Questions We
Get Asked. 

Most consultants come from one side, either design or construction. We've worked on all sides of a project. We've sat in the architect's office developing details. We've stood on the jobsite managing trades. We've worked for owners reviewing budgets and holding teams accountable. We've reviewed submittals, written scopes, run closeouts, and dealt with the fallout when things go wrong. That's 30+ years of seeing projects from every seat at the table. So when we consult, we're not guessing what the other side is thinking, we've been the other side. That's the difference.

No. Your architect designs. Your contractor builds. We do neither. What we do is manage the space between them, where design intent meets field reality, and where most problems start. On an owner's representation engagement we represent your interests to both. On construction administration we carry the architect's intent into the field and defend it there. On construction management we translate the drawings into something the crews can actually execute. Nobody gets replaced. Somebody finally owns the gap.

Project-based, fixed fee. Not hourly, and not a percentage of construction cost. Every engagement is scoped to the project: its size, complexity, what phase it's in, and how much management it actually needs. After a discovery call and a review of your documents, you get a written scope of work with a fixed price. You know the number before you commit, and if the scope changes we talk about it before the work happens rather than after. We don't bill hourly on purpose. An hourly consultant is paid to spend time. A fixed fee means we're paid to solve the problem.

Yes, and that's how most engagements start. People rarely call before anything has gone wrong. They call when a change order doesn't add up, a schedule keeps moving without explanation, or the field can't build what's on the drawings. We begin by establishing where the project actually stands: documents, budget, schedule, correspondence. Then we tell you what we found. Sometimes the finding is that you need less help than you thought. We'll say so.

Possibly not, and the question is worth asking properly. If your project manager is independent of the general contractor and the design team, has the capacity to do the work, and answers to you, you may be covered. The thing to check is that middle condition. A great deal of what gets called project management on a job is the contractor managing themselves. If the person reviewing the change order works for the company that submitted it, that's the gap, no matter how good they are.

We've managed capital projects from roughly $6 million to $48 million, and we take smaller work when the complexity earns it. Size matters less than the number of moving parts. A $2 million renovation in an occupied building with four trades and a hard completion date can demand more management than a job five times larger and simpler. If you're not sure whether yours fits, ask.

We're based in New York City and most of our work is in the metro area. We take projects nationwide. How an engagement is structured depends on how much site presence the work genuinely needs. Document review, coordination, and budget oversight run well remotely. Field-intensive construction administration does not. We'll tell you which one your project is before you hire us, not after.

Thirty minutes. You describe the project and where it's hurting. We ask questions and tell you what we're hearing. If we think you need us, we say so and describe what the engagement would look like. If we think you don't, we say that instead. There's no proposal at the end of the call and nothing to sign. If it makes sense to go further, we'll ask to review your documents before quoting anything. Pricing a construction engagement off a conversation is guessing, and you'd be paying for the guess.

Seven questions, about two minutes. It asks whether you own the project, build it, or design it, then shows you which controls are actually in place and which three are worth closing first. The read comes to you by email. We follow up once. If you take it, fix the gaps yourself, and never call us, that's a good outcome too.

A principal, and the same one from kickoff to closeout. Every engagement is assigned to one of the principals of the firm. That person owns the project, and they build a team around it sized to what the work actually needs. A construction administration engagement for a design firm and a multi-trade renovation for an owner call for different people, so we staff to the project rather than to a template. What that rules out is the thing you're probably asking about. You are not pitched by a principal and then handed to someone junior once the contract is signed.