HIGHER FEES FOR ARCHITECTS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26968, 18 February 1953, Page 6

HIGHER FEES FOR ARCHITECTS

PRINCIPAL EFFECT ON BIG BUILDINGS INCREASED ENGINEERING COSTS (From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON. February 17. Architects throughout New Zealand have raised their scale of charges for all buildings costing up to £2OOO, and for all buildings requiring the services of structural engineers. The main effect will be on the latter charges, as few homes can be built now for £2OOO or less, and therefore not many home builders will be affected. The new scale of charges was gazetted last Thursday. Formerly architects’ charges were 10 per cent, for work costing up to £lOO, and 6$ per cent, up to £1000; but in order to cover increased costs, the respective amounts have been altered to £2OO and £2OOO, although the percentages remain the same. The possibility of earthquakes had been the main factor in the decision to increase architects’ charges where buildings required structural ’ engineering, said an officer of the New Zealand Institute of Architects today. Since the Murchison and Napier earthquakes, local bodies had insisted not only on gravity calculations being made, but also on calculations of the lateral pull of earthquakes. This had made a cpsiderable amount of extra work for structural engineers, with the addition of many complex calculations.

By custom, and because to some extent the calculations could be done by an architect, these charges had been carried by architects, said the officer. However, engineers had increased their fees, and architects were no longer able to carry the burden. The matter had discussed by the institute, and it haa been decided to pass on portion of the increased engineers’ charges to the owners of buildings, the officer said. The structures affected mainly would be large blocks of offices, theatres, churches, hotels, and other steel and reinforced concrete structures.

Hitherto, for most work, a flat rate of 6| per cent, had been charged bv architects, but this had now been altered to 7| per cent on work costing from £2OOO to £20,000, 7 per cent, for the next £lOO,OOO. and 6J per cent thereafter, said the officer. The charges for buildings costing up to £2OOO had purposely been kept down, as the institute did not want to hurt the home builder.