ARCHITECT’S GUIDE TO NEW YORK APARTMENT RENOVATION - DOING IT THE RIGHT WAY: PART 2 - THE DESIGN PHASE
Architect’s Guide to New York Apartment Renovation -
Doing It The Right Way:
Part 2 - The Design Phase
Have Fun Before It Gets Serious
This stage is all about letting your design fantasies run free, setting your creativity loose – getting to be the kid in a candy shop. You’re creating a home that needs to be functional, comfortable and inspiring.
You want to be proud of it and enjoy entertaining guests– reflect on what your ideal home looks like. It may be an apartment you once visited or have seen on Pinterest or Instagram – explore ideas with your architect.
Taking time during this phase for brainstorming and studying options before moving on to production of drawings for any coop and DOB approvals is enormously beneficial, and you’ll be more confident with your choices once you’ve proceeded to the subsequent phases.
Developing the plan
Especially when it comes to New York apartments, where every square inch is valuable, designing for efficiency is always a priority. In addition, functionality, circulation, privacy, and natural light are key considerations when developing the schematic design layouts.
I find that after studying various options, typically there are two or three preferred floor plans, each with some advantages and disadvantage. For instance, a smaller bedroom might enable a larger kitchen; changing the location of a bedroom door might have different privacy implications.
As we land on an optimal plan, the design choices get more specific – for example, we explore lighting options, we develop detailed plans and elevations for the kitchen and bathrooms, we add consider furniture layouts, and start discussing various finish materials.
The architect will also review compliance with various codes and requirements while exploring the plan. For instance, maintaining clearances for accessibility and calculations of “light and air” for rooms and spaces that require windows.
Changes Can Be Made – Sometimes At a Cost
It’s important to feel fully confident in and happy with the plan before proceeding. While changes can be made at any time, as the renovation process gets more, changes result in additional costs and delays.
If changes are made after the DOB has approved the drawings, the architect files an amendment to the drawings. For changes made during construction, the effects on cost and timeframe, if any, will be determined together with the contractor.
Designing For The Future
It was famously said that “Form follows function,” and I would add “and future function.” Think about how you’ll use the space for some time to come.
A few potential scenarios:
Fast forwarding a few years, will new members join the household, like a baby or a parent? Or might there be fewer people in the house, if a child is leaving for college? A study could be designed to evolve into a baby’s room, and a bedroom into an exercise room..
If you don’t plan to stay in this home for the longer term, there are other considerations. For instance, choosing furniture that’s easy to move with you.
Where and how we work is changing. Incorporating a functional and comfortable workspace in the plan may be a good idea, whether or not you currently work from home.
Life is dynamic and to a certain extent your planning should take potential changes into account – saving you from investing in a subsequent renovation. Spaces can be designed with flexibility and adaptation as a priority. For instance, including a Murphy bed in a study will enable easily converting it to a guest bedroom
Working With CAD (Computer Aided Design)
The old architect’s table is cool looking, but it’s not used much anymore. Computer-produced drawings and images can range from two- and three-dimensional drawings to renderings, photo-realistic images and stimulated walkthroughs in the space.
Working with CAD is helpful during the design phase – once a 3D model of the space is drawn digitally, plans, sections, elevations, and three-dimensional views can be easily produced. It’s also helpful while developing the plan and the three-dimensional design of the space. For example, we can download 3D models of sofas from the manufacturers’ sites and add them to the computer model to study how they work in the space.
Especially with large building planning, CAD and BIM (Building Information Modeling) can be used for production of schedules and lists that become part of the construction documents (for example, schedules for the doors and windows), as well as for analyzing the building’s systems performance (for example, energy efficiency calculations).
3D visualization helps in getting a sense of how the space will look and feel, and it helps in making choices for furniture, materials, lighting, etc. I use computer 3D modeling often to explore design choices with my clients. However, I caution clients that 3D visualization can still not replace the experience of physically being in a space, using it, and living in it once the project is completed.
Conclusion
During the preliminary design phase, contemplate how you want your apartment renovation to turn out. Allocate enough time for exploring ideas and options with your architect, as subsequent changes to the design will likely result in added costs and time. The following phases will be based on the schematic design drawings produced during this phase.
Next, in Part 3, we’ll review what you need to know about preparing for the construction phase.