Scale and Context

When I started to practice architecture in the late 70’s and early 80’s, I bemoaned the fact that the choice of exterior finish materials or building cladding was extremely limited. Cast-in-place concrete facades pretty much died out with Art Deco (although we are left a handful of marvelous buildings from that time).

Continue reading “Grenfell Tower Disaster, Part I: What is the Local Context?”

This is the last installment in my series on building project delivery options. If you find yourself here and have not read the preceding related blog posts, I would encourage you to do so. It may offer some clarity, and at least you will gain an appreciation of how our provincial government has, over the course of many years, managed to bungle the lot. Which leads me to consider Public Private Partnerships or P3s.

Continue reading “Project Delivery IV: Put the Vaguest Idea of What You Want Out There, have the Multi-Nationals Take Over, then Convince the Public That It’s the Cheapest Way”

Now there’s a practical alternative to Design-Build called Construction Management. The NL government hasn’t used it because it thinks that such a project delivery method is contrary to Public Tendering philosophy. Of course if they cared a whit about “best value” they would research Construction Management to discover that consultant, construction manager and all sub-trades are competitive proposals / bids. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Continue reading “Project Delivery III: Design some of It, get a Construction Manager Involved, have the Construction Manager Guarantee the Price to Build It”

A variation of the traditional design and construction process began to evolve in Canada about twenty years ago. It was extolled as shortening the front-end work and getting to a fixed contract price much earlier in the game.

Commonly known as “Design-Build”, this delivery method involves determining the architectural (functional) program and an overall concept together with multi-disciplinary performance specifications for detailed design and construction. This outline information is then tendered, usually to invited “Design-Build” contractors who have been pre-qualified as capable of delivering the project under consideration. The tender time however can be quite protracted, as each contractor is responsible to put together an exclusive consultant team to develop a preliminary design of sufficient detail that it can be priced with reasonable accuracy. The tenders are then evaluated using various parameters, not the least of which is cost.

Continue reading “Project Delivery II: Design some of It, then Bid it, then Handover Total Control to a Contractor to get it Built”

 

Okay. I’m going to go there. With forty years of architectural experience I simply can’t waste this while it’s fresh in my mind. This will be the first in a series of four posts that will examine how building projects are designed and constructed (at least in NL). These are not intended to be educational. They are intended to explore a number of things, such as:

• What delivery methods are most likely produce quality buildings and quality architecture;
• What delivery methods represent the best bang for the client, especially if the client is ultimately the taxpayer; and
• Which delivery methods have been so bastardized by the bureaucratic or (so-called) project management process that they are barely recognizable as any sort of logical, practicable or cost-effective process?

Continue reading “Project Delivery I: Design It, Bid It and then Get It Built”

For four millennia the plumb projects for architects have been monumental public buildings. Think pyramids, Greek temples, Gothic cathedrals. As suggested by these examples, religion has had a lot to do with monumental scale, but in recent decades, we have more commonly celebrated architectural monuments to finance and the arts. Continue reading “Monuments to Accessibility”

Early in my career I was asked to design a house for a wealthy, young couple that had no children and were quite adamant that that was the way it would remain. The site was rather idyllic – a southern exposure at the end of a dirt path in a rural part of the province. They had contrived the program of spaces, but when it was given to me to begin concept design, I was confounded. It was almost four-thousand square feet! In what could only be described as naïveté, I pointed out to them that surely two people did not need that much house! I was pretty much told that they had the money and that I was not asked to downsize them – I was asked to upscale them. Continue reading “The McMonster Home in St. John’s”