What a design review checks, and why the design firm cannot check it itself

Many project owners treat review as a formality needed to complete the submission file. In practice, it is the last point at which an independent party can still catch errors while the cost of fixing them is still only on paper.

Why the reviewer must be independent

Regulations require the review organization to be independent of the design organization, and the reason is very practical: the person who drew up a scheme will struggle to see his or her own faulty assumptions. The errors found most often are not calculation mistakes but an input assumption that no longer holds — loads taken from the previous function, an applicable standard that has been superseded, or geotechnical data taken from a borehole too far from the site of the works.

Four areas a review report should cover

Legal basis and applicable standards. Whether the codes and standards cited in the documents are still in force, and whether any replacement versions have not been picked up.

Structural solutions. Does the analysis model reflect how the structure actually behaves; have all load combinations been considered; is the foundation suited to the actual geotechnical data of the site itself?

Coordination between disciplines. This is the area that yields the most findings in practice: MEP openings missing from the structural drawings, ceiling height taken up by piping, drainage lines running through foundation locations.

Quantities and cost estimate. Do the take-off quantities match the drawings, and are the unit prices and norms applied the correct ones for the relevant date?

What should the deliverables be?

A usable review report must set out each item that needs correction together with its specific basis, rather than stopping at general comments. It should be accompanied by minutes of the working sessions with the design firm, recording which comments were accepted, which were reserved, and why. If problems arise on the project later, this set of documents shows how decisions were made.

When to review

Review the basic design before the project is approved, and review the construction drawings before implementation. Skipping the first step to save time usually leads to more corrections later, because the original assumptions have already been carried into the entire set of documents.

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