coyne + associates architects

Pre-design Services

Pre-design involves various services before the typical design phase. The most common mistake of many owners is to jump to the design phase before focusing on the (sometimes not as "sexy") tasks of the pre-design phase. Pre-design tasks allow the client to get all the "ducks in a row" before pulling the trigger on a the more extensive steps in the design phase.

Examples of Pre-design

Pre-design phase may include any number of the following tasks:

• Site Selection
• Real Estate Market Analysis
• Community Participation
• Architectural Programming
• Environmental Analysis
• Soil Analysis
• Conceptual Site Layouts

Risks Omitting Adequate Pre-design

The losses that owners and users incur for inadequate pre-design can be tremendous. Think of experiences that you probably had at work or shopping; even at home, maybe. Have you ever experienced the following:

1. After parking in the building's lot, you discover that the entrance of the building is not directly adjacent to the main path of the users.
2. You're at work, meeting with your main staff associates and realize that you are not located convenient to them , and maybe even worse; the group you are located adjacent to has no relation to your groups' job function.
3. You're at home clearing up after dinner and finally notice that the kitchen garbage container is not convenient to the never ending task of cleaning up.
4. Your at someone else's home and notice that when the host takes your coat near the entry door, he has to travel somewhere else in the house to store it while you visit.
5. You read in the newspaper about a project scheduled to be built in your neighborhood this season. After a year or so, you realize that it either never was built or something significantly different ended up on the site.

Many of the previous scenarios were probably the fault of the lack of programming but it may be the lack of related tasks that feed into programming. A comprehensive architectural program will identify the appropriate relationships of the data that is identified from stakeholder needs as well as outside source such as real estate market analyses and soil analyses. As with most planning in life; your project will benefit greatly from the appropriate steps at the very beginning of it's life. After the completion of pre-design, the next step is the Design Phase.