Another option
After reading your article in the February issue entitled “One less headache,” I wanted to let you know that it may be helpful to readers to offer an alternative viewpoint to the thesis of the article.
As an architect who has extensive experience in corporate office design, I have recent experience with all different types of delivery strategies for architectural projects (with CompuServe, McGraw-Hill and others) and would like to point out that the architect has a responsibility to be the “agent” of the owner to represent the interests of the owner to the construction industry.
So, some companies may find that the owner’s representative is redundant and may find that the owner’s representative is only needed if the owner has the budget to support this second opinion. In fact, I have found that most projects run more smoothly based upon the approach and professionalism of the participants, not the expert knowledge of each team member with the construction industry.
Oftentimes, an owner’s contact who has a more intimate understanding of the owner’s business strategy will be most effective since they hold a passion for the success of the business and how the architecture informs or expresses the business to the outside world.
Timothy Hawk
principal architect
Wandel & Schnell, Architects
Columbus