Delivery Method
Preconstruction
Preconstruction is the work that happens before a shovel moves: budgeting, estimating, constructability review, logistics planning, scheduling, and value engineering. At Eleven Western it is a standing discipline staffed by the estimating group and sector Project Executives, not a sales exercise.
Fit
When this method is the right call
- › You have a site or a concept and need a credible number before committing capital
- › Your design is in progress and you want cost feedback while decisions are still cheap
- › You are comparing rebuild versus remodel, or two sites, and need ranges you can defend
- › A lender, board, or investment committee needs a budget with a basis behind it
Advantages
- ✓ Decisions made while they are still eraser-cheap
- ✓ A number your lender and board can interrogate
- ✓ Long-lead risk visible months before it becomes schedule risk
- ✓ Continuity: the precon team hands off to the delivery team inside the same company
Approach
How Eleven Western runs it
Estimates with a basis, not a hunch
Every budget traces to completed-project cost history across our sectors, current subcontractor pricing, and stated assumptions. When we give a range, we can tell you what moves it and by how much.
Constructability from people who build
Reviews are run by the teams that will actually deliver the work — including self-perform field leadership. The comments are about sequence, procurement, and buildability, not formatting.
Open assumptions
Sitework allowances, escalation, contingency, and exclusions are spelled out. A budget you cannot interrogate is not a budget; it is a hope.
Process
What to expect, in order
Program, site, and constraints — one working session
Order-of-magnitude range with stated assumptions
Pricing at SD, DD, and CD as design advances
Comments and options logged and dispositioned each round
Long-lead strategy and bid-package structure before documents finish
Who does what
Roles & responsibilities
| Party | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| Owner | Defines program, site, budget tolerance, and decision timeline |
| Architect / consultants | Provide progress documents; receive pricing and constructability feedback each round |
| EWB | Estimating, constructability, logistics, schedule, VE options, and procurement intelligence |
| Subcontractors | Market pricing input on major trades where useful |
Risks & how we control them
⚠ A budget built on stale or borrowed data
EWB estimates against its own completed-project history and current trade pricing, with the basis documented.
⚠ Value engineering that quietly amputates scope
Every VE option is presented with its operational and design consequence, so the owner chooses with eyes open.
Compare
Other delivery methods
Design Assist
EWB joins during design development to price in real time, resolve constructability before bid day, and lock long-lead packages early.
Design-Build
One contract, one team, one number — EWB holds the construction risk and teams with design partners from concept through keys.
Construction Management
CM at-risk delivery: open-book buyout with the owner in the room, a contract price with a documented basis, and shared visibility from precon through closeout.
Talk through preconstruction on your project
A Project Executive — not a call center — reviews every inquiry the same day.