DESIGN PROCESS

DESIGN PROCESS

Building a home with a designer should be fun. The experience should be one of the most exciting and creative efforts in one’s entire life. It can only be so, however, if the client and the designer enjoy that special rapport that comes from an understanding and appreciation of the other’s respective roles. The more a client understands the design process, the more compatible the partners in this cooperative effort become and the more gratifying the results.

There are four phases of the design process that culminate with the fifth phase of the Bidding and Final Budget.

PROGRAM

Site Evaluation

Preliminary Budget

Utility Locations

View Orientation

Permitting Requirements

General Specifications

Room Relationship

DESIGN SCHEMATIC

Site Plan

Floor Plan

Elevation Alternatives

Probable Cost Statement

DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT

Structural

Electrical

Mechanical

First Draft Permit Drawing

CONSTRUCTIONS DOCUMENTS

Subcontractors Scope of Service

Cabinets and Interior Doors

Sections

Final Permit Drawings

HOP Construction added design to its realm of services because it establishes “single point” responsibility for the owner. In other words, if a problem occurs on the job site, the builder and designer cannot blame each other if they are the same person.

Other advantages of design/build scenario include:

  • the availability of construction expertise during the design allows the designer to fully consider questions of constructability and cost
  • designers and builders have different motivations, and unproductive adversarial relationships can develop
  • a single contract for design and construction establishes “single-point” responsibility.