Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Design without cohousing expertise

[Berrins (Berrins]

At Pathways, we hired a development coordinator, John Ryan, to oversee our 
project.  He lives at Pioneer Cohousing in Amherst and has been invaluable in 
so many ways.  Overseeing contracts with the professionals, dealing with the 
city bureaucracies, keeping us on schedule and helping us get through 
meetings are just a few.  You may not be able to find a development 
coordinator with cohousing experience, but having a professional coordinate 
all the details has made our lives, I'm sure, much simpler.

As for builders, if you find a contractor with good multi-unit experience, 
don't forget, unless they have cohousing experience, they tend to build what 
they know, which is a typical condo development.  Having an architect with a 
Masters in cohousing is great and should help a lot.  However, like other 
posts have said, the architect and contractor will need to communicate with 
each other on the gazillions of details so you can get your development to 
reflect cohousing principles as much as you want.  This can be a problem, 
because  professionals can't spend all their time talking.  The hours they 
spend on your project pile up, and they need to do some of that professional 
work also.  Streamlining communications between your group and the 
professionals will help, if everyone in your group cooperates by sticking to 
whatever communication process you set up.

Good luck!

    -Roger