don’t let ’em go – (or ‘er)

new steel column where we uncovered a wood stud column

What am I thinking about today? Contract Administration. Too many incidents and too many stories happened in the past few months.

But don’t let him go
Just give him a chance to grow
Take it easy, take it slow
And don’t let him go
Don’t let him go

If you’ve read my blog before, maybe you caught a past post on 10 Myths Why You Don’t Need an Architect During Construction. If not, click on the link and I’ll wait until you get back.

If you didn’t catch it, this is a century old beam splice over…wait for it…nothing. no support wall.

If someone cares an ounce or more about the success of their project, they’ll retain their architect during construction for what is customarily referred to as Contract Administration, and sometimes casually called construction observation. Either way, it could be the most important phase of service from your architect. Truly, if you’ve hired her to design your project, have her oversee the construction.

At this point, I’m not sure what else to say that could be more eloquent than the myriad of blog posts and articles out there. If you haven’t taken the time to explore them or talk to your architect about it, then you need to do that. Otherwise, I’ll believe you’re a wise person and already have him taking care of business.

We have taken a business position in my office that we will not accept a residential commission (except extreme rare occasions) unless we are retained to oversee construction. The same goes for commercial, except on only rare occasions. It’s not worth the liability and I cannot watch when the project unravels without proper communication between the designer, builder, and owner. Not that the architect is the sole hero, but a critical partner to translate the design.

There’s little left to say.

progress shot, in a state of incompletion (don’t @ me please)

Would you even know what to look for anyway?