General rundown of an Architect throughout project

Building Section Vignette and Multiple Choice

General rundown of an Architect throughout project

Postby 212tbh » Sat Dec 09, 2017 3:02 pm

Hello, I have worked for many architects and usually when the plans are completed we would never see the owners or project again. Inorder to grab a full understanding of the architectural process I wanted to simplify the stages that an architect provides as per the B101 and ask several questions. This list is for basics and does not include any Additional Services or cross-outs to the B101. If you see anything wrong with this can you please correct me?

Basic Services
1. Owner and architect sign B101
2. Architect develops schedule for architectural services
3. Architect researches government information and utility information
Schematic Design
1. architect will review program and compare with laws/codes
2. architect will provide a report evaluating owners program, schedule, arch fee type, and any information discovered so far so agreement can be made for exact services to be provided.
3. Architect will then provide conceptual sketch of exterior and interior spaces
4. Once approved, the architect will provide Schematic Design Documents including site plan, floor plans, sections, and elevations. Also to include notes of major building elements. Might include models or sketches.
5. Architect submits Cost of Work and Schematic Design Documents to Owner for approval.
Design Development
1. Architect adds to descriptions to sections, typical construction details, diagrams of building systems specifying structure, mechanical, and electrical. Spec out major materials and quality. Does anyone have a sample of this? Can this all be done in the plans or is it separate?
2. Architect submits new Cost of Work and Design Development Documents to Owner for approval.
Construction Documents
1. Architect adds more specific details to quality of all materials and systems
2. Contractor submits Shop Drawings, Product Data, and Samples for approval. Who approves these the owner or the architect? What if they don’t agree on a material?
3. Architect adds other documents that may be required by municipality to Construction Documents
4. The architect discusses and prepares the owner for the bidding process.
5. Architect submits new Cost of Work and Construction Documents to Owner for approval.
Bidding/Negotiation Phase
1. Architect assists the owner in getting competitive bids or negotiating proposals (I combined both methods since architects responsibilities seemed similar)
2. Architect assists with interviewing contractors and setting up initial meetings.
3. Architect assists in preparing a summary of those meetings.
4. Architect reviews requests for substitutions from contractors and if approved will notify other contractors
Construction Phase
1. Architect will administer (not sure what this means?) the Contract and explain it will not alter services from the Agreement and notify all parties of their parts.
2. This phase starts when owner hires a contractor and finishes when the architect gives the okay for final payment to the contractor.
3. Architect visits site at intervals initially agreed upon in Agreement. Any other visits are Additional Services
4. Architect notifies owner of general updates of project, observations of any defects, and any deviations form Construction Documents.
5. Architect responds to any RFI’s
6. Architect reviews and certifies payments to the contractor by writing certificates based off of work quality and performance. Architect records all certificates.
7. Architect reviews any submittals approves/rejects from contractor.
8. Architect inspects for Substantial Completion and sends cert to owner to owner
9. Before the one year mark, if the owner requests an inspections the architect performs one for free.



As mentioned above, if there were no cross-outs, revisions, or additional services to the B101 would the architect perform everything above for each project?
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Re: General rundown of an Architect throughout project

Postby nickedemus » Sun Dec 10, 2017 8:44 am

Nice list.

Right off the bat, I see one thing wrong:

212tbh wrote:Construction Documents
2. Contractor submits Shop Drawings, Product Data, and Samples for approval. Who approves these the owner or the architect? What if they don’t agree on a material?


The contractor doesn't submit anything until the construction phase. I think the source of your confusion is this sentence in Section 3.4.1: "The Owner and Architect acknowledge that in order to construct the Work the Contractor will provide additional information, including Shop Drawings, Product Data, Samples, and other similar submittals, which the Architect shall review in accordance with Section 3.6.4."

This statement is really just an acknowledgement of limited information and a reference to 3.6.4 Submittals. Submittals don't occur until a contractor wins the bid and begins the construction process.

To answer your question, It seems the contract is phrased so that it is the architect's responsibility to review and approve submittals. But in reality, there are certain things that the Owner would probably want to review. For example, in many residential projects the Owner wants to have the final say where finishes are concerned. In facilities projects, the Owner may want to review the construction schedule to minimize conflict with day-to-day operations.

If I have time, I will try to review this list in more depth. But I like where it's going. I think it's a very useful exercise.
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Re: General rundown of an Architect throughout project

Postby 212tbh » Sun Dec 10, 2017 10:33 am

Thanks, you hit the nail on the head. I skipped over the acknowledge part. Thanks for looking at it and it would really help me get this list ironed out.

Also, I live in NY and sometimes the plans can be held up in the municipality for over a year. How does the architect generate the commencement of construction when the municipality is such an unknown variable? If the plans are help up in the town for longer than anticipated is the architect liable at all for having the wrong commencement date for construction?
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Re: General rundown of an Architect throughout project

Postby nickedemus » Sun Dec 10, 2017 1:30 pm

212tbh wrote:Also, I live in NY and sometimes the plans can be held up in the municipality for over a year. How does the architect generate the commencement of construction when the municipality is such an unknown variable? If the plans are help up in the town for longer than anticipated is the architect liable at all for having the wrong commencement date for construction?


