C. Architectural Home Design for new, sustainable/regenerative homes (fixed fee contracts)

While I am willing to discuss a project at any stage of development, ideally, you and I will begin to co-create the sustainable home of your dreams prior to purchase of land or a home site. All services in this category will be tied to fixed fee contracts that include at least one Design Stage. The potential Design Stages of a fixed fee contract include the following:

1. Home Site Assessment: providing advice about the feasibility and issues associated with a specific site, assess the characteristics of specific home site. This often involves travel and in-person meetings as desired by the client.  This stage of the effort can be accomplished on an hourly basis plus travel expenses if desired by the client. Often, this stage runs concurrent with the programming stage and can be informed by the Sustainability Goals of the project
2. Programming: creating Sustainability Goals, organizing and discovering the specific functions and qualities that a client wants in a home. Early vetting of potential general contractors may take place in this design stage or the Schematic Design phase. In-person meetings are necessary for this effort, including all persons who have final decision-making.  Additionally, while the effort itself is not overly time consuming, this part of the effort often takes more time than a client expects due to the need to allow time for “thinking” and for the iterative process of organizing-discovering information/client review and feedback/organizing-discovering information/client review and feedback/etc. It is critical to spend appropriate amounts of iterative time in this effort to define the Sustainability Goals clearly.
3. Schematic Design: beginning to lay out schemes for a home, including sketches of floor plan(s) and elevation massing, proposed mechanical/electrical/plumbing systems, and rough energy use calculations. Meeting with any governing authorities about potential goals that may conflict with local regulations. It is advisable to choose, at minimum, a general contractor at this stage. Substantial in-person meetings of any team members are necessary for this effort. In this stage the iterative process is critical to reducing the cost of the home while simultaneously meeting the project’s Sustainability Goals.
4. Design Development: developing the home as a full entity including plans, elevations, sections, major critical details, making major product and mechanical/electrical/plumbing systems decisions. Completing a full energy analysis. Creating rough specifications. At this stage of design, it is critical to choose a general contractor and advisable to choose major system subcontractors. In-person meetings of all team members are necessary for this effort. In this stage the iterative process is critical to reducing the cost of the home while simultaneously meeting the project’s Sustainability Goals; it should be noted that in a healthy, high performance home, this is often the longest Stage.
5. Construction Drawings: creating the final set of plans to construct the home, adding minor details. Any deviations from the Design Development stage due to cost, revised goals, market or code conditions are incorporated at this stage. Final submittal for permits completed and the final price is completed. Minimal in-person meetings of the entire team are necessary during this stage. Unlike a traditional project, this stage often takes less time in a healthy, high performance home design.
6. Bidding Phase: this phase is generally not applicable to healthy high performance home design as the general contractor and major subcontractors are already involved in the process.
7. Construction Phase: overseeing construction to assure the design/construction document requirements are implemented/revised due to unexpected issues and the Sustainability Goals of the home are met. Documenting that any green credentialing of the home is completed as a design professional (separate services are available for inspection of homes to meet green credentialing programs). This stage involves site visits, usually on a weekly basis.