Why hire an Architect?

For any construction project clients evaluate their needs for architectural services based upon a subjective set of very personal criteria. What have you done in the past? I do not base our new work on the traditional ‘been there, done that’ comparison. Everything is newly created, and I have no idea where a design is headed, until I understand your client needs first.

On a commission, what exactly is received in return for a 15% architect fee ? Contractors certainly build structures well enough. Engineers provide the structural know-how, and designers furnish exquisite accessories and finishes. The aesthetic appeal in design is what makes a project more valuable than square footage and construction cost calculations. Statistically, competent architectural expertise will save you more than 20% on incurred construction expenses, through the use of good design practices and construction methodology considerations.

"If you don't know where you're going any old way will take you there."
Lewis Carroll

Architects are indispensable to every construction project, and more essential than any other single service. Design build contractors do not have the checks and balances critical to standard A.I.A contracts and client-architect conditions. Comprehensive drawings, documents, specifications and instructions are the foundation of any project. Since architecture is an interactive service with adaptive client needs, modifications to design in construction, changes in the scope of work and management of comprehensive jobsite responsibilities, the design realized becomes critical to effective costs savings. Ultimately, it is the curb appeal that sells well.

This complex process of permit acquisition and construction requires creative visualization, competent supervision, refined site analysis, extensive design and construction expertise, and efficient communication. How many ‘mistakes’ are affordable when average construction costs exceed $300.00 per square foot? Efficiency is often realized in the minute details of an elegant design simplicity. It is just as easy to build an aesthetic masterpiece, as it is to build a mistake…. Cost is never the qualifying determinant of aesthetic appeal.

There are many different choices on how 'best' to resolve specific design problems.

Hiring a contractor without consulting an architect limits many aspects of good design. Contractors have few actual design qualifications. However often for reasons of expediency, I find some clients asking carpenters about design. Their qualifications, license and work experience is in building, according to specific instructions, defined with extensive specifications, while architects analyze process, design, application procedures and permits. Construction documents define the design, how the structure is built, what it looks like, and how it functions. If you ask a carpenter for design decisions, look at his house as to what results you may expect to receive.

Beauty in nature is never a random process, and not created by chance. Sustainable environmentalism is a moral, value-based principle of ecological conservation.

Design visualizes function, elegance, and the relational composition with performance tasks. The price of design excellence is a realization of functional and aesthetic appeal. Great design becomes true artistic eloquence when conceptual tasks are solved effectively. If a client asks about a question of perception, there are many solutions. What is the consideration of value your specific project carries? This depends entirely upon your approach. Engaging conservationist measures with the application of ‘green’, LEED certified methodologies shows an appreciation for nature and consideration for “Renewable Resources”. It is more than philosophical reasoning, it is our moral obligation to consider conservation measures, because every architectural style is adaptable to energy efficiency standards.

“We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.”
Winston Churchill

A home is where intimate emotions dwell, where the feeling of 'welcome' is instilled by design, where the appreciation of personal space is responsive. How do we define this? It is a process of listening to the client, evaluating lifestyle needs, addressing functional patterns, and creating visual eloquence as a form-built response. Aesthetic appeal, sculptural form, volume, massing, scaled proportion, function, style, symmetry, resonance, repetition and juxtaposition of elements, none of these are the providence of general building contractors, accountants, or consummate developers. The key to great architecture is in the adaptation of design to a specific intent.

Design is the art of a structured, analytical compromise.

Architects visualize many different design approaches, where changes are easily modified with an eraser on paper. Communicating client needs, matching existing to new, transforming artistic expression into built form, this adds to the ‘why’ and ‘how’ before you build. While the process of design is a puzzle of many different pieces, the final product is the summary of many solutions.

A successful design defines use within the passage of time.

The experiences we enjoy in buildings are sensing activities. Every home initiates a sense of place, and few buildings provide for this experience better than others. The perception of every structure is a personal, intellectual consideration, because we are emotionally engaged by what art represents. Light, form and context functions are basic sensual contributors. Great architecture is not about rooms, doors, windows, fixtures and finishes. It is the appreciation of the senses, the emotional perception of space, and the functional use of shelter combined to a larger aesthetic.

“Imagination is more powerful than knowledge.“
Albert Einstein

With over twenty years of professional experience as a licensed architect, we provide design creativity with an extensive resource of product knowledge. While I have defined the cost of competent design as more than savings, it is also about the application and building of personal enjoyment. Creating and appreciating the built experience to reward our senses requires something almost succinctly intangible: the beauty of artistic expression, and the skill, knowledge, persistence and determination to make it real.

"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it."
Lou Holtz