Hiring an Architect from a Holistic Viewpoint
There are a few things to remember when hiring an architect. You must consider the design process, the construction process, the whole spectrum. I mean everything all the way back from doing the initial survey of your lot. This includes the site where your building is going to be built. It goes all the way to designing it.
From coming up with concepts to developing construction documents, it then goes into the construction phase. It is a long process that involves a lot of people.
Before Hiring an Architect
Early on, analyzing your project and being able to determine a budget is very important. Communicating that budget to your architect guides you through the whole process. It’s expected that the architect takes his drawings and goes out to bid. This is a process that needs some guidance. You need a professional to guide you. An architect has that kind of training that can help you through the entire process.
Of course, I’m leaving a lot of things out between these points. This is because there are so many things between these details when hiring an architect. This means everything from getting the funding to getting your building permits. This goes on towards making sure that the site has proper testing. This, in turn, helps make sure that you can build it in the correct way. It includes having a soils report and a geotechnical report. These processes make sure the soil is not contaminated.
There is such a long process. It is important that they have the right team on your side to be able to guide you through the entire process. I offer this as the most important thing to take away.
Your Relationship with the Architect is Key
There are so many considerations I could recommend when hiring an architect. There are so many good architects out there. But, in a nutshell, the most important part is understanding that there needs to be a relationship. It’s important to understand that you have to be able to get along with that architect. That design professional is going to guide you and spend a lot of time with you. If you don’t have the trust, forget it. It’s going to be a nightmare. You have to have that trust. You have to have that patience with them and them with you to be able to develop a good product together.
What to Expect from a Good Architect
The design is also the start of the project. Without a good set of drawings, this project is going to be a nightmare. Understanding that your architect has the qualifications and credentials is important. If you address that part when hiring an architect, the whole process will be much smoother.
It’s also important to keep in mind that architects work with so many contractors. In the design profession and the construction profession, both derive from different backgrounds. The training is very different. The education is very different. The culture on the site versus the design studio is very different. So, an architect ends up spending a lot of time not only with a client. They spend a lot of time on the contractor selection process and during construction.
An experienced architect should be able to identify contractors. They should know the good ones and bad ones out there. It is appropriate to ask when hiring an architect to either make a recommendation, or they should give you an opinion of a certain contractor that they may be considering. An architect has a wealth of knowledge based on their experience of who the good contractors are out there.
