Every Brott Development Group engagement follows the same disciplined sequence — from plan review to final reporting. The work below is an anonymized example of what a recent Pacific Northwest custom home looked like at the end of phase one.
We comb every page of the architectural, structural, geotechnical, performance, and interior design drawings. Each scope item is marked, each assumption logged, and a structured list of questions is produced for the next meeting. Nothing enters the budget that hasn't first been seen and documented.
Held early in the design process, this exercise eliminates assumptions. Architect-directed and client-directed finishes are recorded line by line. Decisions made here protect the architect's design intent before the budget gets near a value-engineering knife.
All areas, quantities, and linear takeoffs are marked directly on the drawings and used to populate the budget. The same takeoffs are deliverable in digital format for direct use in request-for-quote packages with trades.
The detailed budget is walked through line by line with the architect, builder, and owner. Value-engineering candidates are identified and priced — not as cuts, but as informed decisions. Stakeholders approve, defer, or reject each one with the cost impact visible.
From the moment the issue-for-pricing drawings are released, we run the tendering process across all trade scopes. The objective: lock seventy-five percent of the budget at fixed price before construction starts.
Throughout construction, a single-page summary on cost and schedule is delivered on a defined cadence, backed by the supporting detail. Owners stay in the driver's seat. Builders stay focused on the build. Architects stay focused on design.
The summary below is the executive page delivered at the end of phase one on a recent engagement. Project identifiers, the architect, and the address have been removed.
Illustrative example. All numbers anonymized.
4,965 sqft total · Pacific Northwest
On the same project, the team identified $2.36M of potential value-engineering items and walked through each one. Stakeholders approved or deferred each item against a visible cost impact — protecting design intent where it mattered most.
Of the $2.36M identified as potential reductions, the stakeholder group elected to take $1.89M. The remaining $0.47M was set aside — not because it was unworkable, but because preserving design intent on those scopes was worth the cost.
Seventy-five percent of the budget fixed-priced and quoted by trades, before shovel hits dirt.
The standard we hold every phase-one engagement to.
We'll tell you honestly whether your project is a fit.