Interesting Morph

[kmapro]

[mx2]

That doesn't sound bad at all...bartering your skills is a great thing and there's not only nothing wrong with it but if you trade up...well!

I suppose what I mean exactly about residential clients is what you just pointed out; you see, as architects/designers, one would expect to be asked to design the project. Residential clients typically know what they want (but rarely can express it) and have no (or very little) interest in your ideas...

...that's the problem.

But a good designer will work within the set parameters are make their desires come to fruition, but with skill and diplomacy, you make it better. It's just that residential clients are the most difficult to do this with. It's like pulling teeth...

mx2.5

[RSCarcht]

Residential design is a challenge not only because the budgets are low and the specificity to a single client and their condition high, but because a house is the embodiment of all the hopes and dreams of the client. Because houses are such a personal and individual expression, the stakes and emotional levels are raised to high pitch.

Often in residential design there is a couple involved and each of their aspirations are on the line. When the two visions are not in complete accord (which is common) the designer is thrust into what can become a civil war. Good architects must wear many hats during a residential project and none are more important than "marriage councilor" on occasion.

[RSCarcht]

I wonder whatever happened to Mr. Bill, the originator of the thread?

[freebird]

I know my comment is months late. However, I cold not help myself. To MRBILL:

Pick an architect who has a style that you like. That is the best way to get what you want. Architects aren't just technicians. They are artists. I am in the process of finding an architect for our new home and the most important factor I look at is if I like their style. After that its availability, services, etc... Frankly, cost is the least important as a good architect pays for themselves plus more in resale {if need be) and enjoyment factor. Since I work with attorney's all day long I will tell you that from my perspective, the selection criteria is totally different.

[RSCarcht]

Well said. Between saving money on the contract through allowing for competitive bidding, preventing mistakes during construction through good planning and increasing value through superior design, hiring an architect can actually costs less than nothing so just how hard a bargain does a smart client want to try to drive?

[csintexas]

This is false information. If you are going to make such claims than you need to back them up with proof.

What you are saying is that the average home buyer can save thousands of dollars by providing more detailed specifications. If that where the case than I could certainly provide that service and clients would buy it. Residential designers can provide the same level of service an architect would provide depending on what the customer wants. The only difference between the two groups is that architects are licensed and have to carry large amounts of insurance and they also are academically trained whereas RD's may or may not be academically trained and may or may not carry insurance.

Often residential designers are people who where trained as an architect but never completed their license. Or they are people like myself who have been in the homebuilding industry for 27 years and has actually built close too one hundred houses. Also many RD's are certified through an organization called the American Institute of Building Design.

Here: http://www.aibd.org/

[mx2]

Chris, after all of these years you still don't get it: Architects "design" homes...they don't just regurgitate a set of plans and build it. An engineer could do that.

And the point being made is that a well designed house would command more re-sell value...hence the claim that this would pay for the architect. It's an over-generalization for sure and there is no way to prove it except to somehow build two homes side-by-side and compare: one designed by an experience architect and the other designed by someone else.

mx2.5

[phansford]

[csintexas]

Any builder could tell the same story. I have built many houses that sold a year or two latter for much more than I charged to build them.

As far as design goes I have never seen evidence that any group as a whole has better taste than any other group. There are good and bad designers in all groups but there does tend to be more bad residential designers than architects because there are more residential designers than architects designing houses. Also architects tend to work in the high end of the market where you have nicer lots and bigger budgets.

I do agree though that a well designed house will sell for more than a poorly designed one on the same site. So whichever someone picks to design their house they should make sure that person is good.

[djswan]

Everyone is high off an inflated housing market. Welcome to the hangover. Lets see how the custom house fairs during recession.

I've built a few houses for some big wig lawyers. Those cajun good 'ol boys, that won the tobacco settlement. Lawers are not very good builders like most people. For some reason they thought they were good designers like most people. I won my case against them, and was awarded another something to build and design. Clients are just good for the money, if they knew how to build and design they wouldn't be a client. and I respect lawyers enough not to tell them how to get me out of jail if the need arises. My "give me money and I will build you something" philosophy works if you have a base of ethics and are not afraid of your own success. Clients are always wrong?

[mx2]

[djswan]

Architects are fun to show off at parties. so is a butler. So cute in thier black outfits.

I made a living building T-11 skirts around mobile homes and little redwood decks. Carpenters are for everyone.

[csintexas]

[mx2]

Still a crybaby I see...I really should go back to elementary school to learn to read at your level.

Insinuations is your forte'...gives you all kinds of leeway to begin cojoling someone into senseless arguments.

Let's stick to the point shall we? You were inferring that builders can add avlue just as an architect can however originally you were arguing architects dont add any value. Not to mention you have insunated architects only of designing probems and Modern houses. And have yet to make any point as to why you despise Architects so much carte blanche!

If your looking for Architects to hail Residential Designers and Blueprints.com I think you're barking up the wrong tree. Might as well ask surgeons to hail nurses for being able to do everything a surgeon can do.

Architects work where they can get paid and on occasion do pro bono work, usually for CEU points...but of course they follow the money trail. Should we pity the RD's because they don't? Ah...sorry...you didn't say that.

mx2.5