HOW IT'S DONE, continued

from a local zoning board or conservation commission, and we spearhead efforts to obtain that. Coordination of specific design work that is engineered or supplied by others often needs to be incorporated into a single set of documents and it is our job to see that that happens with clarity. Selection of materials and products to be used in a project falls into our purview, and we guide our clients/Owners through that vastness. We are the managers of the bidding process, assuring that a fair and equal distribution of information is made to builders so that a true comparative process can take place.

The reasons to hire an architect are multitudinous. Better buildings and spaces: We know buildings, their styles and structure, understand proportion, scale, light, and materials, and use that knowledge to design. Common sense: we pay attention to a client's priorities, their budget, the use of space, site appropriateness, and time. Codes: we know building codes, municipal codes, conservation requirements, and historical demands.

Experience: we know that the most important element in assuring that a job go well is providing as much up-front information as possible to everyone involved, with clarity and directness, so as to minimize misunderstanding. It is this little strategic tenet of architecture, the simplest and the most crucial, that saves time, hard feelings, and hard cash. Our goal, at the end of a project, is that everyone involved, particularly our client, will look back on it and say, "well done."