Some questions:

Has this happened in a practice that you have worked for? Did it happen a lot? Did they give you any details about why? Maybe they had to make modifications to the design?

In one town or many towns?

What type of projects were they? *This may actually be the key question.

I'm just trying to get an idea.

For very large projects, PPP projects, etc., it's not uncommon for there to be a long review process as there are often multiple permitting issues, temporary and permanent easement issues, real estate issues, etc. that need to be considered and resolved. But stakeholders for these kinds of projects are often well-educated on these matters and expect this.

If a delay is caused because the architect failed to do her due diligence about the permitting, code, and zoning issues, then she is on the hook for the delays that result at least to the point where she has to absorb the cost to redesign the project to meet the regulations. Beyond that, I am not sure.

If the delay results because the municipality simply isn't doing its job, then I can't see how that would be the architect's responsibility.

But I am no lawyer, so don't hold me to any of this.
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Re: General rundown of an Architect throughout project

Postby 212tbh » Sun Dec 10, 2017 2:29 pm

Thank you for the reply, most of the work I'm talking about is smaller residential jobs and it applies to most of the towns on Long Island. I know there is the Heartland Project that has been back and forth with the town for over 15 years.
http://libn.com/2017/07/18/islip-approves-zoning-for-first-phase-of-heartland-project/
This bureaucracy, mostly zoning in these two examples, is also the reason the Islanders left Long island and moved to Brooklyn.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lighthouse_Project

I remember once I was filing plans at a building department and an owner of a restaurant was crying because he could no longer pay his lease, the plans weren't approved in over a year, and every time the architect would file them it would take 3 months to get back a list of objections from the plans examiner. The owner was yelling saying that it wasn't the architect's fault and that the plans examiner was nitpicking. I personally have experienced plans examiners changing their preference like the wind as to what specific information they do or do not want on the plans.

Because of these reasons I'm stumped. What architect in their right mind would list an anticipated commencement of construction and substantial completion in their contract when dealing with issues like these? Would the architect be liable for extension of time if the initially submitted plans were on par with the standard of care but not to the plans examiners liking?
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Re: General rundown of an Architect throughout project

Postby nickedemus » Mon Dec 11, 2017 8:38 am

Hi 212tbh.

The Heartland Project and the Lighthouse Project are not "smaller residential jobs." They are exactly the types of projects that are expected to take years to approve.

Heartland Project is a $4 billion mixed use development that includes 9,000+ apartments and 3 million sq ft of commercial space on 452 acres of land, which need to be rezoned for that purpose.

The Lighthouse Project was a $3.74 billion project to renovate the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and suburbanize the surrounding area with houses, offices, restaurants, retail, a five-star hotel, an athletic complex, conference and exhibition facilities, a minor league baseball ballpark, and a 60-story tower.

Another example I can think of: In NJ, they recently sold a popular restaurant in the Watchung mountains, and all of the property it sits on. The developer intends to build an apartment complex on the site, but they expect the permitting process to take 17 years. So in the meantime, they are going to use the land as a quarry (which for some reason is easier to do in that area than build apartments)!

Big projects like these are where planning and regulatory forces take the lead, and architecture just adds the decoration. Of course you can play in this arena, but there is a lot to constantly learn and be aware of. The climate is continuously changing along with economic forces and varying political regimes.

The restaurant example that you give is clearly for a small project. Obviously, I can't say what happened, since I wasn't there. I will say that even though the owner believed in his architect, the architect could still have been wrong. Many people have blind faith in architects (including architects!). All you have to do sometimes is say, "I'm an architect" and people think you know everything! It's quite sad, in my opinion, but that is a different discussion altogether.

As far as the anticipated dates of construction: Commencement date is established by the contract, which suggests to me it is an agreement by all parties. In addition, if notice to proceed is not in the contract documents, it falls to the Owner to give the NTP, not the architect. The ultimate goal is to meet the Owner's needs. If the Owner needs final completion in 18 months and substantial completion in 24 months, the construction schedule will be designed to accommodate that.

No contract can (or should) attempt to address all possible contingencies. Squabbles that may arise between municipality, owner, and/or architect aren't covered in these documents and could be handled through litigation, if need be.
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Re: General rundown of an Architect throughout project

Postby greenHandle23 » Mon Dec 11, 2017 1:07 pm

This is a question pertaining to the post "General rundown of an Architect throughout project" created on Dec 09,2017.
I like the discussion that followed this post and have a question about the sequence of events occurring at the beginning of the Construction Phase (1):
Assuming the Owner & Architect would be utilizing a single General Contractor for the construction of the project as per (1) Architect will administer (not sure what this means?). Is this when the Architect works with Owner and the Contractor awarded the bid through integrating the A201 Owner & Contractor document? How would this fit into the "General rundown of an Architect throughout project" sequence?

Thank you
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Re: General rundown of an Architect throughout project

Postby nickedemus » Mon Dec 11, 2017 1:30 pm

In re-reading the full sentence that you are referring to, it seems it is a little garbled. But basically, the contract administration process is more or less described in steps 3 - 9 under Construction Phase.

For traditional design-bid-build projects, the Owner contracts separately with the architect and the General Contractor. A101 is the contract between Owner and GC, A201 is the general conditions. B101 is the agreement between Owner and the Architect.
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