Not that this matters much any more, but each type of name for a road has a specific meaning.  As cities grow, the utilization of a road changes, which is understandable – however, it seems that streets, avenues, roads, parkways, lanes, etc are all synonymous.  Effectively, I guess they are.  But here is a breakdown, just for history’s sake.

Paris, France

Lane

A “lane” is actually considered to be more of an alternate entrance or secondary networks of roads.  A mention in Wikipedia says that large cities in Texas and Nevada apply the term to arterial roads.  I don’t know why this is unique to these two states only, but there is a [citation needed] notation next to that statement.

.

.

.

Street

The term street actually is more of an urban definition, although it started as a synonym of road.  However, a road is simply a means of transportation, but a street is more about public interaction and what is around it: shops, homes, whatever the case may be.

.

Champs-Élysées, Paris, France

Avenue

An avenue is a straight route with trees on either side usually planted quite regularly with the same species.  Several definitions I have run across include the concept of “arriving” – an avenue is like an entrance to a destination.

.

.

.

..

Boulevard

Boulevard

I have always considered a boulevard to include a vegetated median in the center, typically with trees.  Several definitions I ran across while researching this simply said “tree lined;” however, Wikipedia did, in fact, verify my preconceived notion, so that’s what I’m sticking to.  Besides the median, Boulevards are multi-lane and are often a thoroughfare.

.

Parkways

Parkways are considered highways, which are not really designed for high-speed travel of heavy vehicles.  They are typically separated with vegetation and have a vegetated median.

A parkway cuts through Mexico, D.F.

Road

In the true sense of the word, a road is actually a thoroughfare – the first roads that come to mind, of course, are the roads in the Roman network which linked provinces and towns to one another.  However, a road can be considered simply a recognized route that many people travel by.  A “public road” is considered a “highway.”

Amarillo Highway - West Texas

This submission won an honorable mention in a design competition the Dallas Center for Architecture (the Dallas AIA chapter office) held before they moved into their new space.  Valhalla Design Group and Centerpoint Builders put together a full design and budget for this project.  One of the judges approached us after the winners were announced and indicated that they had spent a lot of time reviewing the project: “your project was the only [finalist] projects that you could… you know…. DO.”

….

Peter Eisenman, House IV Transformation Study Project. Photographed at the MoMa in New York, 2008.

With our relationship with Centerpoint Builders, our preferred delivery method is design-build.  A primary difference between our delivery method and most others is that there is some shared ownership between the companies, which not only further aligns the interests of the owner, architect, and contractor, but maintains leadership throughout the process and maintains a design-based deliverable.  To take things further, we can bring other architectural or contracting firms into the fold of this arrangement, producing results that are not only limited to our in-house teams if the project requires it.

Schiff-Hardin, a sizeable law firm with offices around the United States, hosts an eloquent presentation regarding the design led design-build deliverable.  This presentation, given in 2006, speaks to the future, but shows in a nutshell how we produce our deliverable.

The presentation can be found here – you may need a plug-in installed in your browser to get this to work.  To pass over introductions and such, skip to about the 10 minute mark in the presentation.  That will bring the entire presentation down to over an hour, so start this when you have a little bit of time.

Highlights from the presentation:

• Emphasis on high quality design and construction.  The design team plays a major role and the entire delivery team as a whole is responsible to the owner.
• No loss in quality and design objectives between the design and construction process
• No need for “value engineering” as the design and construction process are in constant review.  The price and schedule can be guaranteed from the beginning of design.
• A win-win process whose economics encourage participation by quality design teams, contractors, and subcontractors
• RFP Process can be eliminated – trades are shown to the owner in an open book format – no hidden costs or markups.
• If the owner does not like the pricing results for whatever reason, at the end of design the project may be converted to a “traditional” delivery method.
• Value for the cost – in a design-bid-build scenario, lowball contractors can bid below the cost of the project, looking for omissions and other reasons or change orders to create profit
• These types of project delivery methods have a much cleaner litigation and claims record
• Single point of responsibility for the project, with the project team accepting responsibility for functional problems.  No finger pointing.

