Architect's fee?
I am thinking of hiring an Architect for a gut renovation project involving a 2 family brownstone. What percentage of the total construction budget is typical for setting the Architects fee?
I am thinking of hiring an Architect for a gut renovation project involving a 2 family brownstone. What percentage of the total construction budget is typical for setting the Architects fee?
I got good results from D Lang when I bought in Park Slope..
http://www.drewlang.com
30 Vessey St. 11th Fl.
NYC.. 213-233-9187
dl@drewlang.com
Myrnett..
I’m an architect and my partner and I have worked on many residential projects on all ends of the cost spectrum: from $75psf gut renovations to those costing $600psf. We charge a percentage of the cost of construction (we’ve found there is an extremely direct correlation between the cost of construction and the level of detail required for the drawings) — where the overall fee is for full architectural services from the first schematic design through construction administration. We breakdown the fee by percentage according to the various phases of the work and, as others mentioned above, we can perform more or less of the various phases depending on your needs, budget and complexity of the job. I’d be happy to talk to you about this further and see if we could help you with the project: you can reach me at tbraude at gmail dot com.
Talia Braude
Braude Pankiewicz Architects
I’m an architect, and I have found that in jobs like these, an hourly rate works best. I prepare a spreadsheet listing all of the tasks needed to complete the job, listing the amount of hours for each drawing, hours for filing, hours per site visit and proposed number of site visits, and then show a line-item summary of the spreadsheet to the client right in my proposal.
That way the customer can see how many hours are expected to be devoted to each part of the job and we can work together to tailor the extent of my work to match the owner’s needs and expectations.
In my invoice, I bill only for actual time spent, so the fees are more closely related to the work performed, regardless of construction budget. I have gone over my budget only a couple times, and those were when the customer made changes during the job which significantly added work or required changes to work already performed. If I just plain underestimate the work, then it’s my fault and I suck it up and eat the costs myself.
If you’d like to speak with me about the work and get a better idea of my costs, feel free to contact me off-list at: jim(at)urban-pioneering.com.
Jim Hill, RA, LEED AP
Urban Pioneering Architecture
Go for a flat fee as RG did. When you go percentage there is every incentive for the architect to drive up the price and no incentive to stay within budget. Also, you can buy a $500 fridge or a $5000 fridge; it’s the same amount of work for the architect but you will be paying a much higher fee every time you go for upgraded materials.
Just as with contractors, the quality of architects is hit or miss, so having on supervise construction doesn’t guarantee you anything except that you’ll be paying a high fee.
Depending on what you need done, it could be more or less than 10%. You may also need to factor in some engineering costs, in particular if you are going to be doing an addition or adding new central A/C.
I think RG was lucky indeed to have a good contractor. The things that cost the most time and money in these kinds of projects are mistakes.
It depends how involved you want your architect to be.
We did a major renovation (moved all bathrooms and kitchens), but had the architect only draw up the plans and get it passed at the DOB. Beyond that, he was not involved, because we couldn’t afford it. We paid him a flat fee.
Luckily, we had a great GC and we were at the site daily, so there was no danger of things getting out of hand.
Good luck.
what bessie said
Small job like this would be 10 to 15%.