One of the most enjoyable parts of working with Jon is how he exudes compassion for his clients. It's infectious. And I don't necessarily mean in a touchy-feely, super-emotional way—I'm talking about how important each aspect of each task is to him.
Jon received a phone call the other afternoon in which he discussed obtaining a Schedule of Values for a client. It refers to a very safe and practical way for contractors and clients to determine how the contractor gets paid; the architect in this case acts in the best interest of all parties as sort of a mediary, usually protecting the client(s) from contractors possibly swindling money from the project.
From Wikipedia:
"The Schedule of Values is a detailed statement furnished by a construction contractor, builder or others outlining the portions of the contract sum. It allocates values for the various parts of the work and is also used as the basis for submitting and reviewing progress payments.
As a project begins, the submitter (typically the contractor or construction manager) submits a Schedule of Values based on the original contract amount to the Owner or Owner’s representative (typically a contracted architect) for review. This is reviewed by all parties and approved if it is deemed acceptable. This schedule of values can be amended by change order.
When using the Schedule of Values (SOV) for pay applications the submitter will typically bill on a percentage basis. That is to say that the amount billed that month is __% of the overall line item. This value is then added to the total amount billed from previous pay requests. This total amount would be the total work completed to date. The balance to finish is then calculated by subtracting the total completed to date from the original line item total. The Architect or Owner’s representative will then review and approve the amount due to the contractor during that pay period."
Jon mentioned both during the call and afterward that as a result of his AIA membership, he has access to pre-written documents that handle things like this. While in most cases protections like these are common, he mentioned of stories where clients ended up thousands of dollars poorer than they should have been still without a completed house.
I suppose I thought of mentioning this in particular to show a realization that is maybe an obvious one, but extremely important nonetheless—that the role of the architect is much more than drawing the designs of buildings. Interacting with clients and contractors alike, assuring that the building process is going according to plan, working and designing within a client's budget... All of these are requirements for someone running the architecture firm as the sole architect oneself. And thankfully, I'm learning from someone who does so with the utmost care and seriousness in Jon.
An update on the model of Jon's house:
I've made some significant progress on modifying the structure as mentioned before.
However, Ron discovered that there was another version of the existing model that took into account other aspects of the design that were not mentioned by Jon initially, such as the differences in the nature of the entrance that includes a significantly more pronounced covering, among other things.
So now I will be modifying this newer existing model in the same way, while also fine-tuning a lot of the details regarding things like the color of the walls, the placement of windows, connecting the roofs of the A section to the B section, and many various things that Jon is mentioning as he looks over my shoulder periodically.
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| New existing model, still with old B sections needing to be removed |
I should also say that these modifications to existing models are naturally a bit more complicated than, say, selecting those old B sections, hitting the delete key, then moving everything over. SketchUp is pretty forgiving, as I said before; however, it's not always
that simple. :)
