Paper Example on Project C: Affordable Housing for Local Community's Young Families

Introduction

As the advisory member of the committee, I would opt for project C, that is, the neighborhood development of 20 new single-family starter homes for young families of local city employees. The employees up for consideration would be the local community's health workers, teachers, and emergency first responders, the police, and firefighters. The reason behind my choice would be to provide affordable and high-quality housing for the people of the local community. Young families have a hard time finding homes to raise their children while staying within their budget. Therefore the project would come in handy in helping the local community, especially the young families, to find a sustainable solution to this issue. Additionally, the choice of the qualifying parties, that is, the local city's employees is to ensure that those who provide essential services to the community are taken care of and that they get to stop worrying about their shelter issues and concentrate their attention on providing better services. This move is also meant to act as a motivation for the city workers, ensuring that they get rewarded for their excellent work and that they improve their service delivery even more.

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The architecture firm that I would suggest for the execution of the task is Siegel and Strain Architects. It is an innovative design firm that deals with creating creative, affordable, and durable housing and other architectural structures that are also environmentally sustainable in design. The firm has been recognized for its ground-breaking work in architecture, winning awards for its excellence in the creation and design of projects in the housing, institutional, and business structures. The firm offers a wide range of services, such as architecture and planning, whereby they help their clients to design the plans that they seek to have built, carry out feasibility studies on the areas where the projects are to be executed, as well as helping the clients in selecting the sites to start the building projects on, as well as planning on what to do on the sites. The firm also undertakes sustainable designing projects, whereby they ensure that their projects are environmentally-friendly and even the use of methods of designing and construction that ensure that the future needs of the built environment are met through their architectural designs and plans. Additionally, the firm uses its capacity to preserve historic buildings and models, with their designs marrying the concepts of the past classical building designs and the innovative needs of the future. Therefore, the firm has undertaken practices that support the reuse, rehabilitation, and restoration of historical sites as well as structures that hold cultural and historical significance to the parties involved.

The firm has been a leader in sustainable designs and architectural practices since its formation, and they recognize the need for sustainable practices that would ensure that the current generation gets to enjoy the built environment, as well as ensuring that the future generations also get to enjoy the same. To ensure that they achieve these goals, the firm has undertaken practices that would ensure their success in these attempts, such as advocacy for other firms and stakeholders in architecture to embrace the sustainable practices, education on the need, importance and what would happen should the world not adopt sustainable practices in their approach to the built environment. The firm is also undertaking active research in the field of sustainable development of the built environment and ensuring that they stay up to date on the green practices as well as architectural designs and practices. The firm also recognizes the need to understand that the buildings they design alter the environments in which they are set up and therefore find ways in which they can maximize the benefits that the buildings bring to the context in which they are positioned, ensuring a sustainable future to them. To further ensure sustainability, the firm undertakes its practices by basing their designs on the sustainability of the climate. The firm, therefore, uses strategies and approaches that ensure that their buildings do not affect the environment in any way, either in the present or future. Therefore, Siegel and Strain Architects ensure that they champion for water conservation, through caring for water catchment areas and also taking care of where the water from their sites during construction and upon completion would be channeled to, making sure that they do not poison the water sources in the area. The sustainability aim of the firm is further brought home through their use of green materials in their construction, selecting materials that are environmentally friendly as well as posing no threat to human health.

Reasons for Selection of the Firm

First, the budget of the committee is within what the firm is asking for the completion of the housing units. Therefore, since the budget allows for the committee to contract the services of the firm, I would highly recommend that we secure their services since they are also more affordable compared to the other firms available firms in the market. The firm also offered a Secondly; the firm is licensed to work in the area where the project is to be positioned. Therefore there will be no legal complications due to the contractor's lack of permission to give their services in our locality. Additionally, the firm confirmed that those that would be assigned to our project are top-notch professionals who are registered with the relevant authorities. Additionally, the firm has a portfolio that they provided for viewing and provided details for every project that they have provided. The portfolio was satisfactory and met the qualities that the board was looking for in an architectural firm in terms of design, costing and sustainability of the projects.

