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"The Design Considerations Checklist is an invaluable guide to the key issues that influence the quality of affordable housing developments. You won't be able to incorporate every consideration into any one project, but careful and systematic use of the Checklist - particularly during the Concept and Predevelopment phases - will go a long way toward helping any development achieve the highest possible levels of design excellence."
John Spear,
Community Assistance
Design Center, Houston, Texas
Tools for Step 11
Print Step 11
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Step 11. Use the Design Considerations Checklist to guide the design process.
Why is this step important?
The Design Considerations Checklist was created to ensure that key issues with the most direct impact on overall design quality are addressed at the earliest stages of the development process. The design components discussed in the Checklist are essential to a project that meets its users' needs, enhances its neighborhood, and is built to last.
Based on real-world projects and the experience of some of the foremost designers and providers of affordable housing in the country, the Checklist provides a systematic way to take advantage of as many major design opportunities as possible, and to make sure that the most important design components are built into a development project from the very beginning.
When should this step be done?
The Checklist can be reviewed as early as the Concept phase for the project. It should be actively used as a tool during the Schematic Design phase of Predevelopment.
Who should do this step?
The owner/developer together with the architect and other members of the design team. The Checklist can also be used to help focus community participation in the design process.
What should be done?
- Go through the checklist once very early in the Predevelopment process.
- Go through it again at least twice over the course of Schematic Design.
- Consult it on an as-needed basis when specific issues or design components are being analyzed and designed.
- Use the Checklist to help guide the schematic design process, facilitate participant input to the process, and focus design reviews.
- Print out the complete Design Considerations Checklist - Text Only Version and add it to the Project Book.
How can doing this help move my project forward?
- By carefully and consistently considering key design issues during the early phases of project development you will ensure that these issues are dealt with systematically and, most important, not overlooked as the project moves forward.
- Using the Checklist will also help guide and streamline decision-making during the critical early phases of the design process.
- Finally, using the Design Considerations Checklist can and should improve the credibility of the project as a whole - with occupants, neighbors, funding agencies and regulatory bodies - reinforcing the project's perceived commitment to design excellence.
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