Design

Working together to bring your facility to life

Design

In addition to assessing physical spaces, we also seek to understand your instructional program and curriculum delivery methods. We call this Educational Programming.

This critical step ensures that your finished design matches your curriculum and enhances your students’ learning experience.

Developing customized Educational Specifications accomplishes the following:

Identifies how you want your students to learn
Examines the relationships between learning areas
Establishes space adjacencies
Determines equipment and square footage requirements

We also examine school site needs, such as parking, pedestrian safe routes, vehicular access, and play field requirements.

Ultimately, Educational Programming and Ed Specs allow you to explore building concepts that match your budget realities before we start designing. This helps keep costs contained and eliminates scope creep.

During Schematic Design, our architects will meet with you in a series of design charrettes. Working together, you will see your facility begin to take shape. These interactive sessions allow end users to have input at the beginning of your new project, using the Ed Specs as a road map.

These collaborative sessions are held in your community over several days and are critical to ensuring that your facility meets your educational needs.

During Schematic Design, we use design software to help you visualize how your facility will look and function.

Board members, staff, students, and stakeholders are encouraged to participate in this process.

Design Development refines and adds detail, such as mechanical and electrical systems, to the schematic design.

During this phase, we use building information modeling (BIM) to check for system efficiencies and building functionality.

We present the final design to you using color renderings, drawings, and even virtual reality (VR) presentations. Our VR capability gives Board members the opportunity to explore classrooms, common spaces, and even the building design as a whole before voting to approve.

The Construction Documents step is the development of working drawings. These documents will be used for securing bids and construction. They specify every aspect of your facility from paint color to the location of electrical outlets.

We produce multiple check set drawings at different phases — 35%, 65%, 95%, etc. Then we review each set with you, your key personnel, engineers, and the construction manager prior to bidding. These reviews also:

Reduce questions during bidding and construction
Provide for more realistic bids
Save time during construction
Reduce the likelihood of change orders

The final phase of design is Bidding and Negotiation. For many suppliers and subcontractors, the bidding process is the first time for them to see the plans and specifications for your project.

Your dedicated Claycomb Project Manager is available to answer questions and familiarize them with the plans.

If additional cost saving substitutions are suggested, we will review them for compliance with your approved drawings and generate necessary documentation.

Throughout the bidding process, we work hand-in-hand with your construction manager to serve your interests. Our communication and attention to detail will save you money and time over the life of your project.