With projects facing rising material costs, crunched schedules and labor shortages, project delivery firms say owners are finding themselves at a fork in the road when it comes to design-bid-build versus alternative delivery models. Risks are inherent to any project, but more owners are turning to alternative delivery to reap the rewards of early collaboration.

For ENR Top 100 Project Delivery Firms, revenue for both design-build and construction management-at-risk (CMAR) delivery methods rose last year—design-build rising 2.51% to $100.22 billion and CMAR rising slightly less at 1.68% to $150.79 billion. But beyond the numbers, Top 100 firms share that there is a gradual shift in the way owners are putting together project teams.