I am a recently licensed architect in Vancouver and I am getting my certificate of practice to start providing architectural services as a sole proprietor.
In all offices I worked for in the last 10 year, they treated architectural fees as a top secret matter and no one of the architects working on the projects really know what the amounts are, except the partners.
Recently, I have been reading heavily the Architectural Institute of British Columbia (AIBC) bulletins and guides for Tariff of Fees for Architectural Services. It mainly based on a percentage of the project probable construction cost of the project.
My issue is that I am approached by a developer wanting a six storeys multi-family residential building in a lot that needs to be rezoned and then have a development permit prior to the building permit. My response that I will work hourly until we reach an agreed upon general concept that works with the rezoning requirements, the off street parking we can accommodate in said site, along with the unit mix that works for them financially as well as other city requirements, then we will move to a fixed fee based on a percentage of the construction cost.
The client then asked what is my hourly rate, I said $135 an hour as this will be covering my over head expenses ( software , license, insurance, hydro, ..), salary and a profit margin (13%). The client was not happy and said as I am a newly licensed architect this is too high. However, I asked other architect friends who got their license recently and they said that it is similar to what they charge.
After that the client asked that I drop the hourly rate to $110 which means after taxes and overhead cost, I will be making less than what I was making in the office that I used to work for without sealing any drawings or taking liability. When I declined he asked for a fixed fee for the whole project from schematic to construction administration.
For the fixed fee I did some very rough calculations based on the site permitted coverage by the bylaw and the most likely gross area of the project and multiplied it by the average cost of construction per square foot for similar projects that I worked on in other offices and made my fees at 2.5% of this probable construction cost (based on the AIBC tariff of fees for 60 unit multi family, 6 storey building) with a limitation to one round of rezoning and development permit . However, the number that I came to also was rejected and the client asked for a much lower number.
My questions are as follows:
- Is my approach generally acceptable? - Can other architects with more experience in the forum chime in on their approach to fees setting for projects in general and multi-family residential in some detail?
Oct 19, 24 8:56 am
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Architectural fees methodology : Multi-family residential
Hi all,
Sorry in advance for the long post :)
I am a recently licensed architect in Vancouver and I am getting my certificate of practice to start providing architectural services as a sole proprietor.
In all offices I worked for in the last 10 year, they treated architectural fees as a top secret matter and no one of the architects working on the projects really know what the amounts are, except the partners.
Recently, I have been reading heavily the Architectural Institute of British Columbia (AIBC) bulletins and guides for Tariff of Fees for Architectural Services. It mainly based on a percentage of the project probable construction cost of the project.
My issue is that I am approached by a developer wanting a six storeys multi-family residential building in a lot that needs to be rezoned and then have a development permit prior to the building permit. My response that I will work hourly until we reach an agreed upon general concept that works with the rezoning requirements, the off street parking we can accommodate in said site, along with the unit mix that works for them financially as well as other city requirements, then we will move to a fixed fee based on a percentage of the construction cost.
The client then asked what is my hourly rate, I said $135 an hour as this will be covering my over head expenses ( software , license, insurance, hydro, ..), salary and a profit margin (13%). The client was not happy and said as I am a newly licensed architect this is too high. However, I asked other architect friends who got their license recently and they said that it is similar to what they charge.
After that the client asked that I drop the hourly rate to $110 which means after taxes and overhead cost, I will be making less than what I was making in the office that I used to work for without sealing any drawings or taking liability. When I declined he asked for a fixed fee for the whole project from schematic to construction administration.
For the fixed fee I did some very rough calculations based on the site permitted coverage by the bylaw and the most likely gross area of the project and multiplied it by the average cost of construction per square foot for similar projects that I worked on in other offices and made my fees at 2.5% of this probable construction cost (based on the AIBC tariff of fees for 60 unit multi family, 6 storey building) with a limitation to one round of rezoning and development permit . However, the number that I came to also was rejected and the client asked for a much lower number.
My questions are as follows:
- Is my approach generally acceptable?
- Can other architects with more experience in the forum chime in on their approach to fees setting for projects in general and multi-family residential in some detail?
Block this user
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