Schematic design drawings for multifamily buildings

What the phase delivers

Schematic design fixes the building an owner will finance: the massing, the unit count and mix, the parking, and the code strategy that makes the rest possible. Your office designs it. TECTO Studio draws it in your Revit model, on your template, so the model that holds the scheme is the one that takes the project into design development.

A schematic package from the studio typically covers:

• Massing and floor plans. Each floor drawn with the unit layout, cores, corridors and the podium or garage level, built as model elements from the start.
• Unit mix and area tabulation. Unit counts by type, net and gross areas by floor, and the totals an owner's pro forma and a zoning review both read from.
• Code diagrams. Occupancy, construction type, allowable height and area, fire separation and exiting shown on diagram sheets, so the code strategy is checked before it is designed around.
• Site plan. Setbacks, the building footprint, driveways, open space and the utility points of connection as the survey shows them.
• Presentation sheets. Plans, elevations and sections at a level an owner or a planning counter can review.

Built in the model from the first day

A scheme drawn as lines and later rebuilt in Revit is drawn twice. The studio builds the schematic set as a model: walls, floors and rooms that hold areas and unit tags, so the tabulation updates when the plan does and the design development phase starts from a model that already exists.

That also means the schematic set can answer questions early. A change in unit mix shows its effect on the area tabulation the same day, and a code diagram drawn from the model moves with the plan.

What your practice keeps

Design and direction stay in your office. Your architect of record sets the scheme, decides each change and reviews every issue. The studio draws, tabulates and coordinates, and it logs every question that needs a design decision in a dated review log that comes with each issue.

Before and after

Schematic design sits between feasibility, where the question is how many units a site can hold, and design development, where the scheme becomes assemblies and coordinated plans. The studio can take on any of the three, and a practice that uses the same team through all of them keeps one model from the first test fit to the permit set.

The pilot

The first engagement is a pilot: one package on a live set, a fixed fee agreed up front, back in about two weeks. A one-page scope letter fixes the sheet list, the fee, the start date and the delivery date before any work starts.