BRINGING DESIGN IN-HOUSE Many remodelers, such as Orren Pickell, owner of Pickell Builders, in Lincolnshire, Ill., choose instead to bring design completely in-house. Pickell, who once drew all of his projects himself, currently has a team of 13 full-time designers on staff. “Now I have designers who are, quite literally, better than me,” he says.
From the beginning of the process, Pickell has a design team with him asking the client questions and preparing variations of the preliminary design. During the second design meeting, the designers actually sketch out their ideas right in front of the homeowner. “Clients love to be able to see their dream home becoming a reality,” Pickell says. “Not only are they entertained, but by the time the meeting’s over they’ve already approved the floor plan and have a rough sketch of the layout.” Soon after, the interior designers get involved to begin the selections process.
Pickell sees distinct advantages in housing all of these elements under the same roof. “Everyone is working together to meet the budget,” he says. “The builder wants to make the architect out to look like a hero. We have a unified front — everyone knows it’s all about the customer.”
Most importantly though, Pickell says, is the fact that because everything is handled in-house, any problems or overages that may arise are dealt with without the customer witnessing them. “We want all problems that occur to be invisible to the client,” he says. “This is impossible when you have an adversarial relationship with an outside architect.”
Geno Benvenuto, owner of Benvenuti & Stein, in Evanston, Ill., agrees. “The key is that the client is out of the loop in terms of solving problems,” he says. “Everything is solved in-house.”
An even greater advantage, though, according to Benvenuto, is the total control that in-house design allows over a project’s schedule. “We control all of the key elements,” he says. “So a change that could otherwise take a couple of weeks to process, we can do in a few hours because we do it internally.”
It’s true, however, that keeping one or more designers on staff full-time (Benvenuto employs four architects and seven designers and draftspeople) requires that business remain steady year round. “We need a variety of work to keep all the pistons pushing,” Benvenuto says. “Having this sort of setup is very expensive, but it’s also very rewarding. It attracts a much higher-end clientele, and because we do such nice work we attract quality employees as well.”
To keep his design staff productive during slow periods, Pickell has his team cross-trained to work on marketing or sales materials such as their photo database and 3-D surrounds.
DESIGN AS A PROFIT CENTER Taking a less common approach to design/build is Pav Wilkinson, co-owner of Wilkinson Design & Construction, in Harwich, Mass. Wilkinson, who has an architecture degree and spent years on construction crews before starting his business with wife, Lyn, does all of the company’s design work himself and takes on a supervisory role during construction. The company builds an average of just two jobs per year — usually large, upscale remodels for second homeowners — and only handles one project at a time.
“I think the client gets the best experience when the design-builder is doing one job at a time,” Wilkinson says. “They get all of my attention, and I can ensure everything is being done correctly by the subs.”