Picking an architect

What happens when you put two professional project managers together to pick an architect for the home they are building? What then happens when one also is a consultant who's been traveling twice a week for the past two months and the other is a self-proclaimed consumer research geek? Well...you get a selection process that takes almost two and a half months...but also hopefully a really good decision.

We interviewed four different architects -- Lucas Alm with Alm Design, Ryan Tuftedahl with rtDesign, Kuhl Design Build, and Megan Connell with SALA Architects -- two different times. Once at the new house; once at each of their offices to see how and where they work. They were all wonderful and very patient with the process.

After talking with each of them, Stu and I identified six factors against which we would evaluate each of the architects (yes, we know we're nerds):

Short-term: things that we'll "feel" primarily during the design and construction process
* Project management skills - will they manage the design and construction process on time, on budget and keeping us involved at the "right" level along the way
* Personality/fit - do we look forward to working with this person over the next 6 to 8 months and opening our lives to them
* Budget - if we can't pay for it, we can't build it and we want to guide the design with that principle

Long-term: things we'll have to live with for as long as we own the house
* Overall design - do we feel like we'll get a house that really meets our needs now and 15 years from now
* Design details - will the architect think through how the cabinets line up, where the moulding ends, where we put the trash can in the bathrooms
* Environmental responsibility - we want to be responsibile with our resources (that's why we're not tearing down the house and starting from scratch) but we also don't want to sacrifice functionality for going "green"

So...after thinking through all of that over a couple bottles of wine, we finally picked an architect...Ryan Tuftedahl with rtDesign.

Interestingly, he wasn't really the clear "winner" in any individual category, but he had the best overall combination of strengths and weaknesses as a compliment to Stu and I. But of course, now the fun really begins. Stay tuned...