assessment of performance impacts, life cycle cost implications, and code compliance considerations. Helping owners make informed trade-offs between cost and features builds trust and prevents later claims of inadequate disclosure.

Schedule Coordination

Design schedule coordination addresses owner move-in dates, funding availability, regulatory approval timelines, and construction market conditions affecting bidding strategies. Design milestones must align with owner decision cycles, board meeting schedules, and fiscal year budget processes. Construction schedules reflect owner occupancy requirements including phased move-ins, seasonal constraints, or coordination with existing operations.

Schedule pressure creates temptation to compress design phases or reduce coordination time. Engineers must communicate risks of accelerated schedules including increased coordination errors, reduced design optimization, and potential rework. Honest schedule discussions prevent unrealistic owner expectations and provide documented basis for adequate design time allocation.

Change Management

Owner requirement changes during design require careful management. Early phase changes integrate readily but late changes during Construction Documents create coordination risks, schedule delays, and potential cost impacts. Change request procedures document proposed changes, assess technical implications, evaluate cost and schedule impacts, and obtain explicit owner approval before implementation.

Some changes represent refinements within original program parameters while others constitute scope additions requiring contract amendments and fee adjustments. Clearly distinguishing between these categories prevents disputes about additional services. Change logs track all modifications throughout design maintaining clear record of design evolution and owner-approved changes.

Expectation Management

Managing owner expectations prevents disappointment and disputes. This includes honest discussions about system performance limitations, maintenance requirements, energy cost realities, and construction quality expectations. Overpromising to win owner approval creates future problems when performance falls short of inflated expectations.

Education represents a key component of expectation management. Many owners lack technical background to fully appreciate HVAC system capabilities and limitations. Taking time to explain psychrometric principles, capacity constraints, controls capabilities, and energy relationships builds informed owner understanding supporting realistic expectations and better operational decisions.