Building isn?t as simple as it seems at first glance

It all seems pretty simple. Buy a piece of ground, figure out what you want to build, get a set of plans, a builder and off you go not! Perhaps it might have been that way in the good old days, before we had zoning and building codes, and back when we didn't have to acknowledge the existence of physical handicaps. But un-less you've been hiding in a cave, you know we live in a different world now.

To examine what it takes to build a project today, let's assume for a moment that you have a retail store that does quite well so well that you think it's time to stop paying the landlord and get a mortgage of your own. So you get in touch with your Realtor buddy and you have him find you a piece of dirt, which is no small feat in and of itself.

This piece of ground, a few acres of prime dirt located on the primary commercial road for your town, looks perfect. Now what do you do? The Realtor wants you to put in a contract on it and offer to buy it. But will it work for you? How can you find that out BEFORE you buy it?

Unless you are a pretty smart person with the time and ability to do a lot of research, you need help. You need a professional who can look at the property and advise you.

Rules and regulations

The list of issues to address includes zoning uses, building setbacks, utilities, easements, covenants, height restrictions, buffer yards, lot coverages, storm detention, parking requirements, architectural constraints, approval processes, environmental (hazardous waste) and, of course, making sure the building you want will fit on the site.

This is where your architect can provide you great service by checking out all the issues and advising you as to how the site can best be used, and also if it can be used.

Getting started

Let's say that you, your Realtor and your architect have worked through the issues and the land will work. Now you have to design the building, get the construction contract worked out and build it. Easy, right?

Brace yourself, because the hard part is just starting. When people start projects like this, they all have a very good idea of what they need which may be better phrased as "what they want." Your architect can work with you to identify all of the things you want to accomplish with your project and then lay that out in a building design that meets those needs.

Hurdles

The next logical step is to put a cost to it. This is the first hurdle. Many times the cost of what we want to build and what we want to spend are very different amounts. Your architect will have to work with you to address the cost, quality and time issues. Working together, you will hopefully close that massive gap and end up with a design that meets your needs within an affordable budget, with an acceptable quality level.

The next series of hurdles relates to specifics developing the design to comply with the local building codes, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the zoning ordinances affecting that site, any covenants which come with the land and sometimes even issues which come to you on stone tablets from the corporate offices of your franchisor.

Once compliance is accomplished, the project is sent to the city for a building permit, which is granted only after various city departments review the plans for compliance with ordinances and codes. Obtaining the permit takes about three weeks of back-and-forth work between your architect and the city.

With a lot of work and coordination, you and your architect have the project ready to build. The plans are submitted to a few local contractors who have a good reputation for being fair, good and quick. They submit their bids and, with some luck, you select a good general contractor. A contract is prepared and the work can begin.

Time to build

Amazing you have spent several months, lots of money, picked up a few gray hairs along the way and your site is still out there quietly growing grass. All that peaceful tranquility is about to end. The earth movers show up and all heck breaks loose. You've never seen so much activity at one time. You see the smoky exhaust of the earth movers and are sure that you see dollar bills lofting in the air with the smoke.

The next several months will be a busy time. You now have a team involved in your project: your architect, your contractor and yourself. As a team you will work though a lot of issues which you might not have thought of, or have cropped up during construction. Your architect will assist the contractor in in-terpreting the plans and inspecting the work. He will be there to answer your questions. The city will have its inspectors out there to make sure the project meets all of its requirements as well.

You will be developing a new group of friends. It is important that you like, trust and respect your architect and your contractor because you are going to spend quite a bit of time together. You need to be able to trust what your project team tells you and you will want to know that they will be doing their level best to get you what you bargained for in this project.

By the time this project is completed, you will have a new appreciation for those in the construction industry and you will have spent quite a bit of your own time investing in the project. With luck, you'll have a great project and a few new friends. But remember, I've al-ways found that the harder I work, the luckier I get.

(Geoffrey H. Butler, AIA, is president of Butler, Rosenbury & Partners Inc.)