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In founding McKissick Associates, we sought to recapture the business ideals that we grew up with:
McKissick Associates owns a 4 passenger, single-engine aircraft piloted by our owner. Not only does this facilitate travel between our office and client sites, but it provides a greater range of accessible places for us to travel with our clients in order to tour other facilities for evaluation in our design process.
McKissick Associates is a service-oriented architectural practice. Our clients receive our full attention and respect. Each project, whether a multi-million dollar construction project or a small facility study, involve the hands-on attention of our company owner, Vern L. McKissick.
McKissick Associates is committed to client relationships built on trust. Mr. McKissick's clients have learned that they get honest and realistic answers about costs and deadlines. They may not always be the answers that his clients want to hear, but they will be straight, realistic answers. And that's what good service is about; honest, professional advice so that clients have the real information they need to solve their real-world problems.
We are the client's advocate. Once we understand your needs and your goals, we will make those needs understood to everyone on the building and construction team. We represent our client and have nothing to gain by favoring any other alliances.
We are honest. We may not tell you what you want to hear, but we will tell you what you need to know. Nobody's best interest is served by sugarcoating and platitudes. Nor is it well served by setting unattainable expectations. Our architects and project managers have decades of experience behind them. We won't snow you.
Patience is more than a virtue, it is behind every calmer head that prevails. Patience is numerous explanations of the project to administration, taxpayers & contractors in a way that is informative and positive. Patience is working through problems carefully and documenting solutions precisely.
We offer our clients the respect of knowing that they know their own jobs and are in the best position to describe their issues to us. We won't talk down to you or roll our eyes when you talk to us. We really do take our clients seriously.
Sometimes getting a project from concept to completion is difficult. Some hard won victories are due largely to sheer force of will. Our tenacity on behalf of our clients can overcome many obstacles; opposition, delays, reluctant parties, even changing economic factors. It's about doing what it takes to make the project successful. Tenacity encompasses all of the above qualities: client advocacy and the desire to see our clients meet their goals, enough honesty to identify the real problems, enough patience to really solve them, and the respect we give all parties so that the victory is truly one for the whole team.
In an architectural project, the architect holds a unique position. The architect is usually responsible for interpreting the needs of the client and coordinating the efforts of all parties involved in the design and construction of the project. Each of these members of the team answers to any number of people and their business is benefited differently by changing circumstances. The architect is typically, however, the only member of the project team which only benefits from the success of the project long-term from the client's point of view.
Hiring an architect is a lot like proposing marriage. It requires a lot of trust and an expectation of "forever". A typical building project often begins with a feasibility study and a community "consensus building process". The goal is to predict the future use of a client's facilities for the next 20 to 40 years and create a solution to accommodate as much flexibility as possible. Forty years ago, computers were the size of houses. Gemini 3 was the newest in space technology. The Vietnam War hadn't begun yet, much less the war on terror on our own soil. A lot can change in 40 years. A study itself, even after completion, can continue to evolve over a year or more. The public will likely be affected by the project, and so some period of time must be allotted for working with community members to develop options in order to make decisions about funding & community use.
Once a project begins, the design phase can be fairly quick, or can last several years depending on the complexity of the issues to be solved and the fiscal goals of the client. In that time, school boards can change, the economic climate can change and community growth & development can change. Options will continue to be revised, discussed and re-presented to the community. Once construction begins, the size of the project will largely determine the length of time until a project is complete. With large projects, this can be a process of a year or more.
Your relationship with your architect can be expected to last from 3 to 5 years at a minimum. That means our relationship will last longer than about 32% of all marriages.
The architect is responsible for the client's happiness with the building project. Period. This is typically true even for the portions of the project not in direct control by the architect, such as the contractor or construction manager. The architect is also responsible for the quality of the building's materials and design solution. Even if the building project is adequate to meet short-term needs, the architect's business will only succeed if the client is a good reference for years to come.
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