For what seems as long as I can remember Paul Eldrenkamp has always been one of my favorite writers on the subject of building and remodeling management. I can even remember from the days before there was a BreakTime or Remodeling OnLine there was a discussion forum on AOL called PLACES and I even saved some of his posts from there. But I digress…
Anyway Paul recently wrote an article for the January 2003 edition of JLC entitled Hiring an Architect (corrected the link??) that I thought was great and I was wondering if anyone here had read the article and had some thought and comments on developing “working relationships” with architects.
In short it’s about Pauls recomendations and observations as to how a “contracting” company might make the transition to “design/build”. Anyone else out there read the article?
Edited 1/22/2003 7:47:19 PM ET by Jerrald Hayes
Replies
Jerrald
That link goes to your account at JLC. Thinking it was mine, you now have a copy of that article in your library. <g>
Thanks for the heads up
View Image
Thanks Barry I will try and fix that. I actually used a different browser to collect the URL just so that wouldn't or shouldn't have happened but I guess I still messed up. I'll try that again and get it fixed momentarily ( just of the one of the things I hate about how the JLC site works).
Thanks again.View Image
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Jerrald:
Speaking as an architect, I was pleased by Paul's appreciation for good architecture and a mutually beneficial working relationship with architects. However, he glossed over or neglected a few downsides to this arrangement:
1) Hiring or subcontracting architectural services and offering them to clients may unwittingly turn a general contractor into an (illegal) unlicensed architectural firm. In California, an licensed architect must be a partner in a firm that offers *architectural* services. Offering "design" services is still okay here, but if you use the word "architect" or "architectural" in your promotional literature describing your services, you need to have a licensed architect in an ownership position. A regular employee doesn't cut it. Your own state may have stricter or looser requirements.
This situation is similar to interior designers who hire subcontractors for their jobs and unwittingly (or wittingly) become unlicensed general contractors.
2) Hiring an architect vastly increases your liability for design flaws, and may significantly increase your insurance rates. This was mentioned at the end of the article, but was not emphasized.
3) If the architect doesn't work out so well, YOU are the one with egg on your face, and may get canned along with the architect.
Richard