Schematic Design
- Develop accepted conceptual design; this phase blends into the construction documents phase and the two are often confused.
- Selection of hardscape materials and finishes, any specifics about these materials is applied to the layout of the design concept and things begin to come into focus but may not be fully worked out yet. For instance, you may want a particular kind of stone and apply that note to the drawings, but in the construction documents phase the quarry supplying the stone may suggest that you adjust the sizes of the pieces in your design to avoid waste in the cutting process. Adjustments like this are expected and are integral to the schematic design phase.
- It is important to work out design and style issues during this phase. Once the project enters the construction document (CD) phase, things get even more specific and every change takes longer to make because the drawing set is coming together and each change can affect multiple construction details.
- Schematic Design meetings with clients until significant satisfaction with the direction of the project.
- Plant procurement and sourcing (sometimes done before bidding to ensure specific specimen plants and availability). This can be done in the next phase, but for some plant and other natural materials, I recommend starting this process as early as possible. (for example, cherry trees from Washington may require shipping when dormant and will be unavailable in spring through fall, or bluestone from back east can be out of reach under a blanket of snow for months at a time.)
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