Architects' Tenders

Progress, Volume XI, Issue 10, 1 June 1916, Page 640

Architects' Tenders

The Architects and Builders' Journal, London, comments.- on : the report of the annual meeting -of the New Zealand Federated Builders and Contractors. At this meeting it was resolved: "That the Institute of Architects be asked, to agree that tenders for all contracts be opened in the presence of any builders who may be present when tenders close." "One can imagine,"

says the journal, "that if this became the established practice it would afford much exercise in the gentle art of making enemies. Meek men would shrink from such an ordeal, which, however, would be seized upon as a great occasion by the 'win, tie, or wrangle' contingent. Heated discussion might sometimes necessitate calling in the police as supplementary assessors. In this country, at all events, it is a matter in which the architect or public body may be wholly trusted to select the most advantageous tender without assistance, however disinterested, of rival contractors, ihirsting for a minutely analytical acquaintance with each other's business methods, and quite capable of proving to their own satisfaction that the highest tender is in reality the lowest, and vice versa."