ARCHITECT/CLIENT RELATIONSHIP
building project. Upon establishing the project’s goals,
there will be meetings with the governing agencies, such
as the planning department, the building department,
and architectural committees. The primary goal of the ar-
chitectural team will be to initiate the preliminary plan-
ning and design phases.
In most architectural contract agreements, there are
provisions for the architect and the consulting engineers
to observe construction of the project during the build-
ing stage.
Construction Observation
When the construction firm has been selected and con-
struction has commenced, the architect and consulting
engineers, according to their agreement in the contract,
observe the various phases of construction. These peri-
odic observations generally correspond to the con-
struction phases, such as during construction of the
foundation, framing, and so forth. Following their obser-
vations, the architect and consulting engineers provide
written reports to the client and contractor describing
their observations, along with any recommendations or
alterations they deem necessary for success of the project.
Figure 1.3 Schematic studies.
7
Preliminary Designs and Reviews
The next step in the architect/client relationship is the
architect’s presentation of the preliminary planning and
design for the project. After the client’s initial review of
the project’s planning and design, there may be some
revisions and alterations to the design. In this case, the
preliminary drawings are revised and presented again to
the client for his or her approval. After the approval of the
preliminary design by the client, the architect consults
and presents the preliminary drawings to the various gov-
erning agencies for their review and comments. Any re-
visions and alterations that may be required by any one
of the agencies are executed and again reviewed by the
client for his or her approval. In many offices the pre-
liminary drawings are often used to estimate the initial
construction costs that will be submitted for review and
approval by the client.
In the preliminary planning and design phase, a con-
ceptual site plan and floor plan of the building areas are
reviewed for the building orientation and the preservation
of existing landscaping elements such as trees, topogra-
phy, and other site conditions. An example of a concep-
tual site and building plan is illustrated in Figure 1.3. The