Pete and Repeat

I recently quoted a project for a parks and recreation client. There were multiple small buildings at 6 different sites. Some of the buildings were a one-off design, but a few were to be repeated at other sites. I had to price the job as one lump sum for the whole project though. It is always a challenge for me to arrive at the correct pricing for repeated buildings as there are a few different schools of thought on this. On the one hand, your client may say: "It's just the same exact building but on a different site; just charge me for the extra prints."

Now you may say that's well and good, but this same building on a new site will almost certainly have a different orientation, requiring that the HVAC system be reviewed, and even possibly recalculated and resized due to different solar exposures.

The perfect example of a repeated design is the mulitple housing unit: one, two, or three floor plans repeated 10 times each in one buiding. You slice and dice, and flip and reverse the floor plans, but it ends up being the same thing over and over, only on one site. This allows for some design efficiencies and may simplify our collective lives a bit. It gets more complicated when the whole building get repeated at that site or sites far removed.

You may also consider that a design for a one-off building is just that, only built once, and any errors or omissions will only affect that one building. A design for a repeated building must be "closer to fine", as any mistakes will be multiplied over and over again. I know we all like to think that all our designs are "perfect", but that is like thinking Windows Vista was also perfect right out of the box!

Other considerations are the additional items that are not repeated:  liability, site adaptation, site utilities, different building codes in different locales, and additional bid and construction phase services. Liability is a biggie, it's the reason we all carry that expensive E&O insurance. It increases in a linear fashion with each design we stamp, and needs to be included in pricing. Site issues, of course, take time and effort to iron out. Building codes may be an issue if the repeat will be done in other counties, cities or states, as well as obtaining additional state licensing where that's required. Let us also not forget the effort we put in every time a new site is bid and constructed. We have bidders' questions to answer, bid addendums, RFIs, prequalification of bidders, bid evaluations, submittal review, construction observation, and punchlists. It's a lot of work!

To put numbers on all of this, I would recommend discounting the repeated design itself, but put real hours and numbers on all the other items that takes your time to deal with. Use a spreadsheet and add it all up - you may be surprised. Your contract also needs to clearly state if this is a one-use design, or how many times it will be repeated and where. Also, add a clause that any design changes for the repeated building be covered at least on an hourly basis.

So the next time a client says: "Oh, by the way we might use this design for a few more sites", your ears need to perk up, and you need to start thinking of how to put a dollar amout on CYA.