Trends in Use of Construction Management

Construction management generally refers to a contractual relationship whereby an owner secures professional management services of a large multi-discipline firm for a specific construction project. This newly found market for construction-management services has created a proliferation of designer, constructor, and management firms competing for construction-management contracts, each offering their own version of construction-management services. An analysis of the data provided in the top contractor and designer firm listings for the past six years showed that the use of construction management grew throughout the design-construct industry by 9% between 1971 and 1976. Currently, 50% of the design firms and 28% of construct firms offer construction-management services as well. Larger firms are more likely to offer construction-management services although this service is more common to the engineer-architect design firms.