An unbuilt design for a new stand alone restaurant in North Texas.

BIM rendering of a Design Build Interior Finish Out, Dallas

There are other project delivery methods such as integrated project delivery (IPD);  however some of those take a lot of time and overhead which may not be suitable for a smaller project, say under $10M.  The Design-Build process enables a client to hold one firm accountable for the schedule, budget, and design of a project.  I’ll admit, there is a lot of trust involved here. My solution is pretty simple – if you don’t know it, ask it!  A truly integrated design build team will able to provide you with exactly what you need.  When having a conversation with the designer, ask how much it costs: right there in the meeting.  If he doesn’t know, she should get it to you in a day (OK, unless it is really complicated).  I get asked these questions quite a bit, and I’m just honest about it: “You may not want to hear this, but I bet this will cost about $10,000 to add.”  Frankness is important here – don’t let your design-builder beat around the bush.  When working with a design builder, transparency is key to what you want at the most efficient price.  As many construction firms work in the design-bid-build world, this can be a big paradigm shift: money is typically made up in forms such as scope gap and mis-coordination in drawings among different design disciplines and field conditions.

A design build team gets rid of much of this problem.  Our teams are unique in that they are architect run, versus many other organizations where a contractor will simply hire an architect as a subcontractor.  How does this affect the delivery experience?  A client deals with one person, from start to finish.  Obviously, other professionals come on as part of the team as required, but when there is a problem, there is one person to call.  Project delivery takes a long time, even with design build projects (even though there is a considerable cut in schedule).  The relationship that develops over that time, however, is a rewarding one.  In the end, the client and design builder have tremendous respect for one another and maintain a lasting relationship.

I like to believe this has everything to do with accountability.  In construction, there is an awful lot of finger pointing – someone else is always at fault.  Typically, these problems get so convoluted that an owner finally has to throw up his or her hands in disgust and pay a bill.  In the design-build scenario, the DB team is responsible.  There are still unknowns that should be accounted for in contingencies (standard risks such as subsurface conditions, environmental problems, weather delays, etc).  These risks are typically accounted for as a contingency in a design build contract (The AIA DB contract requires a 5% contingency built-in, for instance).  But all of those arguments about the “architect didn’t draw this,” “the electrician didn’t provide that,” and “no one is hooking that up because it isn’t in their scope” go away.

In the future, this blog will discuss more options in greater detail – IPD, lean construction, etc..  All of these delivery methods have to do with trust, which can be a hard hurdle to make; especially if you’ve been burned before in the construction industry.  But rest assured, there is a better way!

Lego Fallingwater. $100 / .347 sq ft. = $288 per square foot.

But what does $220 per foot mean to you?  Or $75 per foot?  Or $1000?  The fact of the matter is, there are a lot of moving parts in a price.  In order to demonstrate this, I have included a spreadsheet that is meant for medical office space in a new “shell” building for a doctors office in the 2000 square foot range.  This theoretical building is in the Dallas/Forth Worth area, has all entrances, electrical service, plumbing in a reasonable location, and concrete floors in-place.  Before we get into it, we are already talking assumptions, aren’t we?

For this illustration, we will use a small doctor’s office.  As time goes on, this blog may add more types of construction if we have the time, but I’m using this because it is simple and proves a point.  I can usually prepare a client by saying: this kind of space will probably cost you about $75 per square foot.  This may end up on the high side, but typically that number is relatively close.  As the space gets bigger, the costs can be spread over more area, so this number will go down.  For example, if we were to discuss a 7,000 square foot space, I might warn the client that we were looking at $65-$68 per square foot.  Funny, in the spirit of smoke and mirrors, the scribd preview below hides the bottom line number!  It is intended to read $132,972.

Before we get into this, please note that the spreadsheet in this post is purely illustrative: contractors will put together proposals different ways, have money put in different places (for example a drywaller may install the doors; in my example, $100 per door for installation is used in the door number).  The reason I am attaching this spreadsheet is so it may be played with; however it is not intended to be used for any business related activity – read more to find out why.

