5. Should
there be no major legal obstructions, your design kicks into overdrive. If
structural work will need to be done, the architect will hire a structural
engineer to perform calculations to insure that the new construction fits with
the latest seismic codes and will hire mechanical, electrical and or plumbing
engineers if your work warrants them.
All the while, he is busily at work researching aspects of the construction, seeing if there are ways to decrease cost, increase efficiency, creating details and coordinating the work of his consultants.
Your design will go through four distinct phases: Schematic design, Design Development, Construction Drawings and Contract Administration. At the end of the first three phases, the Architect will have meetings with you in order to insure that the three fundamental priorities are being met. However, as each phase progresses, there are increasing difficulties which surround changes to the overall design. These changes are more expensive later in the process than earlier; therefore it is critical that the time you spend in understanding the work the Architect has done on your behalf measures up to the reality of your aspirations. At the end of the first two phases, the Architect should submit your work to a licensed general contractor for constructability review and analysis of costs. At the end of the construction drawing phase, the architect should submit the drawings to not only a general contractor, but also a third party code compliance institution as well as peer review. Though adding to the time that the entire process will take, these submissions insure that the work is as much of a ‘slam dunk’ as possible. After Schematic Design and Before each phase begins, you need to ask the Architect to come back out to the jobsite and verify, for his own purposes, the dimensions that he has indicated and ask him to insure that his drawings match up. During the design process, things can get busy and decisions can be made that later require a lot of reconstructing of the circumstances in order to rediscover why decisions were made.
All the while, he is busily at work researching aspects of the construction, seeing if there are ways to decrease cost, increase efficiency, creating details and coordinating the work of his consultants.
Your design will go through four distinct phases: Schematic design, Design Development, Construction Drawings and Contract Administration. At the end of the first three phases, the Architect will have meetings with you in order to insure that the three fundamental priorities are being met. However, as each phase progresses, there are increasing difficulties which surround changes to the overall design. These changes are more expensive later in the process than earlier; therefore it is critical that the time you spend in understanding the work the Architect has done on your behalf measures up to the reality of your aspirations. At the end of the first two phases, the Architect should submit your work to a licensed general contractor for constructability review and analysis of costs. At the end of the construction drawing phase, the architect should submit the drawings to not only a general contractor, but also a third party code compliance institution as well as peer review. Though adding to the time that the entire process will take, these submissions insure that the work is as much of a ‘slam dunk’ as possible. After Schematic Design and Before each phase begins, you need to ask the Architect to come back out to the jobsite and verify, for his own purposes, the dimensions that he has indicated and ask him to insure that his drawings match up. During the design process, things can get busy and decisions can be made that later require a lot of reconstructing of the circumstances in order to rediscover why decisions were made.
6. You
should document major decisions and alterations of the plan along the way,
always looking back to the 5 original reasons why you wanted to start the work,
as well as the 5 optional things that you want the work to possibly accomplish.
Make sure that the Architect shows you where and how the design fulfills your
criteria.
7. Finally,
the plans are finished and are submitted to the applicable governing agencies.
Usually, there are some changes that are required in order to receive the
building permit stamp, which allows the general contractor to begin the work.
After those changes are made to the satisfaction of the governing agencies, the
building permit is issued, and work may begin. However, if you are prudent, and
before work begins, the wise thing would be for you to go over the approved
drawings one more time with the architect. Your primary question at this point
is, “What did you have to change in order for the building do be approved?”,
because usually, some things have to change.
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