A Creative Process & Professional Services

Project Individuality

One of the many enjoyable aspects of design is the process itself and how it is truly unique to every project undertaken at Brandon D Burmeister Design.  It is this respect for each project, each client, that yields a design that pays tribute to the user’s lifestyle (how they actually live), is sustainable (with respects to economic longevity, ecologically-minded, and benefits society as a whole– either directly or indirectly), and evokes a sense of pride for the user and the community.  Design is a worthwhile pursuit to maximize the human experience by elevating his/her relationship to their surrounding natural and built environment.

As far as how your project will proceed through design, there is a results-based pathway I follow and can be similarly described by this AIA publication, and introduces some of the basic architectural vocabulary used in our sometimes confusing lexicon.

Design Avenues:

As step one in the design phase, it is the Designer’s role to extract what, specifically, the Client desires of the important project that he/she seeks.  It is essential to identify the realistic budget, functionality, and timeline for which the project is to achieve, but to also capitalize on the opportunity that exists to make the most of these efforts to achieve superior results.  While keeping the aforementioned fundamentals at the forefront, these all too often ignored opportunities are explorations into aesthetics, site [location] integration, occupant health, spatial & energy efficiency, and a heightened sense of awareness through experiencing the designed space(s).  It is my professional ethic as a designer to embrace all of this holistically.  Below are some detailed examples of the amazing paths that await your endeavor.  These avenues should be viewed as a three-dimensional interconnected web that each inform the design and are often highlighted in the final product.

Design Avenues

Let’s reframe the conversation and discuss what you can truly get out of your building journey.

Design Services

I offer a full range of start to finish project services to those that are embarking on a large or small building venture.  The most commonly requested are identified below.

Site Analysis/Site Selection- assistance finding and evaluating potential sites, paying particular attention to specific project requirements, relation to the surroundings, solar exposure, view corridors, water migration, prevailing breezes, existing vegetation, subsurface conditions, etc.

Research & Programming- articulating spatial relationships and determining their size, function, pertinent negatives, and specific needs.

Conceptual Exploration- initial sketches or renderings that capture for the first time how the project may take form, sit on the site, and invoke the Client’s overall intent & excitement for the project.

Schematic Design/Design Development- sketches and CAD drawings that transform the Client-endorsed conceptual design into real-world dimensions, materiality, and presumed construction.

Construction Documents/Permitting Drawings- Client-approved SD and DD documents that are further refined to obtain a jurisdiction-issued building permit and detailed building components and systems sufficient to hand-off to the construction Contractor.

Construction Administration- working as the liaison between the Client and Contractor, the Designer addresses field changes and ensures design-construction consistency; quality assurance.

As-Built CAD Drawings- existing condition CAD drawings performed before a project is to commence (addition or alteration) or after construction (for future reference).

Sustainability Consulting- comprehensive site & climate, water, energy & climate, indoor quality, materials, and a myriad of design issues & considerations from a society, economic, and environmental perspective of sustainability.

Hand Graphic Rendering & Modeling- both hand illustrated- and computer- generated representations of the project or it’s particular features.

Design-Build (on select projects)- serving as the Designer and Contractor to provide a seamless evolution to complete a built work, usually for efficiency sake or for atypical projects.

Integrated Systems Design- rainwater catchment, wastewater treatment, solar photovoltaic & micro-wind energy, solar domestic hot water, geothermal heat pumps, and other approaches to augment your project’s self-sufficiency.

Master Planning- early-stage comprehensive organization of a series of buildings or spaces, usually on a large site or existing complex.

Passive Solar & Natural Ventilation- site- and project- specific strategies and design principles to capitalize on the sun’s radiation and prevailing breezes to passively heat and cool a project.

Construction Detailing- individual design solutions for complicated components of a project from a construction, functional, and aesthetic stand point.

Universal/Elderly Design- incorporating anthropometric-based standards to accommodate an elderly or physically-debilitated user or set of users.

Green/Vegetated Roofs- using roof surfaces for added site integration, building insulation, reduced heat island effect, vegetative yield, or water treatment by appropriate design and construction methods.

Remote Building Logistics- research, evaluation, and implementation of access, materials, construction equipment, and people to a remote project site location.

Basic Structural Analysis- determining the best structural solution by evaluating columns, beams, roofs, floors, walls, and other systems with consideration to occupant, wind, and seismic loads.

Cost Estimating- detailed analysis of material, labor, and equipment cost estimates with respect for their ever-changing trends.

Code Analysis- compliance to governing jurisdictions necessary for the health, safety, and welfare of occupants.