good article. ando did a private house in chicago with booth hansen some 8 years ago. it was concrete of course. the first attempts were torn down, contractor fired. the next contractor was sent to japan to see how it was done, but still quality is quite bad. i will say the same quality issues are evident on the koolhaas iit student center.
these are really not buildings but pieces of furniture and one has to approach all aspects as such and think through every aspect as you would a wooden desk. full size mockups and specs that use non-industry standards of quality and contractor/sub selection that goes beyond low bid.
ando has a great book called tadao ando dormant lines which i recommend. it has some great working drawings from ando's office.
I will give you a response from the contractor's perspective since I work for a LA based general contractor that does most of our work on high-profile projects with some very interesting designs.
There are many highly skilled and qualified contractor's that consistently do quality work, the problem is that you have to pay for this. More and more, owners hire a CM which just adds a layer of bureaucracy to the relationship and is an added cost for the owner. Owner's are best served if they sought out contractor's that are experience with difficult details and designs and formed a tight team between Arch, owner and contractor. I belive the professional CM makes this almost impossible to do because it adds cost, time and a middle man through whom all submittals must go first.
In short, there are very few highly skilled contractor's who can consistenty deliver high-quality products that the owner and archtict is pleased with. However, you cannot hard bid these jobs and expect top-notch quality. Enlightened owners know that they must work on negotiated contracts with the best to get the best.
i wouldnt say a cm adds a layer of bureaucracy, its more like a layer of knowledge and leverage. we spend almost as much in cd as we do in ca AND we cm most everything. i suppose our office could fill the role of cm, but mainly for contractual reasons we stay out of it. Its also the clerical side of the job, and that just doesn't interest us. i think of it like writing spec's. sure, you can bill out more hours, but is that what you want to do?
Aug 12, 04 8:43 pm ·
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Quality construction
Nothing none of us didn't know already, but interesting none the less
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/08/arts/design/08IOVI.html?8hpib
good article. ando did a private house in chicago with booth hansen some 8 years ago. it was concrete of course. the first attempts were torn down, contractor fired. the next contractor was sent to japan to see how it was done, but still quality is quite bad. i will say the same quality issues are evident on the koolhaas iit student center.
these are really not buildings but pieces of furniture and one has to approach all aspects as such and think through every aspect as you would a wooden desk. full size mockups and specs that use non-industry standards of quality and contractor/sub selection that goes beyond low bid.
ando has a great book called tadao ando dormant lines which i recommend. it has some great working drawings from ando's office.
I will give you a response from the contractor's perspective since I work for a LA based general contractor that does most of our work on high-profile projects with some very interesting designs.
There are many highly skilled and qualified contractor's that consistently do quality work, the problem is that you have to pay for this. More and more, owners hire a CM which just adds a layer of bureaucracy to the relationship and is an added cost for the owner. Owner's are best served if they sought out contractor's that are experience with difficult details and designs and formed a tight team between Arch, owner and contractor. I belive the professional CM makes this almost impossible to do because it adds cost, time and a middle man through whom all submittals must go first.
In short, there are very few highly skilled contractor's who can consistenty deliver high-quality products that the owner and archtict is pleased with. However, you cannot hard bid these jobs and expect top-notch quality. Enlightened owners know that they must work on negotiated contracts with the best to get the best.
i wouldnt say a cm adds a layer of bureaucracy, its more like a layer of knowledge and leverage. we spend almost as much in cd as we do in ca AND we cm most everything. i suppose our office could fill the role of cm, but mainly for contractual reasons we stay out of it. Its also the clerical side of the job, and that just doesn't interest us. i think of it like writing spec's. sure, you can bill out more hours, but is that what you want to do?
Block this user
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