Working with the Architect

We figured the first step was to determine how to work with an architect on a project like this. After a quick internet search, bam!, the American Institute of Architects hosts a free information session, titled, "How to Work with an Architect" and, as luck would have it, there was a session coming up that was being hosted at the Chicago Center for Green Technologies.

The session gave us some great ideas and introduced me to our architect, Nate Kipnis, one of the presenters. I set up a meeting with him shortly thereafter to discuss what we wanted to accomplish. I cannot remember if he was currently working on a gut rehab that went terribly wrong or just was against gut rehabs all together, I think it was the former. In any case, he started telling horror stories about several gut rehabs he had worked on with clients and put me down a path that was far less amenable to doing a gut rehab.

He then stated that he had just completed a project for a group of real estate agents that wanted to bring green building to Chicago in a practical manner, The Green Home Partners. The take away was a high level set of plans and the thought of just working with them to build the home for us, saving massive amounts of architectural fees.

The prudent approach would be to meet with several architects to make sure you are working with one you feel comfortable with. However, things just clicked with Nate and before we knew it, we were too far along to change course. Nate is a great person to work with, along with another architect at his firm, Dan. Both Nate and Dan have been great with ideas, providing good points of view and passionate about building green. Being able to articulate what each step in the process will entail and all the costs associated could improve, but in all, glad to have worked with them.