Jauregui

A successful outcome to a design/build project is as much about contracting smartly as it is about providing professional services.  It’s important to understand what your firm’s focus is and then formulate contracts with terms that reflect the services and product that you choose to provide.  Consumer friendly paperwork will set expectations that this will be a positive experience. 

As a business approach, determine a design niche and be true to your aesthetic ethic.  From your first conversation with a new prospect, begin to ascertain whether the project and client are a good fit for your company.  Not every job is worth your time or liability risk, although we’re all more willing to expand our range in this economic climate.  Learn to trust your sixth sense…

Continue reading: Contracting Smarter

Residential architects are connecting as a professional group like never before.  Thanks in large part to CRAN (Custom Residential Architects Network), residential architects are becoming more cohesive and visible as a group. 

We’re finding common ground stemming from decades of growing frustration with our industry as a profession.  There is a strong sense of disenfranchisement from the A.I.A. and a pervasive lack of regard from the public for the value in our work.  It’s a bold move for the A.I.A. to even use the words “Custom Residential” on an initiative and it’s important for to us to help define its direction…

Continue reading: Residential Architects Unite

In today’s challenging economic climate, each of us is much more focused on efficiencies of labor and cost.  We also have a renewed sense of customer service to our clients and prospects.  As architects, we can no longer afford to design homes that don’t meet the budget.  The consumer doesn’t have the stomach for it and we don’t have the resources to waste time on projects that don’t get built.  We’re working harder today to get new jobs to walk in the door.  Providing the tool of cost during design will set you apart from your peers and provide your clients with more perceived and real value.

Whether you are an architect or a builder, and especially for company leaders, it is imperative to become an expert on cost.  Make it your #1 priority to be knowledgeable in this area. Use this downturn to sharpen your skills and promote yourself as the cost expert. Flaunt it to your clients. 

Continue reading: The Economies of Design to Cost

When I started my design/build company, the construction department was comprised of one superintendent.  Period.  From time to time an architect would jump in and help with in-office tasks.  As the company matured, it became clear that having employees wear too many hats rendered more inefficiencies rather than fewer, and resulted in a lack of accountability. 

I realized the answer was not just throwing more superintendents into the equation. 

Influenced by a builder friend’s company in Colorado, I chose to add an office component to the construction team, dedicated primarily to customer service and to act as a liason between all the interdepartmental entities and external entities.  It’s at this point that I adopted the concept of a Project Manager as an integral part for each project team.... 

Continue reading: Role of Project Manager