Home Architecture Talk

Need afforadable architect in Colorado. Architecture student OK?

We're trying to find an affordable architect (or someone that know how to draw up plans) to work on our new home project. Real architects just costs so much, can you give me some advice for alternative solutions? I kinda don't want to buy stock plans since we might as well buy a prebuilt home. We're thinking of an architecture student. Well, he has a 4-year degree in architecture design and is starting his masters this coming fall. I know that we will need to find a structural engineer to look at the plan. Please let me know if it's not a good idea to go with the student option. Thanks for your advice. Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

Public Comments

1. Using a student whose work is being reviewed by their instructors is usually a good choice. Using a student who is on their own is usually not such a good idea. After all, you're going to live with the results you get from the student for a long, long time. It's not like getting your haircut at a barber college and if they do a bad job, it will grow out in a couple weeks. If you decide to go with a student, perhaps make sure that the work is going to be submitted as a project so that it is reviewed by the instructors.
2. It really depends on how much you expect them to do. If all you are looking if for them to be doing space planning (laying out the floor plans and designing the elevations and stuff) then the student is fine. When I graduated with my 4-year degree in architecture, this is about all i could handle, even though I thought I felt I knew more, or could at least fake my way through it. However, I have worked in the industry for 3 years now in a firm (recently left my job) and looking back I laugh. There is sooo much more to an architect than most people either realize or want to admit. A "real architect" will work with all the other trades, such as plumbing, electrical, structural, civil, and they will facilitate getting the project through the city, with as little hassle to the client as possible. They will also usually be dealing with the contractor to ensure that the building gets built according to what you are paying for. Many times contractors will either intentionally or unintentionally substitute things in the building that might have a severe negative consequence. The only person who may realize this error is the architect, because they are the ones who specified everything. Honestly, the only time I would suggest that someone use a student to draw architectural plans in lieu of an architect in new construction is if you were specifically a contractor who was knowledgeable in home construction and were going to build it yourself and knew how it was going to be built, and were merely going to communicate these ideas to the student to translate onto paper in order to submit to the city for approval. If you really want to go without an architect, then I suggest that you find a residential contractor who does "design/build". They will hopefully get to know what you want and use their knowledge to try to put together the best idea for a home. Usually contractors will have a better grasp in terms of how to design things in order to come out with a cheaper construction cost. This can be hit or miss, depending on their experience, and I would ask to see about examples of past projects and possibly talk to their former clients if you can. Residential contractors should be fairly well able to get through the city approval and either they should be able to do their own drawings (which in my opinion tend to be really poorly drawn, but since they are the ones who are building it, as long as it gets approved by the city, that doesn't matter too much) or they have someone else do them. But I would really be cautious in this route to pick a contractor who does this type of stuff regularly, otherwise you are asking for A LOT of trouble. Good luck!