The firm also offered physical visits to their recent and ongoing projects to give a physical form of a portfolio, and this was important in providing the much-needed assurance that they would deliver the work as specified. Additionally, the site visits were crucial in giving us a chance to get the reactions from the clients that they had provided services to, and they all recommended that we contract the firm for the project. Additionally, the background checks that the committee came back positive, with online reviews rating the company's services at 5 out of 5, and the former clients also giving the same rating. The firm has also not been sued for negligence or any other service-related issue. Therefore this shows that they will deliver the services we need them to without any hiccups as well as with no legal complications or lawsuits from them or to them during and after the project. The firm also presented us with a list of the contractors whom they work with on their projects, and this helped the committee to settle on them since the listed contractors met the standards we were looking for, as well as background checks on them bringing back positive reviews and recommendations.

Experience in the architectural field was also considered in the selection of this firm and has been in the industry for over thirty years. It was evident that they have the required experience in providing the needed services in the timeliest and most efficient way possible. Experience is also crucial in ensuring that the firm can handle unexpected possibilities that may come up during the projects and that they would not affect the progress. The firm's estimation of the time that they would need to complete the project was also considered, and the estimation of one year to complete the 20 housing units was both satisfactory and reasonable, considering the committee had projected that the project would take at least two and a half years to reach completion. Therefore, the early completion will give the firm time to undertake other projects, either of the same kind of varying ones.

A successful Project from the Firm's Portfolio

The Ocean Avenue residencies found in Emeryville California particularly caught my attention when going through Siegel and Strain Architects' portfolio. The project is a rebuilding, replacing the houses that were destroyed by fire, upgrading the 20th Century designs with a 21st Century touch. The buildings provide the owners with a chance to enjoy the modern touch of the homes' designs while on a relatively affordable budget. The residencies were designed to ensure that they would satisfy the community requirements and needs as well as the sustainable ones, employing sustainable measures and means of construction in the structures and materials used in the project. The houses have two bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, and are one story high, a perfect fit for new families. Therefore the project that we seek to undertake could borrow some ideas from the completed one due to their similarities.

How the firm will satisfy the Project's Needs

First, the firm will provide the project with the cost-effectiveness that we are looking for. The budget that the project had in mind for the project fits perfectly with the quotes provided to us by the firm. Therefore this business transaction will ensure that our project will meet the most prominent pillar that we go by, that is, provision of quality services while maintaining cost-effectiveness. Additionally, the firm has offered a favorable payment plan for the services that they will provide, therefore offering financial value to the project, since they only require a down payment and the other payments are to be done in installments as the project continues. This arrangement will allow the project to continue while the finances required to see it get to the occupation stage are being sourced for. Furthermore, the firm has offered a business discount as a part of its CSR program, considering the aim of the project.

Secondly, the firm seeks to satisfy the project's need for completion in the timeliest way possible. Time is a significant issue, with the project's management needing it to be completed within a maximum time of two years. The firm has assured us that the maximum amount of time that it will take them to finish the project will be a year and a half, providing the project's management with six months during which they can undertake more projects of similar specifications or different ones. This firm's speed is also assured to be also paired with efficiency in their way of service delivery as well as ensuring that the quality of the project will not be compromised. At the same time, they pursue the completion of the project.

Additionally, the project stands to benefit from the active correspondence that the firm has mastered. Since communication is needed to complete projects with both parties satisfied with the outcomes, the firm is set to meet the needs of our project, if the correspondence they have provided so far is anything to go by. Therefore, the firm will satisfy the project's need for effective responses and communication on the progress and changes made, if any.

Quality is assured with the choice of this firm, and this is important as the project seeks to provide housing of superior quality to those that are in the market. This way, the recommendations are given by the previous clients, the site visits and the portfolios provided reassured the committee of the levels of quality to be expected from the upcoming project. The firm does not compromise on quality, and it is for this reason that they have a qualified workforce that ensures the needs of the customer are met, as well as ensuring that the final product is of good quality. Quality is also guaranteed through their use of durable materials in their projects. The experience of the firm because of bei...