Quality In Design
ABOUT US
The principal of the firm Michael Kolchins started his career in the architectural field in the mid 1980's as a draftsman for a local architect while he was also attending college. He graduated from NJIT in 1991 with his Bachelor of Architecture degree and was licensed to practice architecture in the State of New Jersey in 1995. Mr. Kolchins also obtained licenses as an HHS level building inspector, Building Subcode Official and Construction Official in the State of New Jersey in the early 1990's. In fact Mr. Kolchins worked as the Building Subcode official for Mt. Laurel Twp. for a year and a half in the early 1990's gaining valuable knowledge of code enforcement in New Jersey and in general.
In the late 1990's Mr. Kolchins was employed by the Friedmutter Group a large architectural firm headquartered in Las Vegas with a satellite office in Atlantic City that specialized in casino & hospitality design. While employed by the Friedmutter Group Mr. Kolchins was a project architect on a number of large commercial projects including, Harrahs Bay Tower Hotel addition and Phase III Casino expansion in Atlantic City, Showboat's Orleans Tower Hotel addition in Atlantic City, a smoke free gaming hall renovation to the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut and a number of projects at the Isle of Capri Casino in Biloxi Mississippi including a new hotel tower and multi function room addition as well as a parking garage designed to accomodate a future hotel addition above it.
Mr. Kolchins started this firm in 2003 and the firm has worked on a wide variety of projects including residential projects of all scales, numerous restaurant and office fit-outs and a number of municipal projects for the Township of Hamilton in Atlantic County including the gut restoration of their 30,000 s.f. municipal complex after remediation for mold and water damage.
THE FOCUS
The focus of the firm has been on developing a client base by providing top quality customer oriented design and thorough detailed construction documentation. We believe this focus offers a number of advantages to our clientele:
1. While we will not sacrifice quality in design for expedience in pushing projects out the door we are client focused and tailor our designs to our clients' preferences and budgets. We strive to provide designs that both delight our clients and that they can afford to build.
2. We also pride ourselves in producing thorough detailed construction documents. This benefits our clients in a couple of ways. Poorly developed and detailed constuction documents require a builder who is bidding a job to fill in the blanks and pad their numbers to allow for unknowns. This results in more costly construction and longer construction time as builders have to figure things out in the field. They also allow less scrupulous builders to low ball bids and then make it up with change orders as the project is constructed. Thorough detailed construction documents will result in tighter bids and fewer issues during construction, a faster construction schedule and cost savings to the owner.
3. While relationships between builders and architects can sometimes be adversarial we see the relationship as a collaboration with the goal of getting a project built as efficiently as possible. In fact the majority of the firm's clientele to date have been referrals by local builders who appreciate the quality and thoroughness of our design and documents as well as our responsiveness as issues inevitably arise during construction.
4. Architects have to be knowledgeable about a wide variety of subjects and therefore it's difficult for them to be experts on everything. While most architects are not experts in code compliance the firm's expertise here can be a significant advantage to our clients particulary with complex codes and standards such as accessibility and rehabilitation of existing structures.