An office condo and what do architects really do?

Hi! This blogging stuff takes up a great deal of time! When I started, I thought I would be able to blog about a different project every other Friday but it has been really difficult to keep up!

Anyway, I thought for this post and the next couple of posts I would try to write about what exactly an architect does and use some of my current projects to help illustrate. There's no way I can convey in one blog post exactly what an architect does but hopefully after a few of these you'll start to get the point.

The project above is one that I started a couple weeks ago and has recently been submitted to the planning commission for review. This project will be located behind an existing bank that is adjacent to a heavily traveled highway in middle Tennessee. The client for this project is a developer/contractor and they will be the general contractor for the project. The design aesthetic and material selections were driven by the existing bank structure. The buildings will be approximately 60 feet apart, so the owner asked that we design something that speaks to the architecture of the existing bank and keep the design within a strict budget.

Architects work with clients in a structured sequence of phases. These phases help define the scope of our services and provide benchmarks for a client and architect to look forward to when designing a project. We have completed the programming, schematic design, and design development phase for the referenced project above. Once we have Planning Commission approval, we'll complete the construction document phase (detailed floor plans, building sections, elevations, details, schedules, etc.) The last two phases are the bid phase and construction administration. We'll talk more about the different phases of a project later.

I think a big misconception about architects is that we sit in an air conditioned office all day and draw/color pretty pictures. And we do. But that's only a small portion of what we do. I'll talk about more of what we do in later posts.

Thanks for the time,

Joshua