FEATURED PROJECT: City of Garland Design-Build Partnership
- Apr 8
- 2 min read
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Project Name: City of Garland
Project Description:
Following a comprehensive Facility Condition Assessment (FCA), the City of Garland, Texas, transitioned from long-range planning to execution through a unique and highly collaborative design-build delivery model with McKinstry. The City’s objective was clear: implement capital projects that stayed under budget, avoid change orders, reduce deferred maintenance and project approval on an accelerated timeline — a response to prior bond-funded programs that had suffered from cost overruns and incomplete delivery.
Beginning in January 2025, the City and McKinstry were challenged to move from FCA-level information to fully developed design-build implementation contracts in just 23 days to maintain schedule certainty and advance procurement of long-lead equipment. These contracts were submitted for City Council approval with budgets aligned to the City’s financial constraints, despite the complexity of the mechanical and electrical upgrades involved.
Two key enablers made this accelerated design-build delivery possible. First, an established master services agreement eliminated months of contractual negotiations, allowing both teams to focus immediately on scope development, pricing, and execution. This pre-established framework proved essential to meeting the City’s schedule and governance requirements.
Second, McKinstry employed a risk‑transparent approach to design-build delivery. With limited time to fully investigate existing conditions, the team focused on identifying potential risks rather than attempting to eliminate all unknowns. Each identified risk was assigned a clear cost value and communicated upfront to the City. While this approach increased the initial project budgets, it ensured that no additional funding would be required during construction and eliminated the need for change orders.
As a result, several projects were delivered under budget when anticipated risks did not materialize. Nearly $1 million was redirected to support additional project needs across the program. At the City’s public library, the team delivered the work $108,000 under budget, allowing those funds to be returned directly to the library. McKinstry also supported the City in securing $500,000 in grant funding—$250,000 for library improvements and $250,000 for the Police Department Hub.
This design-build partnership has now delivered multiple projects, with additional work in development. By the end of 2026, McKinstry will have delivered nearly $12 million in design-build work for the City.
The City of Garland now relies on McKinstry not only to execute projects, but to provide ongoing guidance on capital planning and implementation. The partnership demonstrates how risk transparency, early collaboration and design-build integration can restore trust, accelerate delivery, and maximize value for public owners.
Project Team:
Myra Sanderson - Director of Architectural Design
Kevin Callis – Director of Regional Operations
John Funderburk - Operations Manager
Ryan Jewell - Sr. Account Executive
Lindsay Garner - Business Operations Manager
Nicholas Palka - Project Manager
William McCary - Sr. Building Energy Engineer
Dylan Gaisford - Sr. Project Manager Development
Michael Rigsby - Development Engineer
John Moennig - Sr. Project Manager Construction
Allen Taylor - Superintendent
This is a featured project from our 2026 Silver Partner - McKinstry!
