Michael W. Kolchins, Architect

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 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 construction 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 particularly with complex codes and standards such as accessibility and rehabilitation of existing structures.