Architect Fees
Question: I have an informal agreement with my architect to pay him a fee based on a % of the construction costs. We never specified whether this would include the cost of finishes but I gather that is pretty standard. But what if the architect has no part in helping to pick the finishes –…
Question: I have an informal agreement with my architect to pay him a fee based on a % of the construction costs. We never specified whether this would include the cost of finishes but I gather that is pretty standard. But what if the architect has no part in helping to pick the finishes — is the cost of finishes still included in calculating the fee? And how is the fee actually calculated — based on a list that i prepare? And finally would the fee just include finishes that constitute fixtures — so for instance a through the wall AC but not a window box AC or TV for that matter?
Thanks all for your advice. Wish i had it 6 months ago!
I do it this way.
Ask your architect give you a proposal clarifying the scope of work and what is exclude, then your architect will produce the working drawing accordingly. So on the drawing/spec the architect might put down “as per owner’s selection” for floor tile. GC might give you the cheapest tile for the estimate cost. That’s the number you use to calculate for architectural service fee. You can always change the finish later.
Yes your architect will get paid by specifying “as per owner’s selection” for the % of probably cheapest finish, because he design that area as tile finish not wood or poured concrete for some reason.
I don’t like the flat fee situation. If you include many items in the scope of work, the fee is higher than doing it by %. If you don’t, the work maybe sloppy.
As architects, we have tried the % of construction approach but moved away from it-especially on smaller projects.
The problem is the vagueness that is inherent in the formula.
We have moved towards a fixed fee model where we calculate what we need to get for a job up front and then everybody is on the same page regarding what the fees will be.
If your architect does not want to do a fixed fee, you should really figure out what will count towards “construction cost” right now (yes, finishes should count, but only if they actually spend time researching and specifying them)before you start, and also what is to be provided to you for said fee.
Good luck with the project!
Some wise words here. We’ve gone the % route and it has worked for us although there may be folks out there who have a very strong sense of design such that they dont feel they need the architect to hand hold as much. A personal choice but similar to the advice above I’d strongly recomend you thrash this out in advance.
Some architects choose to work on flat fee basis as an alternative, and adjust their fee to account for how much work they will be doing on the project, including whether or not they will help select finishes. I’ve had great experiences with Ken Levenson, http://www.klarchitect.com/home.htm
Sage advice. Some architects are good at the guts and some at the finish. We needed a real meat and potatoes architect who understood construction and old buildings, but we wish we had had some hand holding for the finishes.
But talk to your architect. Don’t let vagueness hover until it creates a conflict or misunderstanding. Deal with it in advance.
There is no real standard. You need to work that out with your architect. Also, if your architect does not excel at design, you might want to exclude the finishing touches from your agreement and find a good designer instead.