“So you’re an architect. Let me tell you about my experience with an architect. He knew my budget. We worked together for many months, countless meetings. He and his staff drew up the blueprints and what do you think? The bids were 20 percent over our budget. We lost months of time before the drawings were revised down to the budget and we lost all kinds of things that we really needed.”
Sound familiar? Perhaps, but in defense of my profession, let me say that such unfortunate experiences need not happen. Sometimes the architect is at fault. More often both the architect and the client could have avoided the situation by agreeing to both a fixed program and a budget before any design work was started. Most often the budget is the money available and the program is really more of a wish list. The two are often unrelated to each other, which inevitably leads to the situation described above.
What tends to happen is that both owner and architect get carried away by all the wonderful things that ought to be done. Any sentence that starts with “As long as we’re building we may as well…” leads inevitably to a blown budget. One of our experienced developer clients calls this the Mazewell Problem (may as well).
A project program is like a shopping list identifying the various items to accomplish with assigned priorities and a cost estimate on each item. It should be recognized that cost estimates are really only guesses in the beginning. They will become more accurate as the planning process proceeds. The estimate of cost for the individual items is often based on rules of thumb like approximate cost per square foot of construction. The overall estimate should be updated at the various stages of planning from schematic design to design development to 75 percent construction documents, etc. It may be wise to enlist the aid of a local contractor in the estimating process or a professional cost estimate, if the project is large.
Make sure, if you are in a remote area, that your architect and cost estimator are aware of how local costs may vary. Costs may be 10 or 15 percent higher in remote locations. If the project is located on top of a mountain, costs may be considerably more depending on difficulty of access. On the other hand non-union labor could be an off-setting cost factor.
During the numerous planning meetings, the program grows as additional needs and desires are discussed. This could be called architectural creep. Although the architect may caution that these new goodies will cost more money, there is seldom a price tag put on the program additions. This is partly because it is impossible to make an accurate estimate without studying the problem and designing the solution. Too often the architect assumes that the owner recognizes that each addition or change costs more money and that the owner is keeping mental track of the additions. Although the individual new items may be relatively small, the cumulative effect can be considerable leading to a blown budget and much finger pointing.
Architectural creep can be avoided if the architect documents all the additions to the program and their affect on the budget. This may take the form of a table showing the additions and the probable cost consequences. Minutes of meetings should always be issued as soon as possible to make sure that everyone agrees what decisions had been reached. There may also be a follow-up letter elaborating on the program additions:
“In Monday’s meeting, we discussed that the added restrooms would cost more money, but they were really important. I didn’t want to make a guess on the added cost during the meeting because of the difficulty of anticipating all cost factors. Since, I got together with the contractor and his estimator.
“With finishes equal to your present restrooms, the cost is likely to run between $145,000 and $160,000. If we have better finishes, which will save in maintenance over the long run, the added cost would probably be another 25 to 30 thousand. Revising the plans will be relatively easy, but will take a couple of weeks and cost about $15,000.
“Do you want us to proceed with the change?…””
Why aren’t such letters written? No one likes to be the bearer of bad news, particularly with a job at stake. Very often the architect feels that it is impossible to accurately estimate individual items in a building program. While that may be true, most owners would prefer an order-of-magnitude estimate to none at all. Being frank in the meeting can sometimes put the matter to rest. “If the restrooms were to cost $200,000, would you still want to do it? I can do some sketches and get an estimate by Monday.”
As usual, good communication is the key to avoiding problems. A program should be developed by all affected parties. How much of this program can be built with the available funds this year? Which items will probably have to be deferred till future years? It is important to be conservative in the estimating and to include contingencies for the unexpected events that always happen.
