Owner's Guide ·
What It Costs to Build a Recreation Center
Why the cost per square foot you found online is useless, what actually moves the number, and how to get a figure you can defend in public.
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Ideas inside the frame.
Architecture, access, talent, and the city we call home.
Funding ·
How to Pay for a Facility Without Passing a Bond
A bond is one way to fund a building, not the only way. The realistic sources, what each is good for, and why readiness decides who wins grants.
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The Questions to Ask Before You Hire Anyone to Design Your Building
Every firm you interview will show you good photographs. These are the six questions that actually predict what happens to your project.
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Design-Build vs Design-Bid-Build vs CM-at-Risk: An Owner's Guide
Three ways to deliver a building, explained for owners rather than for the industry. Who holds the risk, when you find out the real price, and which one actually fits a board, a bond, or a grant deadline.
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What a Guaranteed Maximum Price Actually Guarantees
A guaranteed maximum price is a real protection and it is not magic. Here is what it actually covers, the four things that can still move it, and the questions worth asking before you sign one.
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Why Building Projects Go Over Budget, and How Owners Fix It
You didn't set out to buy drawings. You set out to open a building, on time and on budget. Why the traditional design-bid-build model fails owners, and how single-source design-build with a guaranteed maximum price fixes it.
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Do You Hire an Architect or a Contractor First?
The short answer is neither, if you can avoid it. Here is why the question exists at all, what it costs owners who guess wrong, and the third option most first-time owners are never told about.
Read the storySchool Districts ·
Your School Bond Passed. The First Five Decisions Decide Everything.
Passing the bond was the hard part politically. Turning a ballot number into buildings is the hard part operationally. Here are the five decisions in the first ninety days that determine whether your district delivers what it promised.
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Building While School Is in Session
A school does not close for construction. Phasing around an occupied building is where district projects are won or lost, and almost none of it is decided on the job site.
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The First 90 Days of a Building Project, for Owners Who Have Never Built One
What actually happens in the first three months, what you will be asked to decide, what you are not responsible for, and the three mistakes first-time owners make before anyone draws anything.
Read the storySchool Districts ·
Bond, Sinking Fund, or General Fund: Which Pays for What
Michigan districts have three capital funding sources, and each one restricts what it can pay for differently. How to match scope to the right source, and where districts most often get this wrong.
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The Facility Master Plan That Wins a Bond Election
Bond campaigns are won long before the ballot language is written. What a credible facility master plan actually contains, and why condition data persuades voters that aspiration never will.
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What Makes a Great Community Recreation Center
A recreation center is judged by how full it is every hour it is open. What that means for programming, staffing, flexibility, and the budget.
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Designing Sports Complexes and Fieldhouses That Work Year-Round
How to plan a sports complex or fieldhouse that fills every court on a Tuesday, hosts a real tournament on Saturday, and pays for itself.
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Aquatic Centers and Natatoriums: What to Know Before You Build
A natatorium is the hardest building most communities will ever put up. What drives cost, what drives longevity, and how to settle both before you break ground.
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Turning Aging Buildings into Active Community Assets
Your next community facility may already be standing. How to tell whether an existing building is worth reusing, and how to price the risk of what you cannot see.
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Know What to Build Before You Spend Millions
The Design Framework Report gives you drawings of the building, a real budget, and a timeline, before you commit to full design.
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Framework E co-founders recruit HBCU students to Detroit
Framework E co-founders Pierre Roberson and Jerry Attia discuss their careers, current projects, and bringing more Black architects into the profession.
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