Beyond Innovation and Excellence

Jeffrey L. Miller Architect, P.C., is a small firm whose residential focus provides an informal and personal setting that facilitates the “custom tailoring” of a house to an individual family. The plan is inspired by the client as the architect graphically translates answers to questions about the site and lifestyle of the owners. The style of the house emerges from the personal conceptions of the client. The architect transforms these conceptions into a buildable form by a series of “sketches” for the owner’s approval.

The clients continue their intimate involvement by visiting showrooms to select the materials that finish the house. An in-house office library assists in providing visual examples and precedents to help clients make decisions. The architect orchestrates the procedure throughout and coordinates all the information into a unified whole.

Clients work with the principal until a design is complete. Construction drawings are produced by the drafting staff under the principal’s supervision. Bidding and negotiations with contractors and construction supervision are available to the client as required.

Since most of our remodel work is done in established communities, nearly all the residential land is already built out with houses, some well over a hundred years old. Dramatic changes in technology and lifestyle over the last few decades make these existing buildings inadequate for contemporary living. This has resulted in more than half of our work focused on turning old houses into homes that work for today’s families.

There is hardly a kitchen or a bathroom that work adequately after thirty years and modern families demand far more sharing of space in kitchens, but far less in bathrooms. Updating older homes is typically a complicated puzzle of challenges which makes it’s success that much more rewarding for us and our clients. We have worked on hundreds of older homes adding family rooms, remodeling kitchens and bathrooms, and adding more space for storage needs.

Unless we can dramatically improve the exterior design, we strive to make the house look untouched on the outside even though the interior may have been completely altered. Though we endeavor to adhere to the general style of the house in our interior alterations, sometimes it is appropriate and our client’s wish to break away from the existing architectural limitations. Because so much of our new technology is very contemporary in its design, this approach often works beautifully.

Whether just small updates of existing spaces or a complete remodel, we endeavor to make the result completely functional yet aesthetically seamless.

Our potential clients are naturally interested in knowing what our services will cost. Because architectural services are not a commodity, it is difficult to know how much time will be required to complete design services. A construction project is like a new invention. Though the parts and procedures may be common, they have never before been put together in this particular way before.

In the construction of a house, literally thousands of decisions must be made involving perhaps hundreds of people. The process is subject to adjustments on its way from inception to completion. It may be availability issues from a manufacturer, changes in building codes or structural requirements or, most likely, changes in the owner’s program or time schedule. These are just a few of the many ways the time required for services can be impacted. To set a fee or percentage of construction cost for such an unpredictable process would, without exception, result in work done that is either under or over compensated.

Furthermore, the diversity in our client’s capacity to make decisions varies tremendously. It is impossible to predict changes that may be requested through the process. Because this is a creative process for both the client and the architect, it is critical that changes can be entertained and implemented if appropriate. Though we hope to make any change during the design phase of a project when the costs are minimal, the owner should always have that option further into the process.

For this reason the services of this office are billed hourly for completed work only. We understand however, clients want to at least have a general idea of what the project will cost. Because we have completed over 500 projects we can look back and find similarities that help us estimate costs which is usually between 5% and 10% of the construction costs.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the cost of architectural services is that they are typically lower than the cost of real estate services. Furthermore, an investment into architectural involvement typically adds value to a property. Architecturally designed houses nearly always demand higher prices than those built without an architect. As a matter of fact, houses for sale that have been produced by this office are advertised as such because the realtor believes it adds to the house value.

As with most things, there must be an element of trust in the process of producing architecture. We feel having provided over 30 years of services to hundreds of clients is the best testimony of our capabilities.