GARY FRANCIS, ARCHITECT AND BUILDER

What services do you provide?

We have been offering design/build services for custom homes in the Park City area since 1976. As a single-entity firm of architects and construction personnel from our inception, we perform all client services to deliver and maintain custom residences from site selection to construction finishing with interiors.

How do you prefer to work with others?

We are the primary project team. From our first meeting with a client to the design and construction, the same small core of professionals in our firm is involved in the intimate detail of the project. Because we are a design/build team, we are involved with every inch of the construction jobsite, essentially “wearing both hats.” As architects, we understand the construction process and as contractors, we are one with the design intent. There’s no interpretation or handing off to an outside team member. We find that when the architect knows construction methods, efficiencies, and costs as well as the contractor, the design process delivers the maximum in efficiency and quality to the client. That said, we completely value our extended team of consultants and subcontractors, working directly and collaboratively to blend our combined years of experience.

What makes the difference between a good house and a great house?

Like most quality pursuits, the first 10 percent and the last 10 percent of refinement in a project design is the effort that can make a good house great. We find it’s critically important to take the initial time to include as much as possible of the client’s wishes and project parameters in the initial program, eliciting responses that they hadn’t yet considered. Expanding the program at a later date can cause integration issues. Allowing the time for review and refinement during the last 10 percent can make a big difference, like proofing a paper that last time or two. As architects and builders, we are involved intensely in every project for 1 to 2 years, which allows us to devote ourselves to a few select projects at a time. Because of that, we have the ability to give every project and client our full attention.

You can think of our architect/contractor team as high-end tailors. We work with our clients to select a style that suits them; we choose an appropriate material, and incorporate the function that works in each client’s setting and makes it a pleasure to wear. We craft the garment impeccably. Then, the client can look in the mirror and smile.

What part of a project is the most satisfying?

The most satisfying part is obviously the satisfaction in the eyes of the client. We also find it completely rewarding to have personally taken the project from the first interview to the move-in dinner party.