Proceeding from design into construction means that your Architect serves as your representative and advocate for ensuring that a Contractor builds your project to fully realize the design intent and maintain all appropriate standards of quality.
This guide, which assumes the most common arrangement of design-bid-build, outlines the key milestones of the process and the professional services that your Architect provides leading up to and during construction.
Construction Documents
Before the selection of a Contractor, an Architect prepares a comprehensive set of construction documents that provide a thorough representation of your design intent, and form a legal basis for your construction contract with the Builder.
Construction Drawings are the visual instructions for building your project. These detailed drawings include annotated floor plans, elevations, sections, and details that show exactly what is to be built.
Specifications are a detailed and organized companion to the Construction Drawings, and describe the many materials, products, hardware, accessories, and equipment that you and your Architect select for the project, as well as standards for quality, worksmanship, installation, and performance for all such selections and other management aspects of the project.
Bidding
Bidding is the recommended approach to hiring a Contractor for most projects.
The construction documents are provided to several competiting qualified bidders (your Architect can help you select bidders, interview them, review examples of their past work, etc).
The Architect hosts each bidder for a walkthrough of the project site to review the scope of work in field, and distributes answers to questions from each bidder as they prepare their proposals.
Once bids are submitted, the Architect reviews them for completeness and accuracy, summarizes points of comparison, and may provide recommendations based on each Contractor's qualifications and pricing.
Value Engineering
Once you select a Contractor, if the proposed bid amount exceeds your budget or contains any major cost inefficiencies, your Architect will work with the Contractor in a collaborative process known as value-engineering, in which the scope may be strategically altered, and substitutions or other cost-saving alternatives are proposed and evaluated, to arrive at a contract sum that gives you the best possible version of your design scope within your budget.
That value-engineered new contract sum becomes the cost basis of your contract with the Builder.
Construction Administration Services
Regular Site Visits & Reports
Your Architect conducts regular site visits (usually weekly) to observe the progress and quality of the work, and provides written reports that create a valuable record of the entire construction phase.
These visits are not continuous on-site supervision (the Contractor is reponsible for day-to-day construction means and methods) but are meant to check the work is proceeding in accordance with the design intent & contract documents, answer Contractor questions in the field, and identify any non-conforming work for correction.
Submittals
Submittals are an essential tool of quality control, and are the product data sheets, samples, or other documentation that the Contractor submits for the Architect's review of major materials and project components prior to their purchase.
The focus of submittal review is to ensure compliance with the project design intent and specifications and provide corrections via markups, but submittals are also an opportunity for Vendors and Subcontractors to raise questions for the Architect or request clarification on technical aspects of the item in question.
Shop Drawings
Shop Drawings are a special form of submittal, where detailed drawings are prepared by the Contractor, Vendor, or Subcontractor, for the Architect's review and approval, to show how more complicated elements of the project will be fabricated and installed.
Common examples of shop drawings include custom millwork, windows & doors, structural elements, countertops or other custom slab elements, and glasswork.
RFIs (Requests for Information)
Contractors submit RFIs to the Architect (formally or informally) whenever they need clarification about the contract documents or encounter conditions in the field that require interpretation or adaptation.
Your Architect responds to RFIs promptly, providing written clarification or supplemental drawings (sketches/SKs) as needed.
Substitutions
When a Contractor proposes to substitute a product or material, your Architect reviews the subsitution request to determine acceptable equivalence in quality, appearance, and performance and make a recommendation to you.
Substitutions are often proposed out of necessity (such as avoiding a long lead time) or as a recommendation for cost-savings or better suitability.
Change Orders
Change Orders are proposed modifications to the construction contract by the Builder that typically involve additional costs. They may result from design changes that you request, unforeseen existing conditions discovered during construction, product and material availability issues, and so on.
Your Architect provides an assessment of all proposed Change Orders, and negotiates cost and schedule impact with the Contractor on your behalf. Anything already described in the Construction Drawings & Specifications, for example, is typically not subject to change order even if overlooked by the Contractor during bidding. All change orders require signed approval from Owner, Architect, and Contractor before becoming valid.
Payment Application and Certification
The Architect reviews and certifies payment applications made by the Contractor, in coordination with a site visit to verify that all work for which payment is requested is complete and in accordance with the design intent.
This review adds protection for the Owner with an indepedent and informed assessment of construction progress prior to releasing funds, and with consideration to the overall budget and funds that remain for outstanding work.
Typically, the Contractor submits a payment application each month, requesting payment for itemized work that was completed during the prior period.
Milestones towards Construction Completion
1. Substantial Completion
Substantial completion is a major milestone, reached when the project is close enough to completion that it could be occupied, even if minor work remains to be finished.
Substantial completion is formally established with the Architect's certification and a joint walkthrough and inspection with Owner and Contractor.
2. The Punch List
At substantial completion, all incomplete or deficient work is documented, and the Architect and Contractor agree upon a list of outstanding items and a timeline for completing them that becomes the punch list.
Progress towards completing the punch list is monitored by the Architect, and a final inspection will confirm that all items have been fully resolved.
3. Project Close-Out & Final Payment
Close-out involves collecting and organizing all final project documentation (such as operation manuals, equipment warranties, as-built-drawings, required certificates and permitting documentation, etc).
Once a final inspection confirms that all close-out requirements are satisfied and all punch list items are completed, the Architect will review and certify the Contractor's final application for payment, which includes final reconcilation of any outstanding change orders or credits.
4. One Year Warranty
Most construction contracts carry a one-year warranty from the date of substantial completion.
If any defects appear during the warranty period, your Architect will help evaluate whether or not they are covered, and assist with documentation and coordination with the Contractor to get them corrected.
Near the end of warranty period, your Architect can condust a final walkthrough to identify any warranty items requiring attention before coverage expires.
Questions about the construction process or the Architect's role in it?
Contact me at (646) 883-1012 or info@cdelarchitect.com to chat more in depth