Bird Blog: Week 10

Every week, Jennifer Mankins, owner of the Bird boutiques, tells us about the new 2,500-square-foot store on Grand Street in Williamsburg that she’s getting ready to open. Last week, the HVAC was reckoned with. Now Jennifer’s team is getting all its ducks in a row to start heavy lifting on the renovation, per the preliminary plan sketched above…

As you may have noticed, we’ve been playing a bit of catch-up. We were already weeks into the renovation process when we started this blog, and wanted to dedicate what we then thought would be the first few entries to a little background information. Ten weeks and nine entries later, here we are finally in the present tense…

We’ve assessed the space, met the landlords, and negotiated the lease. We’ve interviewed and hired an architect, filed for and obtained a demo permit, and interviewed and hired a contractor to demolish the existing conditions. We’ve decided to go green and make the project as environmentally sustainable as possible, entering into the world of LEED and NYSERDA (more to come on that). We’ve met with structural engineers and HVAC technicians. We’ve had magical design meetings and not-so-magical design meetings (okay really just one of those in the latter category). We’ve learned way too much about the DOB and still not enough about building codes.

So where are we now? For one, we are revising the schedule, again. We were hoping to get all the documents in to the DOB for the build-out permit this week. CODE LLC, our expeditor, is finalizing the documents and will then send them to Ole’s office for him to sign. Then they’re off, via FedEx, to the landlord (who’s upstate) to be signed and then sent back to Jen in Brooklyn. Finally, they’re sent back to CODE’s office, with a check, and hand-carried to the DOB. We’re thinking that this all won’t get done by the end of the week, but we’ll see.

In the meantime, Ole and Sarah are finalizing the bid sets. These are the sets of drawings prepared for and given to potential contractors, and what they base their bids on. There’s generally some discussion as to how detailed the drawings should be. On one hand, the more detailed the drawings, the more accurate the bids. This hopefully, but not necessarily, means fewer change orders. Change orders are amendments to the design after an agreement has been made and a contract has been signed between a general contractor and a client. These can add up quickly, become very costly, and push a project over budget. On the other hand, less detailed bid sets will be finished sooner, speeding up the bidding process. A close approximation in total cost is still achievable, with the added advantage of having construction begin (and the store opening) sooner. Some say that no matter how carefully the design details are considered, there will always be changes, so the sooner you begin to build, the better.

In the end, the level of detail is usually determined by both the personalities of the architect and client, what they each consider to be fundamentally necessary information, and the constraints of time. We have three hours blocked out this afternoon at Ole’s office to decide.

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