About
At Rev One Architects, we not only bring an incredibly practical perspective to everything we do, we bring the experience of well over 400 completed projects for property owners, just like you - everything from room additions to new homes, condominium buildings, offices, restaurants, hotels, and stores.
We have won multiple customer service awards from places like Angie's List and the Better Business Bureau because we are committed to being there for you until the last nail is driven.
We know how to deliver you the most square footage we can for your money. We have years of expertise in working with older buildings, tight budgets, and building departments.
We don't just custom design each of our projects to look beautiful and carefully respond to its surroundings, we always design them first and foremost to address your unique functional needs.
Peter has been involved in multitudinous types of construction undertakings, from building furniture to designing and building his own multi-unit buildings, for almost the last 3 decades, with over 20 years of that spent as a professional architect. Having an unusually wide variety of experiences performing construction industry activities like real estate development, construction defect consulting and analysis, and new product ideation; plus having sold and administered the construction of projects in locations from Chicago to Indonesia to California, he has the unique ability to look at any situation through many different lenses. He has also amassed over 2 decades of entrepreneurial business experiences in every facet of starting, operating and managing a business, from strategic planning to marketing to accounting, and in almost every sector of the construction industry, starting up three sole proprietorships and 6 companies in the process.
Peter is an extremely intelligent, creative, critical and organized thinker with a broad educational background at the university level in everything from the humanities and arts to engineering and the sciences, and is also no stranger to a toolbox, having constructed entire residences himself. Being a seasoned, pragmatic creative professional with a deep interest in designed spaces and how they relate to and directly effect the natural environment and the psychology of human beings, he strongly believes that design can immeasurably shape the human experience. He is an intrepid networker and an inspiring mentor who is extremely talented at coming up with quick, innovative and practical solutions to just about any situation, and has technical expertise in the areas of space planning, detailing, and historical construction means and methods.
Peter holds a Professional Bachelors degree in Architecture and Structural Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and is an NCARB Certified Architect and an APEC Senior Architect. He was also an honor student in the humanities and sciences at the university level, has an editorial-level knowledge of the English language and an entry-level comprehension of both the Indonesian and Spanish languages.
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Frequently asked questions
What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
Typically as follows:
- The architect will meet with you initially to get a general idea of the scope of the work to be done, and then create an estimate/ contract for you.
- Once the contract is signed, the architect will sit down with you again to get very detailed information from you about what exactly you want in your building. This is called a program. If the work is being done to an existing building the architect will have to take detailed measurements of the existing building and create existing drawings as well.
- The architect will take the program information and design your building to your specifications.
- The architect will meet with you and discuss the initial design with you and make any changes that you might require until the design plans are to your satisfaction.
- The architect will develop the design details prepare construction documents based on the approved design plans, often in conjunction with a structural and MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) engineer.
- Once finished, the construction documents are submitted to the municipality for permit approval and to a few general contractors to be priced, or bid.
- Once the contractor has been selected, the contractor's information is submitted to the municipality, a permit is issued and construction can begin.
- The architect will periodically inspect the construction site to ensure that the building is being built in accordance with the construction documents and good workmanship practices, as well as being available to answer questions and clarify his drawings.
What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
Much like engineers, attorneys, doctors and most other professions, architects are required by law to complete very specific requirements to obtain and maintain their professional title and licensure:
- A minimum of 8 years total of rigorous architectural training, including a minimum of 4 years of professional education in an accredited university program and a minimum of 2 years of internship working directly under a licensed architect
- Passing 7-10 rigorous board exams covering all facets of architectural practice and building regulations to become a licensed architect
- A minimum of 7 years of additional experience as a licensed architect to be designated as a "Senior Architect"
- The completion of 12 hours of continuing professional education, including 3 hours of "Health Safety and Welfare" education, each year to maintain licensure
Do you have a standard pricing system for your services? If so, please share the details here.
Architecture is a very competitive business, so it is important to look at the persons or firms themselves and not just the prices. The lowest priced architect most likely is not including everything that you will need from him in his bid to get your project completed - it is very important for you to know what is included in your bids and what isn't. Many "discount" architects will just give you a bid for construction documents or drawings only, and not include things such as zoning variations, permit expediting, engineering fees, and construction administration/ project inspections, all of which would typically be included by a full service architecture firm. Firms that have more experience and do better quality design work tend to charge more - with architects, as with most other things in life, you typically get what you pay for.
What advice would you give a customer looking to hire a pro in your area of expertise?
When hiring an architect you should look for design skill, construction knowledge, experience with local building regulations, and a collaborative attitude. You should get references from your architect and find out how his past clients feel about the spaces he has created for them. An architect should have experience not only creating drawings, but also dealing with contractors in the field and building projects. Many architects focus on only creating drawings of buildings, so they are not in touch with the realities of the construction process and therefore are prone to designing things that are not efficient and/ or economical to build. It also is helpful when the architect has a thorough familiarity with the local municipal codes, ordinances, permit reviewers and permit review procedures in order that you can obtain your building permit with relative ease. And remember that architecture is all about communication, so be sure to hire an architect who has a collaborative approach to creating buildings and is someone whom you feel that you can communicate comfortably with.
What questions should customers think through before talking to pros about their needs?
We find that the most useful information you can provide is a list of rooms with what you specifically want in them and/or how you want them to feel and pictures of any buildings you may have seen that you may particularly like, as well as a survey of the property. Many clients attempt to sketch floor plans, and while these can be somewhat useful in communicating what you are looking for to us, we have found that they usually don't show the types of spaces that our clients really necessarily want and that they really aren't much of a help to us in our design work.