Our Approach
At LFK Architects, we are obsessed with bringing your vision to life. We work with you from the initial design sketch straight through construction.
We take pride in our process: working through multiple designs and ideas to create a complete client vision.
1
Assessing Your Ideas
Feasibility Studies
This is an investigative process which is used to generate early ideas for a project to determine its eventual feasibility. Various factors contributed to this study include building size, anticipated building cost, and some basic stages of programming and conceptual design.
Programming
If you are not quite sure where to start before your project is designed, this is a step in determining needs of the project – rooms, functions, purposes, considerations, limitations – all before the first drawing is started. This step is an easy transition into Conceptual design.
2
Creating Your Ideas
Conceptual Design
This is an initial design phase in which an architect and client establish designs goals, programming confirmation, basic building layouts, architectural language, site analysis/placement, and possible alternatives.
Schematic Design
Probably the most exciting stage – this is where the design matures, where the basic idea established in Conceptual Design begins to become qualitative and refined – the building’s form and floor plans take shape, the character of the project become more clear, and the architect and client have a good idea of what the end product will be.
3
Developing Your Project
Design Development
During this phase the architect completes most of the design work on all aspects of the building while increasing the degree of technical feasibility necessary to proceed into the final and formal step of documentation – construction documents.
Construction Documents
The most time consuming phase – this is the assembly of all the contractually binding documents, written and graphic, necessary to communicate design and administer a project—these are the final instructions for the project. The documents define the total obligation of the architect, the construction manager, and all contractors. Construction documents are the legal documents used to obtain regulatory and financial approval necessary to proceed with construction.
4
Building Your Project
Bidding & Negotiations
In this phase the construction documents are presented to members of the building industry who bid on a project. If through bidding and negotiation a satisfactory price is agreed upon, the architect, the client, and the winning bidder enter the Construction Administration phase.
Construction & Contract Administration
In this phase the architect works with the building contractors by observing work for conformance to the construction documents. This involves observing construction progress, test results and inspections, responding to requests for design—changes, and by administering the completion, start-up, and close-out process for the client.
Your input from the inception of the project was invaluable. As a result the process from beginning to end was seamless. Your interaction with the various North Charleston building departments was instrumental with bringing the project in on time.
Duke Lechtman
North Rivers Business Center