Architect Hunting

It's Saturday night, and I just got back from Orlando. I was there earlier today to visit the sick design studio @hellcats.usa for their 5th anniversary, and had an awesome Onyx Tanzanian coffee from @theglassknifewp , it was warm and well balanced, dark roast but a little fruity as it cooled down. served in a decanter so I could pour as much as I wanted and it keep it hot. good stuff. I was listening to Outkast's Stankonia on the drive and finished up "the art of the start 2.0" which is a great business startup book. shout out to Guy Kawasaki.

After a week of playing phone tag I'm waiting on one more quote.
Like a lot of things right now as we approach post-covid, Architect's are backed up with work. So the front desks and website help forms were a blessing when it came to getting a foot in the door. I managed to get one rock solid quote, and I'm hoping for at least one more this Monday. I'm going to break down that process.

First I needed to find an architect, I thought I could just look up businesses that were well reviewed on google but I mostly ended up speaking with giant companies who pointed me to other slightly less giant companies. Eventually I found a smaller guy who could hold a conversation.

That person asked me a lot of questions and together we outlined what I would need. My expectations were just consultation on what was legally required, for example a permit to remove a partition wall (a small wall that is not floor to ceiling), but we also needed a complete floor plan for the state and for MEP work (mechanical / electrical /plumbing).

I asked him, is this quote fair for a build out of my size?

the answer was a sort of "ehhh, you could do better or worse." His minimum price for all this was around 6k, and that minimum size was 1500sq/ft , more than double my build out. I thanked him for the quote, but told him I would like to get another one before moving forward.

Thanks to him I know knew the right questions, and I took those questions to more architects. I probably contacted ten more and I did my best to cut to the chase on exactly what I needed. this helped me identify who was a bad fit.

I asked my property manager if she'd recommend anyone, and thankfully she had someone who had done work for other tenants and was a bit smaller. This person took my drawings and size in to consideration, so I'm interested to see how our work intersects.

Now we wait

These plans could take about a month to get back to me, and in the meantime I'm more or less sitting on my hands. I'll have to think about what I can work on, I've spent the last 6 months planning on paper so I feel like I've covered my bases haha, but there's always more to do. Thanks for reading everyone,

- Elias