Hey Fred,
My experience has been 8-10% of the construction budget is typical for soft-costs (Design). But that is for all disciplines combined, of which Architecture and Civil seem to warrant the most labor/time. I have found that Landscape Architecture fees on municipal projects (except when LA’s are the Prime Consultant) are still relatively low due to limited scope(s).
A few years ago, in Southern Nevada, I was preparing Planting and Irrigation CD’s for high schools for around $12-15K. The profit was very high because of the boiler plate nature of the projects, and that kept the fees down too. I believe the time costs were around 80hours, total.
On a landscape budget, I’ve always heard of allocating 10% of the improvement costs to landscape (soft scape). But rarely did/do I see that happen …except on rare occasions. However, I did see a contract go out today for $260K for a couples front yard in N Idaho, I doubt the home was worth $5mil.
I believe the competitive nature of the recession is causing us to work harder and accept less money. Developers are ruthless to us but municipalities seem to still pay for qualifications. The truth is: if your not on the boards, you’re marketing or cleaning up the office because you let go of the cleaning crew …a long time ago.
That’s my experience!
Berry
