People have asked us what are we doing differently in the recession? Our biggest change is in reducing costs by controlling costs. From initial design through move in, cost often is foremost in our clients’ minds, therefore we have changed the way we build to reduce costs. Many clients come to us because as both architects & contractors, we can design more closely to a client’s budget than most. We have found we can also stretch this budget by managing the construction process a little differently. Where previously our in-house crews did all the construction work except for certain highly specialized work, we now subcontract much of the work while still providing close management of time and quality. The subcontracting provides good cost control because these tradespeople are expert at one thing, such as framing — that’s all they do! But an all around carpenter can not be the fastest (thus least expensive) at everything, such as framing and finish carpentry and demolition, etc. So we now often subcontract these phases of the work. How much we can subcontract depends on how the project is designed. We try not to let the cost controls dictate the design, because it’s the design our clients will be living with day after day, year after year, but costs do affect design, just not control design. We work to find the right balance from the beginning and still create great spaces to live!
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