- - Pricing - -
What do Architectural Services Cost
How architects determine costs
A Brief Price History
Architectural pricing has gone through many changes over the last few decades and is largely governed today by an unwritten rule that we should not post our prices to keep owners safe from price fixing.
Many architects still base their prices on a percentage of the assumed construction costs. This means they assume a cost for the construction then take a percentage of that total for their costs.
Many will also do a quick calculation to determine how much time this gives their teams to do the work based on their hourly rates.
Requesting a Proposal
What you get from the architect
Most architects will provide you with a proposal based on a brief scoping discussion with you that defines the scope of work for them. Often, these include a walkthrough of the property or a meeting to discuss the parameters of the project.
This means that if the scope is vague then the proposals you get will be geared toward protecting the architect from scope creep.
Which really means they will use a higher percentage of their assumed total cost so they can protect themselves or they will put scope gates in the proposal that provide clear moments where they need to charge you for added services.
The most difficult part of comparing architectural proposals is determining the value of the services outlined and whether those services will result in a product that will be worth the cost.
How to get real Value
Determining Value
Because most architects do not specialize and will provide proposals to almost any work that comes in their doors, means that most do not know what the real value is that their services provide.
What you need is a partner in your development project. You need a design team that is focused more on the value of the end product and how they can adjust their services to maximize that value.
You need a cost proposal that is aligned with the results of what you are trying to provide and has rewards and penalties based on whether the criteria of success was accomplished.