All Forum Posts by: Jared W Smith

Hello Adam, 
Westchester County is very large and most snow removal contractors stick to specific areas of their home base town, city or village. Your best bet is to canvas the area surrounding the property for the local landscape companies. Typically in their down season (winter) they will offer snow removal. I know mine does. Get a quote now while they're in fall clean-up. Likely less costly as opposed to right before a big snow storm. 

-Jared W. Smith, RA - Principal Architect at Architect Owl PLLC (Licensed in NY & CT) 

Quote from @Megan Roy:

HI all I am hoping you can assist with your experience here. 

I have a client who purchased a duplex and rehabbed it. He worked with a licensed HVAC, Electrician and Plumbe. 

We are at closing and he's running into an issue with the property being zoned as "R3 Residential" after final compliance checks/quality control stating there is an issue here the zoning. How can I help clear this up? He purchased it as a Duplex, Permits were submitted, Title has this listed as a Duplex as well. However...

 LOCATION? City, State? 

Fair enough Craig. You are preaching to the choir. I worked in multiple large corporate offices for 13 yrs before I went out on my own. Trust me, the skillset to run your own firm is not learned in year one. Hard to explain unless you are an Architect. And I don't know what he told you but if he a few months of license, it's highly doubtful he had professional liability. You can't even get a quote without proving licensure. It's a costly and lengthy process. Maybe general liability. But I digress..

Overall your story shouldn't give others the idea that what you experienced is common when it's far from it. That was my point. People sometime don't read between the lines or understand the intricacies of working with an Architect. I can see a reader gathering: "Oh, I can get a full set of plans completed by an Architect for $1,000 bucks." And then expect this in real life under vastly different circumstances. See my issue...??     

I co-sign with Scott. Online plans are not site specific and most often they must be tailored to the locale including state building codes and climate. Best to find a local Architect. 

-Jared W. Smith, RA - Principal Architect at Architect Owl PLLC (Licensed in NY & CT)

Hello @Lee L.

You haven't mentioned the lot location. However, it would hugely beneficial to contact a local Architect familiar with the type of development you are seeking to guide you through the process. They can typically bring aboard all the consultants necessary for the build and look out for your best interest. 

-Jared W. Smith, RA - Principal Architect at Architect Owl PLLC (Licensed in NY & CT)

 Thank you Jon! 

Hello Connor, 

As the only licensed architect to post (thus far), my advice if you want to go to architecture school- Go to a City/State school for inexpensive tuition, take all your design courses but also take electives (or minor in real estate develop and/or business finance). BS Arch (4 yrs) or BArch (5 yrs) degree. Then exit and go work for a developer or design-build firm to get your experience and locale knowledge up in the real world. Then branch out on your own. If you want to become licensed, then you'll have to include working in some architecture offices to gain your necessary experiences, take your exams and get license. Will add some time going this route but I can say you will have all the skills necessary to do your own stuff. 

I personally struggled with the whole finance and development side since I didn't learn anything into these areas until many years after graduating college. Wish I had gotten more education (school and real world) in my 20s. 

-Jared W. Smith, RA - Principal Architect at Architect Owl PLLC (Licensed in NY & CT)   

It's doable. Happens here in NY often since on average there are a lot of house at or over 100 yrs old. I added an addition on a 1900s house in Brooklyn. Same rubble foundation. Did some minor repairs to it and laid out new foundation in back. It was a complete gut job to completely modernize and expand the house. It was zoned for a multi but the owners wanted to use as a single family to occupy. Came out really good.

Get a local Architect to help you.    

-Jared W. Smith, RA - Principal Architect at Architect Owl PLLC (Licensed in NY & CT)

Hello @Gere W.

Your best bet is to reach out to Planning/Building Dept. in the Town/City you are looking to build in and obtain the Zoning Code/Resolution. As @Tim Johnson said, there's no one way to approach it since each municipality can have vastly different rules, requirements and parameters to abide by. However I will preface this by saying if you aren't familiar with what you're looking at/reading then it's somewhat moot. I work in NYC which has one of the most complex Zoning regulations in the country. I wouldn't expect the average person to be able to decipher it without training.  

If this is the case, I'd reach out to a local Architect familiar with and/or doing projects/developments similar to what you want to build. They are likely already knowledgeable on the basic rules to build. This is what we as Architect do. Working with your best interest in mind backed by our experience, we can work with you to flush out the best route for a lot/property. They can better answer your questions.

-Jared W. Smith, RA - Principal Architect at Architect Owl PLLC (Licensed in NY & CT)