The Griffin, Bridging Heaven and Earth

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DANIEL LEE ARCHITECT

FINE CUSTOM ARCHITECTURE

THE PROCESS

Morning, by Maxfield Parrish, 1922

GREAT DESIGN BEGINS WITH ASPIRATIONS

Mutual Learning by Mutual Listening

In helping you achieve your vision, our creative process always starts with listening to you...

I have a note framed on the wall of my office. It says in part,

“Daniel, I longed for an old-world feel, but didn’t know how to create it. You came alongside and helped me create a life-long dream...!”

We explored ideas and worked together for three years, taking my client's project from conception to completion. The final work was accomplished through careful listening and skill...

"When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece."— John Ruskin, 1819 - 1900

Like many of my clients, she brought her own passionate personal view to the creative process. We saw a magnificent new work of architecture develop to reflect and become an integral part of her life and legacy.

 

  

 

Mutual learning is a time for us to share aspirations, concerns and hopes for your project. Ultimately your project will reflect your passions and aspirations, if cultivated with care. Engaging your dreams and aspirations helps us shape the spaces and details that will surround you. Many people find this process and experience to be one of the most rewarding of their lives.

Research and Visualization

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."— Albert Einstein

"I had no idea it could be so beautiful…." I hear this from many clients of mine when they see the first visual expressions of their project. Like a sonogram of a child in early development, visualization gives all of us a glimpse of the road ahead. We  take what has previously been imagined and make it almost real, with handsome freehand sketches, watercolor washes, detailed scale models – even animated computer visualizations where appropriate.

 

"Art does not reproduce the visible...it makes visible."— Paul Klee

To express the right spirit and details in a design, we do extensive research and sometimes even travel with our clients to craft the architecture that inspires them the most. Many clients choose our firm because of our expertise in various historical styles, our attention to authentic detailing, and our ability to also transcend style to accomplish project objectives or unique personal goals.

  

This disciplined approach provides all of our projects with a fresh yet timeless spirit, appropriate to your vision as the Owner of the project. A great beautiful custom home has a spirit, a great story, expressed through its vocabulary, spatial form, details and proportions. Many of our public or institutional buildings engage people with an appropriate civic dignity, majestic scale, strength, servant humility; a memorial to men of valor or, in the right circumstances, an invitation to holiness.

Whatever story or spirit you wish to convey through your project, our firm employs unmatched meticulous goal clarification, visualization and implementation to define and carry your message.

A legendary car designer expressed our goal this way,

“Strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best and make it better. When it does not exist, design it.” — Sir Henry Royce

Careful Instructions

Once your project’s character has been confirmed through research and visualization, we prepare carefully detailed instructions for the artisans and technicians who will give your project its actual final physical form. These instructions normally cover all disciplines, with these preparations consuming the largest block of professional time prior to actual construction.

This is the single most important step in assuring that the finished project’s design and quality of materials and craftsmanship will fulfill the expectations we developed during the visualization process. All architectural, electrical, mechanical, structural, interiors, ornamental, decorative, landscaping and other specialty disciplines are documented at this time in extensive detail.

 

These instructions form the basis for negotiation of final pricing and construction contracts with selected general contractors. Composed of many detailed drawings and comprehensive specifications, they are called the Construction Contract Documents.

Advancing Construction

After construction contract negotiations, a big day has arrived and construction begins. Construction Documents from the previous phase serve to guide and control all construction in the field until the project is fully completed. These documents assure that you will get the results you expected.

    

Daniel Lee and the firm are very active throughout the construction process on your behalf. We assist the builder as he seeks to fully understand and complete his work. We monitor his compliance with the detailed documents, evaluate his requests for payment from you, and review in detail all shop drawings and other quality control submittals for consistency with the design intent of the project. We also visit the site on a regular basis, to observe progress and quality of the work on your behalf.

 Managing Time and Money 

Protecting your time and money is also a stewardship of equal importance to creating a great design.

Responsible stewardship of your resources is itself a craft. What if you have fresh ideas after work has begun? What if we find the right materials but they are halfway around the world? 

   

If you wish to change the direction of the design midstream, we assist you in determining the precise details to be adjusted, modify the Contract Documents, and coordinate with the builder to mitigate impact of the change on schedule and costs.

For our clients who travel extensively, or have heavy work demands, we offer to be their sole point of contact or single source for the project, if needed.            

We help you balance time, resources, and ambitions so that as compelling ideas evolve into built form, you fund them and any inevitable changes, under an agreed stewardship plan. Our mutual priority is to manage the project responsibly, keeping each other fully informed at each step of the way.

Going the Distance

From information intake to visualization, design to budgeting, project scheduling to monitoring the actual construction, we walk with you through every step of the project’s stewardship. Our experience and guidance gives you the practical insights you need for a successful project. You will be as pleased by the management of the project as you will be by the impact it has on your family or organization.

To assist in a quality outcome, we are involved in and focused on your project until construction is completely finished, every step of the way. And we are always available to serve you after you move in, during the warranty phase and beyond as you wish. 

                 

"A great building must begin with the immeasurable, must go through immeasurable means when it is being designed and in the end must be unmeasurable."— L. Kahn

Our commitment to you leads us to take extraordinary measures in the pursuit of design excellence and personalized service. We regard the creation of architecture as a sacred trust, as a response to the needs of our clients, as a calling. With Daniel Lee Architect, your needs will be tended to by a carefully selected group of designers, specialists and collaborators, whose ambition is to create a work of design that reflects your story.

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