Quick Guide to Hiring an Architect

by Tony Chavira

There are dos and don’ts for hiring any kind of service person, and when it gets right down to it architects are no different. At their very core, I want you to remember that being an architect means having four key jobs (which I’m listing in order of importance):

1. being an artist
2. being an engineer
3. being an researcher
4. being a project manager

I’m going to bring all four of those up at some point in this quick guide, so keep them in the back of your mind somewhere.

There are a few things you have to remember not to do when hiring an architect for any job, whether you want to redecorate your kitchen, remodel a wing of your home, build a restaurant in a cool area of town, or build a skyscraper on that empty downtown lot of yours. First, you don’t want to just hire your friend’s friend because “he’s an architect, he can help you.” Second, don’t just agree to work with any old architect in this economy, as they will almost definitely tell you that they can design anything no matter the type of structure. They are just saying what it takes because they want the work (as we all would). Third, if you want something specific or like a certain building design style, don’t just go to a contractor who’ll promise to do what you want and get some architect on board to sign the drawings. The architect should lead the contractor, and not the other way around.

The Architect's Dream, by Thomas Cole

These are general lessons that apply to hiring either a commercial or a residential architect, so determine for yourself what will work for your purposes. Let’s get to it, then.

1. Do Your Research. If you were arrested, you don’t just walk into any lawyer’s office and tell them to get to work. They wouldn’t want you to do that either (unless you were super rich), so instead you look for a lawyer who has a really strong understanding of your situation. The reason some architects are comfortable telling you they can build anything is because they can always use some of your money to hire another person who knows exactly what they’re doing. The problem with that is that they themselves may not know exactly what they’re doing, so they’ll spend all kinds of time being a researcher and figuring out what it’ll take to build your project, and that just be a waste of money and time for both of you. Just as important, remember that architects are artists and you want to make sure that they design buildings the way you like them. You don’t buy paintings you don’t like, do you? Why would you hire an architect that designs buildings you don’t like? Besides, everyone’s got a website these days, so doing the research shouldn’t be too tough.
2. Figure Out Your Budget Beforehand. The reason I’d recommend you veer away from contractors and sway more toward hiring an architect for your project first is because architects are (generally speaking) better project managers than contractors for your purposes. They can help you to maximize and negotiate rates for services and materials a lot faster than contractors and usually don’t have a vested interest in marking up the price of construction because they present you with a flat rate for their services, and negotiating to be cost-effective is part of the architect’s job. Remember: they’re rsearchers for you. With that in mind, be very realistic when you talk to your architect about what you want and what your budget looks like. If you want a restaurant and have $500,000, just say so. A corporate center for $1 million? That’s doable. They can give you a few options based on their experience and determine for you just how flexible you can be. Contractors aren’t necessarily bad options but, in many cases, they have deals to markuup materials and services to maximize their profit any way they can from your job. Besides, it’s always better to get lots of options than to get none.
3. Don’t Be Afraid to Slow Things Down. Like all people you work with, you want to make sure they’re good project managers that you get along with while getting things done. Remember, you have a project that’s worth the architect’s time. If you want to take things one step at a time, make that clear to the prospective architect. You might want to take your project in phases, so you’re not locked into paying a gigantic fee you’re uncomfortable with once you actually start working with the architect and engineers. The architect is a project manager, and like all good project managers the architect should be able to take care of each step effectively and on-time while working with you. If you have concerns and need to pause, you should have the liberty to do that. It’s your money, not theirs. And it’s your project too, regardless of who’s managing it. Most important, if things don’t look like they’re working out, remember that you can drop your architect and pick up a better one any time you want.
4. Know That You Can Trust Their Expertise. The artist side of the architect is balanced by the engineering side of the architect. Your project will have engineering needs that are specific to whatever you want to build: you might need a complicated plumbing system, a massive IT electronic grid, or an efficient air conditioning/heating system, and those engineering calculations probably won’t be done by the architect themselves. I can pretty much guarantee that they also won’t spend any time doing the research to learn how to do it. Instead, they’ll subcontract an engineer who focuses on your engineering needs specifically. Just like hiring the architect, make sure you can trust that your chosen architect has a track record for working with strong, knowledgeable engineers and that they introduce those engineers to you. As long as they check out and you’re comfortable with their choices, everything should be right as rain.
5. Expect to Spend More Money Than You Think. Although architects are not going to lie to you about the job being cheap, a lot of changes will probably have to be made while your project is coming together. Unfortunately, there are certain variables you can’t control, most prominently the plethora of codes and policies that will apply to the development of your space. You, of course, are not required to know those things. The architect, on the other hand, should at least know where to find this information. Some are simple, like “a room this size needs this much light.” Some are hard and require tons of review that will go back and forth between you and bureaucratic types, slowly adding billable hours. Building a house on a flat suburban street’s going to fall under different codes than building a house on a hill. And that’ll be different from renovating a historical home on a hill. And that’ll be different from renovating a historical home on a hill in a low-income neighborhood. These little changes will chisel away at your nest egg, so be clear with your architect from the onset that you have a range and be realistic with yourself about how much you’re probably going to spend. Architects who promise the world usually can’t deliver it on a super-tight budget.

At the most basic level, you have to be sure that a) they’re professionals and b) you can get along with them. If you don’t get along with someone and they’re unprofessional, that’s essentially a project killer, and you won’t believe how many people just hire architects based on their name or supposed level of prestige. Find someone that works for you, someone you like, and you can’t go wrong.

Next week: A Masterplanning! Quick Guide to Hiring a Contractor.

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