So I had my first meeting with architect Jason last night. It went a lot more like I expected things should go. I'm waiting to get his proposal, but I like the guy a lot.

Like I said in a previous post, I was less than thrilled about the meeting with the first prospective architect (who shall remain nameless here). So I really didn't have my expectations too high going into this meeting with architect Jason.

Our builder recommended Jason, and my wife thought he seemed nice on the telephone, so we set up a meeting for last night. For my part, I arrived with my info pack, both printed and burned onto a 3" CD-R. When I came into the office, architect Jason was sitting at the peecee, so I just introduced myself, handed him the CD and he started poking around on it.

So we both quickly sized each other up as pretty technically literate, and eventually Jason even suggested that if he could send me PDF versions of his drawings, it would cut costs for him. I agreed, and we got into some pretty involved discussions for the next hour. I'll try to cover most of the high points here.

One thing I learned (I had suspected it, but architect Jason sort of put it in concrete terms for me) is that engaging an architect can pay for itself. Since he's familiar with ICF construction, architect Jason can save me labor costs by adjusting exterior wall dimensions to be multiples of the length of a whole block, saving on the number of cuts that need to be made on the job site. And by working with the builder on the roofing design, they can jointly optimize the roofing design for material and labor costs. That's a serious benefit, and in fact I fully expect that engaging architect Jason could more than pay for itself (although I haven't seen his proposal yet).

And it turns out that architect Jason's credentials are pretty top-drawer (although I'm not sure it really matters a lot, it's a nice bonus). He has worked at one of the leading firms in my area, and spent a couple years as head of the commercial interior design group. He was classy enough not to beat me over the head with that, he had some drawings hanging in his cube with the imprint of this large well-respected firm, and when I inquired he mentioned his experience with these guys.

And architect Jason was impressed with our level of preparedness. He mentioned he usually has to interview clients for hours in order to drag the info out of them that we put into the info pack. I showed him the Sunflower Estates site (mainly because I forgot to include the restrictions summary in the info pack) as well as the topographic maps of the site from the county web site. He really liked the lot.

And he's got a good relationship with my builder, and they seem to have a mutual respect for each other. That's key, because I think the owner-architect-builder team is a really cool concept. I bring alot of ideas to the table, but the builder and architect bring experience in somewhat complementary areas to get me to a point where I can actually realize my ideas. I'm pretty excited about being able to find a builder and architect that have successfully worked together before. Even though they've only worked together on commercial projects, Both have done residential projects separately.

So I'm waiting to get his proposal back. I think as long as there's no surprises in store for me with the dollars, I'm pretty likely to go with architect Jason.

2 comments

Craig, I am using Eco-Block. The preliminary sketch is a grab from one of those home design mags.

Nice site you have going, looks like you're a little further down the road than we are. And nice hole as well. Umm, yeah.

posted by linear @ 7/29/2002 11:43 AM CST

I see you're going ICF for construction...Which company's forms are you going with? The preliminary sketch looks like an Arxx design.

posted by Craig Dinwoodie @ 7/28/2002 9:07 AM CST