When you're working with an architect on a new construction project, what is the relationship like? Is it collaborative? Do you meet regularly to exchange information and allow the architects to ask questions? Or is it one meeting and then you let them do their thing?
If you ask architects what their relationships are like with building owners, it seems many will say the relationship is a frustrating one - at least that's what I drew from one of the educational sessions presented by a panel of architects at last week's AIA show in San Francisco. Apparently, if you're a building owner or facility executive, you're not the brightest crayon in the box when it comes to knowing what you want out of a building and understanding what it will take to get there.
Now, I'm not trying to stir the pot here (okay, maybe a little), but check out these two verbatim quotes from panelists: "I just don't think building owners are educated enough to understand high-performance" and "Owners don't ask us questions that are as specific as they need to be." If you had been in that session, wouldn't you have wanted to stand up and shout "NO! That's just wrong"? I'm just a journalist covering building owners and facility executives and their issues, but even I felt somehow impugned by those two statements. I felt like I was out of place - like I was "spying" on a group of architects who thought they were solely among friends.
Later in the show, I asked a pretty well-respected architect about those statements, and he sort of apologized on behalf of his profession, and then tried to explain where he thought statements like that came from. He said many, many architects have had bad experiences with building owners who build very infrequently and were troubling to work with. In those cases, the building owners may actually not have been very sophisticated when it comes to programming requirements for the building. He said that he thought, on balance, building owners and facility executives ARE very knowledgeable and intelligent when it comes to explaining what they want - especially in terms of design strategies and decision that will affect the long-term operations and maintenance of a building.
So, back to the original questions - what has been your experience like when hiring and working through a project with an architect? Please comment below...
I have worked through several from the ground up building projects and numerous tenant improvements. In my experience the issues are more complex than owners or users knowing the right questions or having a feasible vision of the project. Often the issues that drive a facilities decision are only partly related to the physical plant, or involve a number of compromises that are considered before the architect is brought in to the project. There are also the variables that the architectural firm brings to the table. Working with a smaller firm often means working start to finish with a principal, with the ability to more easily have an evolving project definition and a more collaborative process. Working with a large firm, particularly one with the full spectrum of services under one umbrella may involve a number of different firm personnel involved throughout the project cycle. Unless there is a well considered and articulated vision with that type of process there seems to be a strong potential for miscommunication, high fees and lots of occasions when the perspectives of the different parties will need to be reconciled.
This doesn’t even begin to address an owners/users issues around land and building availability, employment base, transportation, the range of entitlement issues in different locations and decisions about initial capital investment versus lifespan costs (and for that matter, decisions about what any given lifespan may be). These factors, among many others, can create a big picture that leads to frustration for those parts of the team with a more specific focus.
In the best of all worlds, there is enough time to put together the project team, develop a vision, a basic time and event line, perform pre-project diligence and create broad metrics for performance and success. In that same ideal world, there will be an in-house, experienced project manager that will only have one job to do, and that job will be the new facilities. Unfortunately, it too often feels like playing catch-up on at least part of the process, and the project manager usually has at least their regular job to do in addition to the new facility project.