When there is a Board to deal with, and an Administration and the stakeholders that are using the facilities and ultimately paying for the work, how do you balance so many potentially diverse, multi-directional opinions? These may include both needs such as life safety and wants, maybe nice to have but don’t rise up to the top of a priority list. Some of those wants can stall a building plan unnecessarily if there is not a reasonable solution. Themes Flighting is an important tool in this process to show how to best deal with the variables in this planning process. The answer begins with including all of the influencing stakeholders. Yes, that can be unwieldy and at times confusing. The most important element in this process is the Architect. Themes takes time in this process to educate the stakeholders about the process, where cost comes in and where it gets taken out, how to save or reduce budget and why you need to set aside a responsible contingency. More importantly, how to make certain you have the bulk of the contingency remaining to be able to include options, many of these options on the wish lists of stakeholders.
