Forum Archive: Architects

After meeting with a few architects and contractors I think I am close to selecting a team for my renovation work.

Before I sign on the dotted line I just wanted to give them all one final check, so was wondering if anyone has any suggestions of ways to research these professionals to make sure they don’t have complaints or violations filed against them, etc.
Any ideas where/how I would do this, other than a quick google search and searching the forums here?

I am looking to hire an architect and could use some advice from this board on how to do so most sensibly. I own a condo where I am looking to move the kitchen from the back of the apartment to a different room. We don’t plan on doing anything fancy with the kitchen and will, in fact, likely use Ikea and one of their installers to finish the room. Because I have to move the kitchen, however, I find myself in need of architecture services.

My problem is that all the architects I have contacted seem to want a contract to redesign the space into something custom and/or have a minimum for doing anything involving the DOB. Both end up with costs that are far in excess of the rest of the work and are making doing the project a challenge. I get that an architect (and the DOB) is going to cost me something – I am not railing against those I have met as I am sure for high end installations they are great. However, but can anyone give some insight into my best course here to minimize costs and get the work I need approved (basically a prepped room ready for a kitchen install)? Are there architects that work on a flat fee for a job like this? Any idea of overall cost I should be expecting?

Thanks.

Anyone had experience with them?

We’re looking for an architect to obtain a permit and DOB filing for a small deck we are putting up over a backyard extension. We’ve got the contractor already. The architect he uses is charged like 40% of what the cost of the deck would be (not including DOB filing fees, etc.). Seems high to us for what’s a pretty simple job (since our plan is consistent with DOB rules/regs). Recs?

thanks.

I’m interested in buying a row house in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens area and I would like to interview any architects with experience in this location, preferably, or architects with experience renovating single family row houses.

We send out proposals to very good prospective clients when requested. However we never landed anything lately because there is always competition who would charge less down the block seeing our proposal. My partners say our proposal is too detail. Client would use our proposal to shop around and our competition would always promise more and charge slightly less. We have excellent service and experience. but first time client would never know. They would always go with the cheapest. Any idea. Our proposal would list any amount of fees and any future cost to clients such as TR-1 and even the $45 permit fee. Are we being too honest?

Hi all,

The management company has an architect that they recommend to inspect the exterior of the building to give us a ‘laundry list’ of repairs we will need to make.

My question is this: We know we want the architect to review every elevation, plus the roof to tell us what repairs we should make in the short, medium and long term; what should we put on the SOW?

This architect was MUCH cheaper than any that I was able to find on my own… I want to make sure we get what we want (not an apple when I am thinking we need an orange, so to speak).

Any help is more than appreciated!

K

Hi, I know this has been asked before, but the posts are a bit old, so thought I would ask again. We are doing a complete and utter (fairly high-end) gut renovation on a 2300 sq ft brownstone. We are going to retain an architect for all of the standard services (plans, general design assistance, permitting, overseeing the bidding and meeting with contractor weekly, etc). We found an architect that we really like, but her fee is 18% of the total construction costs. Is this reasonable for a job of this size?

I am currently looking at townhouses and hoping to find one to purchase. I was wondering if I wanted to have an architect take a look at a townhouse and give me their impressions before I committed to purchase it, would most architects do that for a fee or for free with the hope that they would get some business assuming I bought the place?