Let’s start with what everyone loves to hate: general conditions (referred to as GC’s).  The unfortunate thing about GC’s is that the same amount of work and expense that goes into a 1,500 square foot suite will go into a 4,000 square foot space.  GC’s can be broken down by schedule: in this case, this budget is calling for $4,000 per week.  This includes normal permit costs, miscellaneous work, on-site supervision, dumpster haul off, and normal billed staff activities.  If this finish out was twice the size, the amount of work and schedule would be relatively the same, so the price per foot would be diluted.

This list is in no particular order, so Millwork is next, known by normal people as cabinets. In this example, the custom-built cabinets are assumed to be finished with plastic laminate, include upper and lower cabinets, and have finished interiors.  The unit cost is $150 per linear foot, which can vary greatly depending on the complexity of the design.  In physicians offices, I always tell clients that the main drivers in offices are plumbing and millwork.  In this budget, you can see why.  120 linear feet is very light for a doctor’s office, but it is still one of the highest numbers on the budget.

Millwork. Well, this is casework (premanufactured).

Doors, frames, windows, and drywall have numbers based on historical data for the North Texas area; however changes in finish, window design, frames, etc. will have an effect.   A complexity in plan will obviously have an effect on drywall, but this per foot number is relatively accurate.  Paint is another historical number; this one assumes roll on texture and paint throughout.

Next is flooring.  In many offices, VCT (vinyl composite tile) is used throughout most of the office with the exception of the waiting room, bathroom, and doctor’s offices.  Obviously, you can see that VCT is cheap, but note that the tile does have to be waxed often and does need to be replaced once every 10 years (max).  However, if maintained poorly, its lifecycle can be very short.  In this illustration, the ceramic tile number uses the floor area of the bathroom to calculate the wall tile (up to 4’) as well, which is why the per foot number is so high.  Carpet is assumed to be a high quality commercial grade carpet.

VCT.

Most of the other numbers are based on historical data from the north Texas area.  Obviously from economies of scale, these numbers will vary, but for doctor’s offices these can be solid budget numbers as of this writing.

Then there is plumbing.  As mentioned above, this is one of the main drivers in a doctor’s office.  You’ll take one look at this spreadsheet at say: “$4,000 for a toilet?  You are out of your mind.”  While you are probably right, here is the reason behind it in this case: in a doctor’s office, bathrooms are typically off by themselves – unlike office buildings, which typically have multiple fixtures in one room.  This includes the water supply from above, the sanitary line below, vent line to the roof, and of course the fixture – which in the case of a tank toilet only costs about $300.  This price assumes first floor, which involves concrete trenching and pour back; however, if you are on an upper floor you may run into additional costs such as working in ceilings of the floor below at night to avoid disturbing normal business operation.  Prices for such fixtures have everything to do with distance to existing services – this is where the main costs come from.

Plumbing rough-in in the sunset.

Of course there is the GC fee – in this case a fair fee is shown, in some cases a contractor may include a markup in the other line items.  For this case, the budget is as transparent as possible.  Fees are, of course negotiable, but consideration needs to be given to the amount of effort and particularly the amount of risk a contractor takes.  In this case, $6,600 is a small number for the amount of work involved.

So here it is – one case in a thousand.  Feel free to play with the numbers, but take into consideration all of the stuff mentioned above and even more that I haven’t mentioned (this blog post is already too long).

This project is designed by the great folks at Merriman, Associates, Architects, inc. It is the first phase in a 4 acre site which will have a large sanctuary and other functions as the site develops.  For now, Phase I will serve as a sanctuary and multi-use building.  The project is designed with a high performance envelope, sustainable landscape and irrigation system, and sustainable interior materials, among others.  Although the project is under a tight budget, the design and construction team was able to continue to use the LEED building rating system as a guide to give the client a sustainable solution.

Our position as a private label architect working with Centerpoint allows us the opportunity to collaborate with other architects on many different levels.  Even though some are hesitant at first (are we a competitor…?), our open, collaborative way of doing business always ends up being an enjoyable project experience with great outcomes.

Visit this blog for current construction photos and the status of First Christian Church of Allen.