CREJ - Building Dialogue - September 2015
While touring a newly renovated apartment tower and senior housing project in May fair last month, I ran into the developers. - We quickly engaged in a conversation about their choice of architects for the $50 million undertaking – a 163-unit upscale apartment complex and 72,000-square-foot, 88-unit assisted living/memory care facility. Refreshingly candid about their critical design choices, site challenges, the neighbors’ reaction to increased density, and balancing construction costs with the need for profit, the conversation soon shifted to an important but rarely discussed topic – what developers expect from their architects. The points Anne Rosen, co-principal of Denver-based Rosemark Development Group, made were both thoughtful and relevant, catalyzing this column in Building Dialogue. After interviewing Rosen, I also turned to David Klebba, vice president of construction for Houston-based Hines, who offered a large commercial developer perspective. Both were incredibly generous with their time and insights during a very busy construction season. I’ve consolidated their thoughts into a “CliffsNotes” version below in the hopes of uncovering a few undiscovered gems of wisdom. Rosen, with more than three decades of real estate experience, oversees design, entitlements, construction and marketing of Rosemark’s new projects. Before establishing her own real estate development company in 2005, Rosen served as director of real estate for the redevelopment of the former Lowry Air Force Base, now Denver’s 1,866-acre, award-winning Lowry community, with $1.1 billion in development value. Klebba, who has been with Hines since 2006, oversaw the recent development of 1601 Wewatta, a 300,000-rentable-square-foot LEED Gold office building located immediately adjacent to Union Station. He is now focused on downtown Denver’s most anticipated project – the 661,000-square-foot, 42-story, trophy office tower known as 1144 Fifteenth Street, projected to open in 2018. “My goal for an architectural team is strong design with a distinct point of view that will be relevant in 30 or 50 years,” begins Rosen. “A great designer should put ego aside, listen to all stakeholders, but be able to advocate strongly for their vision.” She continues, “An owner looks at the marketplace, creates a pro forma, then determines what the market can afford based on construction costs. While it’s incumbent on an owner to be clear about their intentions, if an architect feels strongly about a design element, they must be capable of pushing back, but also know when to stop pushing. If everybody is happy, you’ll probably have a mediocre product in the end. But also remember who is paying the bill, and be willing to listen when they say ‘no.’ That’s when egos need to be set aside.” Rosen believes a great design team should have interesting ideas, understand construction methods, be sensitive to the established budget and, above all, be organized and responsive. “But, like any organization, the product is only as good as the individuals working on it,” she notes. On Rosen’s current projects, two different design teams from the same firm have produced completely different experiences. “Before selecting a design firm, we look at individual team member’s strengths and weaknesses, past project experience on the same size/ type of structure as our project, as well as experience with the appropriate permitting jurisdictions to avoid steep learning curves,” she adds. Thoughtful, forward-looking professionals who listen well, are not defensive, are responsive and work well with all team members are critical, in her view. When problems arise, she reports, either the architects are not good communicators, are too disorganized to follow through on the submittals and RFI process, or they produce inadequate construction drawings. “Communication skills are key. Architects have to be able to communicate with me, the engineers, landscapers, interior designers, subcontractors and the construction guys who all have different communication styles,” she explains. “Finding those skill sets is our first job as an owner,” Rosen says. “But, when you ask for references, firms generally give you only their best references, or clients may avoid sharing anything negative. So, interviewing each team member and looking closely at their individual portfolios and past team relationships is critical. You’re not interviewing the firm, you’re interviewing the team.” Rosen emphasizes that because you’re married to the team for 12 to 36 months – from the concept stage through the certificate of occupancy – you’re going to spend a lot of time together, thus it’s critical that you get along and can survive the inevitable ups and downs as a team. Klebba, who has worked with architects for more than 16 years in many parts of the country, breaks architects down into “design” and “production” architects, who have a very different and equally important skill sets. The former tend to focus on the design only, he says, while the latter are “into the nuts and bolts and the construction documents.” “Usually, the nuts-and-bolts architect is the architect of record,” he shares. “And the design architect is a sub-consultant to them. That provides a check and balance to our projects that then transfers risk to the production architect, which ultimately keeps the design architect in check.” When asked what he expects from his architect, he responds, “Well, the owners can fail pretty miserably themselves. It’s not always the architect’s fault. If the owner isn’t communicating their program very early on in the project, the design will not go smoothly. It’s the developer’s job to restrict the architect to certain boxes so everyone is on the same page.” Klebba adds, “It can get frustrating when architects think they understand budgets, but typically, architects don’t understand the ramifications to the underwriting. When the owner brings up the budget issue, or construction folks throw up a red flag on a cost issue, they should heed that warning. You need to stop as a team, assess, and not let the design get too far down the road before addressing the issue.” He adds, “It’s also the owner’s responsibility to conduct continual budget checks through all design phases and not rely on the architect for cost control. To avoid costs spiraling out of control, rely on your own internal resources and check in throughout schematic design, design development and the construction document phase.”
He continues, “When it comes to budget constraints, the architect just needs to listen and take heed. I have either worked with, or observed, architects amenable to this, and architects that are not. It presents a very high level of frustration when our concerns about certain elements of the design that are becoming costly are not heard.” Klebba also highlights the importance of an architect’s experience with floor plate efficiency and designing for long-term maintenance – skills they look for when selecting teams. “Design details can just crush the long-term viability of a building’s maintenance efficiency – they get passed through to the tenant, which drives up their costs,” he explains. “So we really try to think that through early.” He also has high expectations of the architect when it comes to managing their consultants, and being responsive, especially once construction has begun. “It’s really frustrating when the architect doesn’t get their sub-consultants involved early enough to help move the design forward,” shares Klebba. “You don’t want the design to advance too far ahead of technical components that need to be incorporated into the design. When that happens, everyone loses.” “Responsiveness is directly connected to our bottom line,” he adds “It’s critical that architects staff to the level of management they promise, and are contractually obligated to provide during construction administration, so they can deliver.”