RE: Standardization - OOPS! | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: John Major (jmajormhz.com) | |
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 13:16:58 -0600 |
>> This architect along with an architect-group member >>said that you don't necessarily save money by standardizing. And I replied: >We got the same advice from Chuck and Katy, and like nearly >everything they said, we took it for gospel, then interpreted it as we >went. Sorry, folks - I misspoke here in my earlier message, and some of you must be scratching your heads in puzzlement - when I said "We got the same advice..." I refer to the advice ("be sure to standardize as much as possible!") that Heather refers to *earlier* in her message, not the advice in the piece I quoted. That is, her group was advised to standardize, the architects above disagreed, and my experience leads me to disagree with *them* - on the contrary, thoughtfully standardized designs will be a big help in containing costs in CoHo, which continue to be a problem for everyone, I think I can say. Clear As Mud? Sorry 'bout the ham-fisted emailing.... And since I'm back on the topic, I thought I should reply to the post from Denise from Geneva, since it directly contradicts my posting (must be great for newbies to watch this! "Who we s'posed to believe?" Just more CoHo diversity, I imagine ;-) >While you certainly save money by >purchasing some items in larger quantities, you will spend far more time, >energy, and money trying to get a diverse group to agree on a few >standardized floor plans and fixtures. In our case, our design work was expended during the period of working on the zoning issues, which took much longer than we expected (surprise!), so we didn't miss the time *too* much - some would certainly disagree with me on that ;-). Hey, I'm like Joani, I actually *enjoy* most of our meetings! >How much is your time worth? >How much do you have to pay your architects and engineers to >facilitate this lengthy process, and to revise the plans again and >again? Our architects, bless 'em, are working for a flat fee, and we asked them up front to participate in our programming work, and that was hugely helpful. We hired the Cohousing Company for our site and Common House programming, and did the Unit programming on our own, using their techniques. This worked out well. The architects have a strong incentive to keep their revisions to a minimum, and they listened *very* carefully to us during the programming. Maybe we got lucky, and maybe we have less diverse needs than other groups - hard to say. We certainly have a wide range of incomes and ages... I'd just be very careful telling yourself that you don't need to work at standardizing. Talk to some pros in affordable housing... Finally, I should say that it has been helpful for us here in UT, as we head into the final rush of development effort - "sticks and bricks", as the pros say - to remind ourselves of a CoHo principle that many on this list have emphasized. We are not building our "Dream Homes", but a "Dream Community". All the vaulted ceilings and wood flooring are worth Squat if you haven't built your sense of the common at the same time. So maybe all the effort programming the stuff pays off indirectly. Don't let real estate development get in the way of the reason for going through all this trouble in the first place... John Major Wasatch Cohousing ...where we are really feeling like real estate developers these days! But a good potluck puts it in perspective...
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