Craig,
To elaborate a little more on Mark’s experience, until the last year I have felt new to the business because of the renovation work that has become more prominent in my work efforts. There is a great quote in a book about Belichick where he said he found the key to success: “It was in being organized; the more organized you were at all times, the more you knew at every minute what you were doing and why you were doing it, the less time you wasted and the better a coach (architect?) you were.”
I think that sums up my feelings about new design/construction, but up until recently not renovation. Renovation, some call it restoration at times, is very different from new construction in some important ways and it takes experience to form a process or as Belechick said to become organized. Probably one of the key aspects is being able to define the work in a manner that allows you construct a bill of quantities and get a price from a contractor that is real for the work to be done. Some architects have the luxury of not being held accountable to budgets in the sense that their preparation before hand is spotty and leaves much out resulting in cost overruns, but for some reason they are made of Teflon and it just doesn’t stick to their otherwise stellar reputation. In many instances the architect is skillful at passing the blame to the contractor and the superintendent, maybe even the client. Everyone knows what happened but allow this game to be played. And getting a reputation for this does not endear you to the contractors and I think when you have them bid your projects they begin to factor in their pricing the costs of doing business with an inexperienced or unprepared architect.
The key for me was to organize the whole process in a manner that could pinpoint all the costs associated with the work as best as possible while building into the process some flexibility for shifting costs from one area to another to respond to unforeseen issues, including design modifications I wanted to make, and still end up under budget. Now some might say that is easy if you project it costs $1 tell the client it will cost $2. You can’t do that. If your estimated project costs are too high to cover either for your lack of planning or to ensure no overruns you scare the client/club, you put your contact at the club in a difficult position as they try to explain the high budgets to the board or members, and every one starts to lose confidence in the process. If however with experience you are able to identify all of the costs that could possibly be encountered in the process you do end up with some flexibility because not all of the possible cost issues that are built into your process will occur therefore there will be some money saved, and that leaves some funds to direct toward any design modifications that may result in extra costs. Typically what happens is that even in the design process you find that there is more design than is needed so once construction begins you actually start taking away from the design as you refine and tighten your design concepts and those design modifications in the field actually save money.
Furthermore, if your process is organized then two things happen. When you bring the projected costs to the club there may be surprise, there typically is, at the costs of construction. In some instances I have had 4 to 5 meetings on site to go over the process because the board has trouble understanding why things cost so much for what to them seems like a simple project. Many times it is a simple project but to do it right, to do the construction in a way that is final, it does cost some money. Once you go through that process and they begin to understand how you arrived at your quantities and projections they have more confidence and that is carried through in their conversations with other members which begins the important process of building more consensus for the work that is about to be done. Second, when you go to bid the contractor pricing comes in right on your projections. That further enhances the confidence of the club. Then of course the execution in the field in accordance with the budgets and the quality of the resulting work confirms your process. The process its organization is the one thing that is underestimated as you come into the field of design. To illustrate I am working with a club whose bunkers are collapsing from a botched renovation a few years ago. I would say every other week a bunker face collapse and falls into the bunker. Last year a contractor fixed one to show the club how they could be fixed. Everything was great, looked fine. I became engaged with the club and began the process of looking at other bunkers that were collapsing. Through the process I came to a figure per bunker that was considerably higher than what the contractor charged to fix them the year before. Obviously my process is called into question. Being confident in it I was able to patiently take them through the proper process for fixing the bunkers and was able to achieve acceptance. The contractor admitted cutting corners and pricing the work to low to get his foot in the door knowing there was much more work coming. This came out in the bid process and when we closely examined the work he did and I explained where the corners were cut the club began to understand why my per bunker price was higher than what he charged them. Another contractor got the job and the construction is going very well. And, unfortunately, but as a measure of redemption, the one bunker the contractor did last year collapsed 2 weeks ago.
Again, the hardest part I think is putting in the time and gaining the experience from your mistakes to organize a process that allows you to do the very best work. It is much more than just pontificating on great design concepts or on relating the virtues of the great masters. It has to carry through to the field in an honest way.