American Express OPEN Forum

AMB’s project approach starts with getting to know the client’s business, the client’s representative and the rest of the project team. We make time to listen to the client’s functional needs and design wish list and then work with the client to create a well designed budget conscious project. We do not have our own design style. We work with the client to provide a design that is unique to them and meets their needs. Our project team has general knowledge of costs and we will work with the contractor to verify that our design stays within budget. Being a small firm, the project teams stay involved in the project from beginning to end. One of our design process elements is to keep the project on schedule by staying on top of information that is still needed.

AMB produced many small project sets of construction documents along with a few large project sets each year. The quantity of the projects allows us to get through the permitting process often with many jurisdictions in the Greater Houston area. We understand and conform (implement) to many different codes depending on the jurisdiction.
Our documents have a great record of getting through permitting quickly and having very few comments from the TAS review. Our design documentation team members work closely together to create design solutions that can be built and documented. Our in house resources have price estimates on them and we maintain an estimated unit price list to help team member’s awareness of the cost of the design as the project process. We meet with the client and consultants on a regular basis and document the changes or additions to the project. Then we submit these to all parties involved for review to make sure every one is on the same page and was understood clearly. We maintain a shop drawing and submittal log.
As issues arise in the construction, we will work with the contractor, consultants and the client to resolve the problem at no additional or little expense.