Frank Stevens & Associates

Both my grandfathers were entrepreneurs, so I think they planted the original seed in me. Then there was the childhood paper route (Pennsylvania winters - whew!) and neighborhood lawn mowing business that followed. Then I discovered and fell in love with architecture and while attending Georgia Tech, which oddly didn't have a summer internship program unlike all the engineering disciplines, I made my own program by designing decks and small additions in and around Atlanta. Turns out I was pretty good at it, and business was so good, I was hiring my fellow architecture students to help and that eventually became my first official business with 14 of my school chums working for me in the years after college! Almost 40 years later, having developed a very good reputation for creativity and technical expertise, I work out of my home office, have no employees (thank goodness) and life is good.

1) Business model: I've had the big office downtown (in Atlanta), but after 10 years with 10-14 employees I've learned that the sole practitioner provides the most rewarding experience for both the client and myself. The nature of a hierarchical firm is that although you interact with a firm principal, your work is always delegated to less experienced interns & draftsman; that's how they learn. Also, it's typically the interns who are sent to the site for Construction Administration duties, because that's often the only way to make that phase of service profitable, and again, that's how they learn. By comparison, I personally shepherd the project from beginning to end - I attend every meeting, draw every line, and write every report; what you see really is what you get.
(2) Technical Documents: Design talent is only part of the package: the ability to communicate the design through the technical drawings is a skill unto itself. The thoroughness, technical accuracy, and graphic quality of my drawings are among the best in Savannah, and contractors often comment that my drawings are easy to bid because they are so much more complete that most in the market. This allows builders to include less contingency money in their bids, which reduces your cost. Typical document sets for a $600-700k house have 12 to 16 sheets of drawings while mine typically have 20-25. That's a lot of information that's often not being well defined. A more insidious (and cynical) aspect of the thin sets of drawings often passed off for home construction is not a lack of skill, but rather a lack of willingness to spend one’s commission on the laborious detailing of a job when so few clients are able to discern how complete the work is or isn’t. My philosophy is reflected even in my email address: “I work for you”. I commit to advocate for you, and protect your interests, which means drawing every detail required.
(3) Personality: You want to hire someone you are very comfortable with because its a long haul til move-in day and construction can be a stressful experience. I've been repeatedly described over the years as a calming influence and get along with everyone (even when I'm firing a contractor for breach of contract). Follow your gut on this after we meet - it’s as important as the other considerations.

Yes, but there are few projects that don't merit a site visit. That being said, I designed a home and had it built here for a lovely couple in London who never even saw the house until they moved here after its completion (other than drawings, photos and reports via the internet) and it's one of my coolest houses - it's the one that was published in Garden & Living Magazine.

Typical precautions: vaccines, boosters, masks, zoom call meetings etc.