Episode Details

The Passion, The Process and Problems of Running a Design/Build Architecture Firm

Do you want more control? More money? More happy clients? More architecture with better design? Is design/build the answer to our professions problems? Will building your own projects be the solution to success for your small firm? What does it take to run a successful design build firm?

This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, Mark speaks with Jim Zack and Declan Keefe about The Passion, The Process and Problems of Running a Design/Build Architecture Firm.

About Jim and Declan

Jim Zack is based in San Francisco, California as the co-founder and partner at his design build firm, Zack de Vito: Design + Build. He visited EntreArchitect Podcast on EA102: Risks and Rewards with Architect Developer Jim Zack. He’s a current facilitator at EntreArchitect Academy’s Design/Build Mastermind Group.

Declan Keefe is a founder and owner at Placetailor and a three-time guest at EntreArchitect Podcast: EA130: How to Build a Successful Architecture Firm That Works with Architect Declan Keefe, EA141: How to Build a Brand that Resonates with Your Most Valuable Clients, EA134: How to Get Started as an Architect Developer.

How are your design/build firms structured?

Jim has been involved in building things for a long time and he’s been in business for 25 years. He began working construction when he was 15 and was trained in carpentry long before he was an architect. Zack de Vito is organized as two different companies: one a construction company and one architecture firm. They’ve found that a lot of liability and contractual details organize themselves well in those two separate businesses.

Conceptually, they try to make it feel like one company. Architects come to the office and sit and draw, and construction workers go to the site and build. As hard as they try to integrate the two day in and day out, it may not always be as seamless of a process.

Zack de Vito has a project manager, estimator, a partner at the construction company, 6-10 carpenters, and 5-8 people in the office ranging from an interior designer to Jim’s wife, who performs office management and marketing for the firm.

Placetailor is set up similarly although technically their architecture and construction companies are formally one business, where their development entity is a separate business. As far as scale, Placetailor has almost the same team setup as Zack de Vito.

Their business came from a true design/build model where they weren’t doing any design for any other firms, and all their projects were able to be completed internally. In the last few years, they’ve switched to provide architecture for other builders as well. Even though they’re one business, they functionally work as architecture, construction and real estate development. Development is separated because it has a much higher level of risk involved.

Was there a point where you went from  a traditional architecture firm to an a