Priestley + Associates Architecture

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Retirement Home of L L Wild Maine Blueberries

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Blueberry Farm

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Priestley + Associates Architecture to accomplish?

• Design and build a retirement home

SOLUTION

How did you find Priestley + Associates Architecture?

Referral

Why did you select Priestley + Associates Architecture over others?

Referral from builder

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

I entered into a standard AIA, percentage of construction cost contract with P&A in November of 2021, specifying a new residential home budget of 1.5M.  In spring of 2022, after selecting a builder, P&A came in with plans at 1.8M.  It proved impossible to get them to take direction to reduce costs to our agreed upon budget of 1.5M and our opportunity to build at that time slipped away.  In November of 2024 we selected a second builder.  After a month of intense, even desperate efforts to site the house as designed in accordance with the P&A siting plan, (including things like hiring additional consulting surveyors, lopping off the breezeway and garage in the original plans in order to shorten the building and flipping the building in mirror image) we ultimately concluded that that the P&A building design and siting plans were unworkable and in error, respectively, leading the home to extend into a road set back, among other problems.  Although extensive efforts were made to re-site and or remedy the problem, as described, before frost made pouring a foundation inadvisable, these efforts failed.  During these efforts, P&A failed to provide timely and accurate assistance to address the problems.  The builder agreed to hold our spot for the spring, but I was unable to get them to commit to needed adjustments to the plans in a timely fashion.  Accordingly, I terminated P&A losing some $90,000.00 in fees paid to date.  Adding insult to injury, post termination, they generated correspondence suggesting that he would be due a termination fee based on his own "most accurate" final construction cost estimates that were as high as 3.7M, more than double our agreed upon budget.  In general, P&A failed to be on time, failed to be on budget, failed to design in accordance with both oral and written owner instructions and they failed to generate work that consistently met my expectations for professional level services.  I found the project leader to be defiant, impossibly arrogant and categorically unable to take direction, congenitally unable to adapt, and unable to make necessary changes.  After beginning the painful process of dispute resolution with P&A, I learned more.  I would advise those considering using P&A (or the a project leader), to carefully investigate his educational qualifications and the nature and status of his licensure and/registration both in Maine and Massachusetts (including court docket searches) before hiring this firm.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Plans and specifications sufficient for a builder to dig and pour a foundation and begin construction.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Items were not deliver to cost or square foot specifications.  Not within budget.  Not timely.  To say that P&A was unresponsive would be charitable. 

What was your primary form of communication with Priestley + Associates Architecture?

In-Person Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They have an impressive office.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Priestley + Associates Architecture could have done differently?

Be on budget, on time and be able to take direction from the owner.