Outstanding story, you job sounds like something that I would so love to do.

My parents have built 4 houses themselves, the last three my Mom designed. I have grown up with grid paper laying around the kitchen as she was constantly making changes to floorplans as she worked on the next one. They too found a great builder who helped on the engineering, but took her floorplans to heart.

Mom and Dad are very much into Early American life, the last one they did was done to recreate sort of a traditional saltbox. Let me just say, the degree of detail is beyond description, most peole have no idea they are walking into a 10-year old home and not a 200-year old home.

I love my parents homestead!

Very traditional front


A glimpse of how a saltbox design can be embelished

 

It will be YOUR house, but don't the plans that you paid for belong to the architect when it's all over?

 

Ha! I have the answer to this one. I remember it from my "Professional Practice" class during my masters in architecture.

The drawings are "instruments of service". They belong to the architect and the architects are protected under copyright laws. Yes it's your house but the drawings belong to the architects.



It's interesting to read some of the comments above. I agree with some but disagree with most. I don't practice anymore but I feel compelled to respond. A lot of times, it's the contractor's fault. The better the architect (design ability), the more problems he/she has with contractors. 90% of buildings out there have no architectural value. They are the Yugoes of buildings. Unfortunately, that's also what most contractors are used to build. They'd look at the architect's detail and toss it while doing it their own way. Someone mentioned extra money for windows. Perhaps that particular architect is an idiot but perhaps there's a central ideal of the building/space that's best expressed by using the architect's specified sizes. Things just work out the best when both the architect and the client have open minds. It is also important for the client to trust the architect with the work.

True- you don't need an architect to design a house. But, you better believe that you need an architect to design a good house. Having a structural engineer or contractor design your house are not good options.

Before hiring an architect, look at his/her portfolio. It's a quick way to see if you'll be a good match.

Thanks for reading my rant. It's one of few things that I'm extremely opinionated and passionate about. Have a good day

-Howard Roark

 

[QUOTE=CalBear,Feb 21 2007, 08:09 PM]True- you don't need an architect to design a house.

 

I had a lot of respect for architects until we hired one to design the renovation of our loft in the early 1980s. Aside from the fact none of the good ideas came from her she turned out to be working in collusion with the general contractor that she "interviewed" for our job. A simple six week job took in the excess of 7 months to complete and the design and work was so poorly done, partly because of a lack of supervision which we paid her for, that we had to have a lot of it done over.

On the other side of the coin, I had the pleasure of working with a major chapter of AIA. I did the annual audit of their association for quite a few years. I have never met a group of people who were more honorable and prefessional than the members of this organization.

I suppose, like any profession, there are some good, some very good and some horrible practitioners.

 

Yes, I knew you'd be lurkin' IMHO residential design is a very specialized field....whether a designer or an architect. I have only designed 1 house in my life + an 100k addition/ kitchen on my house; I don't know beans about residential house trends. I have worked with many interior designers (mostly commercial) and agree that the functional aspects of the product are almost always better.

I had a feeling that you were a very good designer (would like to see your work sometime ) BUT your direct relationship with one or more top quality GC's makes a big difference. There is mutual respect and understanding about the end product and related costs. If a house is being BID to several contractors, it's a whole different ball game: the entire package of drawings, specs, engineering and finishes needs to be tight tight tight.

As I noted earlier, many areas require drawings to be signed/sealed by a registered architect....sometimes a professional structural engineer can also do it. How does that work in the Richmond area.....just curious.

 

with Howard......especially in relation to the US of A.

Having recently returned from 2 weeks in Holland and Germany, I have been discouraged by the crap that gets built here....often schmalzo erstaz 'colonial' here in the east. A large majority of new housing gets built with only minor input from a designer OR architect (minor= stock plans with a few mods to suit site conditions or owner-requested plan changes).

 

Rob, an important point to clarify:

Architects do not typically 'supervise' the work....the correct term is 'observe' the work for conformance to drawings and specs. 'Supervision' is the role of the contractor, who is responsible for 'means and methods'. Trust me...this distinction has been well-defined by the last 100 years of construction. The architect has a lot of responsibility under a full-service AIA B-141 Agreement, but 'supervision' is not one of them.

The exception to this rule is 'design-build'....where the architect also acts as the builder; this gives the client a real turn-key project, with the cost guaranteed earlier in the process. Design-build is becoming more common, but a lot of 'creative' architects are too risk-averse to take on the related liability.

 

Doug- I Got your PM and will try to Fax B4 end of week....very busy over next 2 days

You should clarify what is meant by 'rendering' and ask to see an example from the bldg inspector/ zoning official/etc. You might be able to just do a tracing paper overlay of your photos.....'sketching in' where the dormers will be placed. A professional rendering (colored) can cost hundreds of dollars....although some of the entry level CAD programs are pretty amazing for simple design work.

Btw, nice sun room on the rear

 

[QUOTE=paS2K,Feb 22 2007, 12:00 AM] Rob, an important point to clarify:

Architects do not typically 'supervise' the work....the correct term is 'observe' the work for conformance to drawings and specs.