Re: Alan Barcoupe's discussion of ethics, it would seem to me that any client who hires an architect has an expectation that his practitioner will bring an appropriate repertoire of aesthetic expression to the task as well as site design and technical skills. Otherwise, to the extent the regulatory strictures allow consulting options, he may as well hire a licensed engineer and a drafting service.
Surely the ad valorum of an architect's services is assumed by both practitioner and client to reside in the best outcome of the design process and the curb appeal of the finished product. The product type simply establishes the ground rules, the relationship of a project's purpose to its cost. No matter how clever a designer may be, the client's budget, taste, and program set the bar; it is the architects job to snatch good design from the jaws of taste and market - within the budget. However, the more adventurous and well-healed the client, the better the prognosis. It must, of course, be assumed also that the client is astute enough to select the right architect for the job, and that the designer has projected a confident image and has a history of work appealing to the client.
As regards construction budgets, the architect has an obligation to inform the client which choices, including substitutions and other changes, will detract from the finished product all along the way, from design through occupancy. This is the proper context of ethical action, not simply saving the client a few more dollars.
If the owner and architect can't be essentially on the same page, at least most of the time, they should probably not be working together. In the best relationships, contracts confirm understandings and prerogatives in clear detail in the event of a dispute, but end up simply memorializing a good marriage of expectations. Not such a sticky subject unless one is prepared to challenge the traditional role of the architect as arbiter not of taste, but of good design.
Gary Collins AIA
Principal
Gary R. Collins, AIA
Jacksonville OR
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