I think that Rudy's post about the CG film industry is a very similar comparison. As an industry, they seem to be at a disadvantage similar to what we face. It does seem that as a whole, the public just does not understand what an architect adds to the equation. They see that engineers do the designs to keep the building standing as well as light, heat, cool, and plumb the everything while the contractors actually assemble the building. Why should they spend "extra" on an architect?
The bit about the director expecting eleventy-hundred retakes of the scene when only a few were in the original contract is another common issue. A customer (I have a hard time calling him a client) last year couldn't understand additional fees even though we were on the seventh redesign by the time things got under construction. He had no idea what he wanted, but was never willing to sit down and realistically discuss the plan in preliminaries so all the changes were done in construction documents including three times where I practically began again from scratch throwing out the previous work.
But to enter a question into the discussion relating back to Laura's original complaint - how do people deal with initial design submissions?
As I mentioned before, I've had customers (again, hard time calling them clients - actually, hard to call them customers too, I guess) take my preliminary sketches to a contractor who either built from them or did his own construction documents (or to someone who did drafting on the side). To me, that is like going to a five-star restaurant and asking for the recipe for their premier entree only to then go home and make it yourself or take it down the street to the local diner because they will make it for you for cheaper. The value of that five-star restaurant is in their staff having the experience and imagination to make those premier entrees - that's what separates them from the diner down the street slinging hash or the chain by the highway flipping burgers. Another analogy would be the people who "buy" a big screen TV for the Super Bowl only to return it the next week and leave the store with a used TV that they cannot sell for full price. The customer is taking advantage of the business in all three cases.
The client will select a contractor based on other work the contractor has done that the client has seen. They wouldn't expect him to build them a building for them before deciding whether they're going to pay him. They argue that all we're doing is drawing on paper, so it is not the same. But it is our time and expertise that they are asking for when they come to us. Asking for "free" work should be no different than asking others to work for free.
Even if they are willing to pay me for the time to come up with those preliminary sketches and to work out the details, I cannot stay in business if they then take those to the contractor, have him do the construction drawing, and roll the cost of doing them into the total building cost. Supposedly they are "free," but you know that he's paid for the time he spent doing them somewhere in the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars that they are paying him to build their building. I'd guess that they end up paying the contractor as much (or more) than they would have paid me, just that it disappears into the total cost. I cannot "hide" my fees like that.
So over time I've been getting more wary about leaving any hard copy work with a potential client until they've committed to the full ticket for my services. I can connect my iPad to a projector or to the client's TV to show them my sketches, drawings, and models and my work leaves with me at the end of the meeting. I admit that there can be a bit of an issue with some clients if they want to mull things over before making a decision if they don't have drawings to keep with them. But I can go by gut feelings and leave limited information with them if I feel it will help me win the client.
What other thoughts or experiences do people have with these issues? Have you run into similar problems and how have you dealt with them? As Laura stated, not being willing to do the initial "free" work can end the discussion right there. But there have to be ways that we can "protect" ourselves from clients who are looking for nothing more than that "free work" from us.
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Thomas Bank AIA
Owner/Architect
Simply Stated Architecture, P.C.
Lemoyne PA
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