- The client
That growth has been built on collaboration, transparency, and a willingness to modernize how projects are delivered. As projects became more complex and early decisions involved more stakeholders, Butler-Cohen’s preconstruction leadership saw an opportunity to make their process more scalable, connected, and data-driven.
Helping lead that evolution are Aby Leyva, Director of Preconstruction, and Elan Shney, Preconstruction Manager. Together, they are focused on strengthening Butler-Cohen’s preconstruction process so the team can evaluate options earlier, collaborate more effectively with owners and design partners, and turn historical project knowledge into a reusable advantage.
- The Challenge
Early-Stage Design-Build Decisions Don’t Fit Inside Spreadsheets
In design-build projects, early conversations rarely move in a straight line.
Owners may still be evaluating sites. Architects may be exploring multiple building configurations. Structural systems, grading conditions, remediation requirements, and scope assumptions are all evolving simultaneously.
Historically, evaluating those options meant revisiting old estimates, exporting information into Excel, normalizing scopes, updating costs, and rebuilding concept budgets manually for every new scenario.
“No project is exactly the same. Before ConCntric, we were constantly going back through past projects, pulling information into Excel, normalizing scopes, updating costs, and rebuilding concept budgets by hand for each new opportunity.”
Preconstruction Manager, Butler-Cohen
The team had the experience. The challenge was getting the right information into the conversation while decisions were still being made.
- ConCntric Impact
Turning Preconstruction Into a Collaborative Decision-Making Environment
Butler-Cohen implemented ConCntric to create a centralized approach to scenario-driven early-stage planning. Instead of rebuilding a separate budget for every option, the team can evaluate multiple project paths side by side with owners and design teams earlier in the process.
“ConCntric allows us to build and compare complex, multi-component scenarios — different sites, structural systems, or client options — all in one place. That flexibility is incredibly powerful for preconstruction.”
Director of Preconstruction, Butler-Cohen
As the team started applying ConCntric to real project conversations, Butler-Cohen used scenario planning to evaluate:
Instead of sending stakeholders back to another spreadsheet, the team can walk through multiple paths with owners and architects and talk through constructability, feasibility, and cost in the same conversation.
That is where the value shows up. Butler-Cohen can help stakeholders evaluate tradeoffs earlier, while there is still time to make a better decision.
“When a client hasn’t chosen a site yet, or is deciding between different building options, we can run those scenarios side by side and help guide that decision.”
Director of Preconstruction, Butler-Cohen
Why This Matters to Design-Build Teams
The operational improvements are meaningful, but the larger impact is how project teams collaborate.
“With ConCntric, we can build a fully detailed concept budget in 30 to 45 minutes — something that used to take us days rebuilding in spreadsheets. It’s completely transformed how quickly and confidently we can respond to new opportunities.”
Preconstruction Manager, Butler-Cohen
That speed creates something more valuable than efficiency: visibility. It gives each stakeholder a clearer way to evaluate decisions earlier in the process:
Owners gain a clearer understanding of tradeoffs earlier in the process.
Design partners can better understand how early design choices may affect cost and constructability before projects move too far in one direction.
Internal teams can align around shared assumptions more consistently.
And because the information is centralized and reusable, conversations become more iterative instead of reactive. This becomes especially valuable on projects with complicated site conditions or competing priorities.
“We regularly evaluate sites with very different constraints — demolition, remediation, grading challenges — and ConCntric makes it easy to model those variables and compare outcomes. It gives us greater clarity and confidence in our recommendations.”
Director of Preconstruction, Butler-Cohen
For Butler-Cohen, that visibility supports clearer, more confident conversations during the earliest and often most uncertain stages of a project.
Building a Long-Term Intelligence Advantage
While the immediate operational gains are significant, Butler-Cohen sees even greater long-term value in structured project intelligence.
Each project added to ConCntric strengthens the system, building a growing dataset the team can continuously pull from, reuse, and learn from on future work.
“The more projects we build in ConCntric, the more powerful it becomes. Looking ahead five years, the depth of data we’ll be able to pull from will be a major advantage for our team.”
Preconstruction Manager, Butler-Cohen
That advantage builds over time.
Instead of letting project history sit in folders and spreadsheets, Butler-Cohen is turning it into something the team can use again and again. Instead of starting from scratch, the team starts from insight.
What This Looks Like in Practice
By moving away from disconnected spreadsheets, Butler-Cohen has created a more collaborative way to plan, compare, and discuss early design-build options.
The result is a faster, clearer, and more collaborative approach to early-stage preconstruction:
Concept budget development reduced from days to 30–45 minutes
Multiple project scenarios compared without rebuilding separate budgets
Owners, architects, and contractors aligned earlier around project options
Clearer visibility into cost, scope, and constructability tradeoffs
Reusable project history that strengthens future pursuits
The impact extends beyond workflow. It changes how the team operates.
Instead of reacting to requests, they can lead conversations.
Instead of delivering a single answer, they can present options.
Instead of just providing numbers, they deliver insight.
That shift helps Butler-Cohen bring more clarity to the table when owners and design partners are still weighing their options.
Let’s Explore What’s Possible
Butler-Cohen is showing what becomes possible when preconstruction teams can compare options, apply project history, and bring stakeholders into better conversations earlier.
If your team is still rebuilding concept budgets by hand or relying on disconnected historical data, it may be time to see what a more connected approach could look like.
