HOW IT'S DONE, continued

as the basis of a contract between an Owner and a general contractor so that both parties understand The Project in the same way, and to supply the general contractor with a set of instructions about how to build The Project.

We're on the job. After the selection of a general contractor to construct The Project, the architect first and foremost assures that the Construction Documents are adhered to during construction. Of course in every project circumstances arise during construction that no one anticipated. This is where the facilitating of a team of skillful people working together really pays off, in cooperative problem-solving. We put ourselves in the center of that kind of responsible effort towards finding solutions and moving The Project forward. SmartArchitecture works with the general contractor not only to follow the drawings, but to devise better and more beautiful details in the light of real-world circumstances.

In between these primary functions there is much work to be done. For instance, before we can design for someone we need to understand them and what drives the project: function, aesthetics, image, etc. During design we typically produce a preliminary set of drawings that we have coined the "Estimating Set" in order to test the budgetary waters before proceeding to Construction Documents. Sometimes special municipal permission may be required to obtain a building permit,