Intro

As a highly collaborative design firm, Kolar Design + Experience Institute takes great pride in collaboration with partners and other industry experts.. Over our 30 years of experience bringing best-in-class environments to life, we have worked closely with builders, architects, artists, communities, and organizations to create and deliver to our clients with high quality, value, and service. 

Hunt Builders, a premier commercial construction group in greater Cincinnati, has been a trusted partner across numerous successful projects with Kolar. Having worked with their team and truly mastering the dynamic between design and build has enabled us to bring our clients efficient and effective solutions that present true value to organizations across a diverse set of industries on both large and small scales.

When embarking on a project, it is critical to have a team that is experienced and understands the amount of planning and organization that goes into transforming a space. Apart from the logistics of the build itself, how will you manage the change within your organization? How will you engage your team with the new environment? We believe in a holistic design approach that involves an interdisciplinary look at solving the challenge at hand. We seek to minimize the cost of investment by maximizing the functionality of all aspects of the design within a project. Our integrated approach with Hunt Builders ensures that all project needs are met, from planning, through construction, and initial integration, benefiting clients by offering a comprehensive program that not only brings value, but also delivers effective results in a timely manner. 

 

Mitigating Challenges

Coordinating between various third-parties and vendors can have various challenges, namely communication and timing. Typically, the architect creates drawings, then the client engages a third-party construction group to bid. This can be a 4-8 week process of multiple construction teams reviewing plans, asking questions, walking subcontractors through spaces, creating estimates. Besides the time this process takes, the risk for the client is that some things might be missed, causing change orders later. Often the estimated cost exceeds the budget, which drives the need for value engineering.

In Kolar and Hunt’s Design/Build model, the client has one team in place that has successfully worked together in the past to seamlessly collaborate and execute the project. Up front, the team and client are traveling down the same path. Working closely with your team, we are able to gather input and work together on long lead items, value engineering ideas, talks with manufacturers, and pricing exercises. This saves our clients time, money, and creates more efficient drawings, all contributing to a smoother planning process.

 

The team approach is a proven method for long-term success, and a much more impactful process, creating less work for the client and reduce risk.   

 

Streamline The Process 

In an integrated approach, the design is conceived by a multidisciplinary team allowing us to create more innovative, thought-out solutions. By working together as a single unit, design firms like Kolar and Hunt Builders can make informed decisions accounting for resource constraints, cost-effectiveness, risk management, and feasibility. By having all parties working together, the process can be streamlined bringing further value to the client and their team.

 

Client-Centric Strategy  

Kolar and Hunt Builders believe that the client’s needs come first. That is why we always begin by engaging the client and their team to develop a strategy that fully embodies not only the brand and vision of a company, but also reflects the needs of the team as well. By involving all stakeholders and partners in the planning process, we are able to accommodate the unique inputs from all parties to develop a strategy that puts the user at the heart of the design. This enables the design team to engage with your team to develop an efficient plan that creates an all-encompassing solution for your needs.

 

Case Study

When Johnson Investment Counsel (JIC)  a Cincinnati-headquartered wealth management firm serving 49 states across the country – sought to update their space to accommodate growth, they trusted Hunt Builders and Kolar to create an environment that inspires and connects their brand, culture, and team. To create an engaging experience for JIC team members, Kolar used surveys and workshop sessions to