Most
churches don't realize that the single biggest mistake that they can
possibly make in hiring a design professional is not understanding
what role most architects actually play in the church design and
construction process. We have put together a video above and
a
list
of the top 10 reasons below to help you better understand the
importance of the design team that you hire, what their role is and how
to insure your project is a success.
Reason
#1 -
The
Architect assumes the Church has developed a realistic total project
budget and
have secured all funds necessary, before
they are hired.
Reason #2 - The
Church has not completed a feasibility study of the zoning,
regulatory and concurrency impact, land use regulations, environmental
restrictions,architectural standards and building code requirements and
their potential cost impact Before They Start
Designing.
Reason #3-
The
Architect assumes that the Church has adequately determined the On-Site
and Off-Site requirements, utility accessibility and installation
costs, parking and photometric requirements, traffic impacts, impact
fees ad overall site development costs associated with the project
costs. Before
they start designing their project.
Reason # 4
The Church has not accurately
accounted for
soft costs such as
attorney fees, engineering fees, surveys, environmental costs,
furniture and equipment costs, increased electric and maintenance
costs, audio, video and lighting costs, technology costs, threshold
inspectors, bank inspections etc. before they determine
their building cost budget to give to the
architect.
Reason #5
- The
church representative in charge of the building project does
not have enough time or sufficient training
to evaluate structural, HVAC, electrical, audio, video,
lighting,
civil and
plumbing drawings during design, in a manner that can control costs and
determine
constructibility errors before the project gets designed over budget.
Even if they do have the construction experience they typically don't
have the experience with
church building code requirements and the costs associated with
developing church space. Most church space is at least 40%-50% higher
costs than typical commercial projects due to added code
requirements.
Reason
#6
- The Church assumes that
the architect's
role is that of the developer.
and does not realize that most of the major issues that can adversely
impact the overall project costs do not fall within the architects
scope of services.
Reason #7
- The
Church does not have realistic
expectations
as to church construction costs
and over design the square footage of the project, or design the
project into non-phasable components to provide flexibility in budget.
Thus forcing them to abandon the project or go into significant
debt.
Reason #8-
Most Architects are not great at understanding
the cost impact of their
designs and are not required by contract to design into a
pre-determined budget. Therefore many projects get over designed
because the church gives the architect full reign of design yet they
have no accountability towards overall
costs to the church.
Reason #9
The Church does not structure the entire team up
front and
design
into a structured budget number. Instead they bring the team in
unilaterally
which causes communication breakdown, coordination errors and excessive
cost impacts to the
project.
Reason #10
The Architect and/or church rely
upon bidding a project to be the most
cost efficient method of saving money on the project. Yet in reality
90% of the costs are saved in the due diligence and design phases and
only about 10% of the project cost impact occurs in the construction
phase of the project. When their project bids come
in too high, or they are significantly over budget after a low bidding
contractor bait and switches them with excessive change
orders it causes the church to either abandon the project or go into
more debt.
