The Anxiety and Mystery Of Architect Fees

Unlike a car that can be road-tested before you sign on the dotted line, a custom-built house or remodeling project requires paying thousands of dollars before you know what you're getting. That can be unsettling, even for a design professional, Smith said. When he has hired designers for other services for his own house, he said, "the leap of faith was the same." Committing to a few thousand dollars calculated on an hourly basis while testing the waters is much less of a burden for most people.

During the initial design phase, Smith charges by the hour and gives an estimate for that portion of the fee. As the design issues are being discussed, the clients can observe the different hats an architect wears in the course of a project -- the exuberant designer whose excitement can be infectious, the disciplinarian who says no to things that exceed budget, and the nudge who badgers you into making a decision and moving on.

It is also the clients' opportunity to decide whether they like his working style enough to sign on for what Smith described as a "short-term marriage that can last for more than a year." He said, "Like all marriages, we may not always get along -- sometimes I'll irritate you and you'll irritate me -- but you'll end up with a house adapted to your needs as much as possible."

Rast described the initial phase of a project as "the first date," a time when both sides assess their comfort levels. She said she is acutely aware that beginning with a blank sheet of paper and designing from scratch can be exhilarating for some people but scary for many others, and that many people can become overwhelmed if too many ideas are presented at once.

She likes to start slow and low tech, with freehand sketches. Although her firm does most of its work on computers, computer-generated drawings can be cumbersome and time-consuming to produce. With pen and tracing paper, she can immediately show clients how their suggestions would work. The instant feedback helps the clients feel that they are part of the design team.

At the same time as their clients watch the transformation of their ideas into the design for a house or addition, the architects said that they watch skittish novices become knowledgeable homeowners who have confidence in their architect and in the choices that they are making together.

The clients begin to get a sense of the factors that can affect construction costs, and at the end of the initial design phase they can get a realistic estimate of the total cost of their project. If they decide to proceed, they are comfortable with fees that are calculated on this basis.

Katherine Salant can be contacted via her Web site, http://www.katherinesalant.com.

© 2008 Katherine Salant