Client Expectations: Cost versus Vision
Clients always want a balance of low project costs and a great
Vision (or Program) for their site. This is a reasonable request; however, budgets
and designs are often cut, moved, or made smaller without regard to the effect
on the projects Vision.
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| Initial Design has Sidewalk in the Circle |
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| Modified Design with Semi-Circle |
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| Final Design with Sidewalk Again the Road |
It is always a
struggle to redesign spaces and maintain the Vision. For Example, we were
recently working on a new pocket park that was circular in design. The client
added in several more constraints so the circle no longer fit comfortably in
the space. To combat this, we switched to a semi-circular space. When the
client saw this they requested that we keep the space circular. Above are
three of the iterations of the park. You can see how simplified the final version is.
It was difficult to maintain the project Vision; we ended up moving the
sidewalk up against the road to create enough room for the plaza.
Another project (below) was designed to show off automobiles in
different vignettes of NH habitats. Initially there was plenty of space along the
frontage for a small hillock and dry riverbed, but after the second iteration
with the engineer and owner, more space was needed for parking. In the end we
lost a 20’ strip of green area.
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| Original Design has a Hillock to the Right that is 8' tall. It incorporates NH River Valley's and Seacoast Environments. |
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| Final Design is more subdued, but still incorporates smaller versions of the NH Landscape. |
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