It’s always exciting to begin designing your dream project. And it’s rewarding to get a fully developed construction set permitted and construction-ready. But, after what is often a multiple-years-long effort, there’s nothing quite like seeing your vision come to life through construction.

However, this is often the point when the designer checks out and moves on to their next project — and it’s left completely up to the developer and the contractor to realize the actual construction of their design. This is especially common for landscape architects and other subconsultants who chose to have limited involvement beyond permitting their clients’ projects.

We see this as a huge missed opportunity. With continued involvement in a project through construction and beyond, we’ve been able to help resolve challenges, celebrate and promote our clients’ successes, and perhaps most importantly, evaluate results and record lessons learned. At Loft Six Four we refer to this step in The Immersive Experience Method as “Socks Off.”

Let’s Knock Some Socks Off

The phrase “knock your socks off” dates back to the mid-1800s. It originally meant surpassing or beating your opposition so decisively that you knocked your opposition right out of their socks.  This is what we (figuratively, of course) want for your project.

The Socks Off phase is meant to amaze and impress developers. More specifically, the purpose of this phase is to make sure the results our design delivers exceed your expectations. Here’s how we get there. 

Resolving Amenity Design Challenges Through Construction

Because of the efficient and thorough documentation along with the quality control we execute during Follow Through, we keep questions and RFI’s to a minimum. But, there’s always going to be a need for some level of coordination between us and the contractor to account for unforeseen challenges and the inherent complexity of rooftop amenity construction.

We make it a priority to respond quickly when we’re contacted during this phase of the project in order to keep construction moving forward and to demonstrate our commitment to helping achieve standout results. When contractors and designers collaborate to resolve challenges during construction, two positive outcomes occur:

• The design intent and quality of user experience is optimized 
• The plan changes have minimal impact on the construction budget and timeline 

In addition to answering questions and resolving design challenges, our team will visit the construction site to observe and make recommendations that ensure you get a quality built product that is per plan and specifications. During which, we’ll provide you and the superintendent with a punch list of items to consider.

Celebrate Your Development’s Success

Completing an urban real estate development project is no small feat — especially when your goal is to complete a project that stands out among the rest and becomes a huge success. And that success is worth celebrating. 

Part of Socks Off is celebrating your success, whether it’s through submitting for industry awards, getting some press, or even hosting your grand opening on the rooftop. The point is, you don’t get to celebrate your hard work very often so we want to help you make the most of it.

In addition, it’s important to capture the experience on the rooftop so we can all demonstrate a job well done, build excitement among investors, and further convince potential residents that your building is the place to be. That’s why we offer professional photography and video to you and your property management group as part of our process. 

Evaluate Results and Lessons Learned

It would be unfortunate to miss out on the opportunity to record everything we did and learned together. So, to wrap up Socks Off, we’ll put together The Performance Package. This includes a post occupancy evaluation, success metrics evaluation, and summary of lessons learned. 

Post occupancy evaluations are important to help us all understand how the design is working, how people are using the space, and what could be improved. Reviewing your original success metrics at this point helps us to see whether or not we brought you the results you were looking for. And having a summary of lessons learned is an invaluable tool you can use on your next project to make it even better.

In the end, Socks Off gives you more than an awesome design and expertly executed drawings. It helps you resolve issues through construction, celebrate your hard work, and evaluate the results The Immersive Experience Method brought to your project.