Choosing an Architect
First, let me say this – Choosing Altius has been the smartest decision I’ve made so far. They’ve been an absolute pleasure to work with, and I really can’t say enough about them. We certainly wouldn’t be building the home we’re about to, had it not been for Cathy, Tao and the team at Altius.
That said, this relationship almost didn’t happen.
When we started this project, we hadn’t planned on working with an architect. We knew we needed someone to draw up the floor plans, but we assumed their role would end there. We were undecided how long we’d actually stay in the house, and we knew we could put a minimal amount into the project and still see a healthy return should we decided to sell it.
So we chose our contractor, found someone to handle the drawings, and set off down the road of renovating our home. We expected to use the existing foundation, and on top we’d build the biggest house we could for the least amount of money. However, when we got the first set of drawings back, I had to take a step back and reevaluate what we were about to undertake.
Put frankly, it was plain, boring and uninspired. It definitely met the criteria we had set beforehand, but I wasn’t about to go through this arduous and expensive process to build that home. Our expectations for the project definitely changed at this point. We knew we didn’t want to build “another house”. We wanted something a little different. Something a little special.
And this is when things got a little complicated.
To me, the most logical solution was to find someone who could help us articulate a vision for this project. I had some ideas, but I had no idea where to start (or what was actually realistic).
I started looking around for houses that I liked, and then sought out those responsible for designing them. I used Google and did as much reading as possible. This took a few weeks, but I soon had a decent list of architecture firms in and around Toronto.
Architects come in may different flavors, and finding the right fit proved to be difficult. I was interested in a “full service” architecture firm – a company that would be involved through the entire process, ensuring that the creative integrity was maintained until the construction was complete.
However, after speaking with a number of companies, reality definitely set in as it seemed like we couldn’t afford their services. Most of them said it was impossible to build the type of house I wanted with the budget we had set (which was true in retrospect). Altius, on the other hand, was the only company who seemed interested in helping us make it work. They made a number of recommendations right up front, even suggesting other candidates when I initially told them we couldn’t afford their services.
This is when I decided I’d rather build a better home, and not just a bigger home. I wasn’t after the biggest footprint possible, but rather the tightest building envelope possible. I had come to appreciate my eco responsibilities and decided I wanted to investigate them further. And Altius has been entirely instrumental in making this happen. They’ve illustrated a stunning house, and they’ve made countless recommendations that will ensure the final product is as green as we can afford.
They may seem expensive, but a talented architect is invaluable.
Post Tags: altius, architect, Construction, Design, floor plan
I am curious as how is your architect being compensated. Flat fee or percentage fee based on estimated or actual cost of construction (which includes a fixed number of site visits and other meetings). Is there an additional hourly fees for re-design, sites visits, meetings etc? How have you quantified what work is included as the extra fees for extra work can sure add up (as I have found!).
— posted on September 6, 2008Hi Scott,
Our architects are being compensated with a flat fee + time and materials. The flat fee covered everything up to the completion of the construction drawings, after which they will be charging us hourly for their time.
We’ve had meetings almost every week since we started the project, although I assume those will start winding down soon. They will be visiting the site throughout the project, but we haven’t defined how often this will happen. We have a decent allowance for our budget for these time + material costs… hopefully we’ll be ok.
— posted on September 7, 2008Interesting project, great blog site!
— posted on November 14, 2008I was wondering which other architects were in your shortlist before making your final decision. Also, for the site visits, does the architect have a say if the contractor does something different than the drawings?