Manage Clients’ Expectations: Require Clients to Set Aside Appropriate Contingency Funds
Clients react to extra charges and cost overruns in different ways. One owner might willingly pay for services not originally included within an A/E team's scope, accept construction change orders as part of the normal course of business, and dip into a reserve fund to pay for unexpected project costs such as higher financing costs or additional site acquisition costs. A different owner might balk at any additional fees regardless of the cause, seek reimbursement from the architect for every change order, and downsize the project to pay for unexpected project costs. The course an owner takes depends largely on whether the owner planned for the unexpected, and that’s how this article from Michael Strogoff, AIA, principal of Strogoff Consulting, can help.

Our House
Carnegie Mellon plugs into many different disciplines for its Solar Decathlon house
Carnegie Mellon’s house for this fall’s national Solar Decathlon competition uses core and pod structure to make it modular across different scales. It was designed by a team from many different schools of design and the arts, and contains passive as well as active solar design features.