by audrey » Wed Oct 26, 2016 1:04 pm
@ mungomuffit - we were looking to Giles Pike too for our house refurbishment (2-storey side extension). We liked some of their work Between the Commons and talked to Tom Pike there who clearly is very knowledgeable. However, we were hoping to get them for the creative side of the brief only and securing planning permission, and they said they do not do that, it's either full control of the project (incl implementation/project management) or nothing. We also had a great building team lined up, with whom we worked well together on previous projects, so we thought we didn't need the architect for managing the project for us - I mean, they would have been helpful, but not for such a steep project management fee (which based on total project value would have made an already expensive refurbishment project even more costly). In the end, we decided to go with another local architect practice who understood our brief (we also had quite a good idea of what we wanted) and were able to complement our own ideas of using glazing with a more practical use of the space available. They secured us planning permission at the first attempt, but we were not in a conservation area, so the Council didn't have too many planning-related objections. We also went for pre-application advice before submission, that also helped I guess with our final plans getting approved. Hope this helps.
@ mungomuffit - we were looking to Giles Pike too for our house refurbishment (2-storey side extension). We liked some of their work Between the Commons and talked to Tom Pike there who clearly is very knowledgeable. However, we were hoping to get them for the creative side of the brief only and securing planning permission, and they said they do not do that, it's either full control of the project (incl implementation/project management) or nothing. We also had a great building team lined up, with whom we worked well together on previous projects, so we thought we didn't need the architect for managing the project for us - I mean, they would have been helpful, but not for such a steep project management fee (which based on total project value would have made an already expensive refurbishment project even more costly). In the end, we decided to go with another local architect practice who understood our brief (we also had quite a good idea of what we wanted) and were able to complement our own ideas of using glazing with a more practical use of the space available. They secured us planning permission at the first attempt, but we were not in a conservation area, so the Council didn't have too many planning-related objections. We also went for pre-application advice before submission, that also helped I guess with our final plans getting approved. Hope this helps.