Will Studio MM still be involved during construction?
Absolutely! Your architect should be involved in the entire process from concept through completion – and completion for us means we have a very happy client who loves their home.
This is an important discussion that clients often bring up during our first meeting. I find that clients are concerned with what will happen during construction and would like to make sure we will still be there to guide them. For most people it is “the great unknown” where things can always go wrong. One client said to me recently, “That is not my area of expertise and I want to make sure you will be there to help me make decisions.” Exactly! That is what we’re there for!
Construction Administration is the architecturally technical term for our services during the construction process. For legal reasons the term sounds much more complicated than it is. Technically we are not responsible for construction, so that’s where the legal part comes in. But as far as being highly involved during construction, we insist on it as part of our architectural services. We want the experience of designing and building your home to be as much a lasting memory as the home itself. The only way we can ensure our clients are happy is to make sure we’re there every step of the way.
Today’s post is part of our What To Expect from Your Architect series in which we document the process of one of our projects here on the blog, so you will know what to expect when working with an architect. In this series we are following the progress of our Lake Wylie House in South Carolina. Especially now that we are into construction on a project that’s not “local”, there will be lots to talk about!
Documents For Construction
Think this looks like a mess? To be perfectly honest I agree! But perhaps similar to how I can “see” a house in some of my crazy sketches, our contractor can “read” these plans. We like to keep our plans very simple and clean – especially through design meetings with our clients – but when it comes to working with contractors during construction, we need to communicate on their terms. Our contractor got pretty excited when we finally got ALL of the information together on one plan for him to distribute to his subcontractors. (Obvious, but still needs to be said..) Everyone on the same page during construction is critical to a successful project!
Construction Phase
Now that construction has started I am in constant contact with our contractor. We have a weekly meeting to discuss the progress of the job, any questions that might have come up and what will happen on site in the coming week. Note: The Lake Wylie House project is a little different since I am in New York and the house is in South Carolina. When I first discussed with our clients how the construction process would go with a non-local architect, we talked about the option of consulting with a local architect to assist in the Construction Administration Phase. Once we got our contractor on board (we like to do this early in the process) we decided we would move forward without bringing in someone else. We are working with an excellent contractor who was very present and involved in our process as we finalized plans for construction. Plus, our clients live near the jobsite and were happy to be the “eyes and ears on the ground.”
I will head down for a jobsite meeting next week, but have been “walking through” the project via video and “meeting” with the contractor often. He and I have set up a weekly call in which we can discuss all work completed and upcoming. Our meeting is Tuesday and then he walks through the house with our clients on Wednesday. So, a lot of communication. This is an exciting project, and all of us – client, contractor and architect – are going to make sure it’s a successful and FUN process!
In our next What To Expect post I’m going to get into a couple reasons (read: examples) why you should ALWAYS have your architect involved in the construction process. During construction, issues are going to come up. Sure, a good contractor can and will solve them. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to get the same result. …we’ll get into it more in the next post.
In the meantime, enjoy the latest Time Lapse Construction Update below!
Lake Wylie House – Construction Update March from Studio MM on Vimeo.