In the past three years, we’ve made a big move at Studio MM. After working in close collaboration with a number of local contractors for more than five years, we decided to start building our own Construction Management team. This doesn’t mean that we’ve stopped working with other contractors. We truly enjoy working with all of our Hudson Valley contractors and continuing to find new ones to collaborate with.
This month, we are nearly complete with our first Construction Management project, Kaat Cliffs. We couldn’t be more excited to have brought this project to completion and have learned a lot along the way. This week, we staked out our newest CM project, Saugerties Lake House. We thought it would be the perfect moment to give a broad overview of why we’ve launched this new side of Studio MM. We’ll discuss what benefits it has for our clients, and how it has pushed us to be better architects and collaborators.
Why Construction Management?
As you are likely aware, the building market has shifted substantially in the past two years. Demand for contractors and builders is high and supply is somewhat limited. Many of our favorite contractors have been inundated with projects and aren’t as available as they once were. Surprisingly, creating our own team was only in part a response to the supply problem. We were also excited to create a fluidity between the architectural team and the construction team. Having our own dedicated Construction Management team allows us to work directly on a couple of projects that we’ve designed. It also provides a steady way to keep our projects moving and has brought lots of value to the office as a whole.
We’ve been extremely selective about which projects are suitable for construction with our CM team. Many of our CM projects are smaller homes that take advantage of our standard details. That doesn’t mean that we shy away from a good challenge – floating walkways and concrete walls included! It just means that we take into strong consideration our capacity to take on new projects. Our Construction Management team is small, but extremely mighty!
Benefits to Clients
While having a Construction Management team “in-house” certainly has many benefits for our office, it primarily benefits our clients. This of course includes clients who are using our CM team to build their home, and it also extends to our clients who are not. Our Construction Management team is a key part of our office – they attend our meetings, advise on projects and jump in at design charrettes to solve technical problems that might arise. They are a fantastic resource for us as we source materials or finishes. They can also help us brainstorm new ways of detailing a particular moment or material.
They also get involved in our projects early – especially those that are on track to be a CM project. This allows us to collaborate more closely with the builders early on, easing the bidding and onboarding process into a project. Early involvement also allows us to adjust our designs during the early phases to be more cost and labor aware. We’re constantly working alongside each other, collaborating to make the project the best that it can be.
We are also able to contact subcontractors more easily. This allows us to have specific conversations about things like HVAC or concrete details early on. We’re able to rely on our subcontractors’ expertise, asking clarifying questions and brainstorming solutions together. The earlier these kinds of conversations happen, the better! This of course benefits both the project and our relationships with our subs, creating better future collaborations.
Learning and Growth
When we started our CM team, we began working on projects right away. We are a studio that learns by doing! While we’ve had a few tricky moments, we’re confident that creating this new team has been a huge leap forward for the studio. We dove in initially by necessity, but we’re thrilled with the new fluidity it has brought to our projects, the expanded contractor availability for construction, and with the level of quality control that we are able to obtain.
As a studio, we also feel much more equipped to advocate for our clients who are not building via our Construction Management team. With everyone in construction as busy as they are in the Hudson valley, we know what it’s like to be waiting on bids and can more effectively communicate that to our clients. We understand problem solving from both the architect’s and from the contractor’s perspective. We also know more about costs – while the current market is still tough for early estimating, we are much more knowledgeable about the availability of materials and where prices are.
As we keep moving forward with this new venture, we’re excited to share in more detail how it all works. In the next few months, we’ll be showcasing each of the phases of our Construction Management process. We’ll discuss bidding and value engineering from the perspective of a construction team. We’ll also talk about the process of construction and share how our CM team collaborates with our Project Managers and our clients. Stay tuned!
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