Case Study
Situation
A Houston area residential developer faced significant challenges with four communities that required commercial architectural reviews. Each community desired control over their reviews, but none of them had anyone on staff trained to conduct the reviews. To complicate matters, in order to achieve this autonomy, each community hired separate architects. This resulted in very expensive reviews as well as poorly managed record keeping and correspondence.
Developer Challenges
The developer needed to:
• Develop a cohesive structure for all commercial architectural reviews.
• Establish more control over processes and record keeping.
• Lower costs associated with commercial architectural reviews.
Eliminating cost overruns by improving record keeping, scheduling procedures and communication was the primary goal in establishing and maintaining a successful commercial review process for these residential developments. McCauley Architectural Reviews organized controls and helped manage the overall review process to guarantee total community compliance. |
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McCauley Architectural Reviews began by hiring an architect experienced in commercial development reviews who would serve all of the communities. All previous records were archived so that each project is now easily accessible to compare with future submittals. McCauley also brought in expert signage companies, engineers, and landscape architects to establish optimal guidelines, consistent policies and to review community needs.
Systems
The architectural review team established:
• A system with uniform fees and forms for all of the developer’s projects.
• An optional pre-conceptual phase to the review process.
• A pre-construction meeting and post-construction inspection to generate punch lists.
• Committees for each community to meet twice monthly with an agenda set by
McCauley Architectural Reviews.
Results
This concise and individualized system paid immediate dividends to the developer. Client relations improved significantly as their expectations were exceeded, information flowed more fluidly, and processes operated consistently. All of the communities maintained their autonomy with the flexibility of the system, additionally, project control increased and cost savings were substantial.
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