Design

Design phase project management for architects

Set up the design phases with their dates, milestones and tasks, see them on a Gantt and a Pull Plan, and take each milestone through client review: deliverables, client inputs, decisions and approval meetings, on to the permit.

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Phases & Schedule on a sample project, with five design phases from Schematic Design to Construction Administration and the current phase tagged.

What it does

What Design management does

Design phases, milestones and fee budgets

Start from the firm's "Standard AIA phases" template or your own templates, then set each phase's dates, milestones and tasks on Phases & Schedule. Staff with a Finance seat also see each phase's fee, the project's fee targets, fee changes and consultant fees.

A Gantt chart for every project and the whole firm

The Project Gantt shows the phases, milestones and tasks on one timeline: drag a bar to retime it, or connect phases to show the critical path. The Firm Gantt puts every active project on one timeline with a "TODAY" line, so you can see which months are crowded before the work arrives.

Pull planning and look-ahead schedules

The Pull Plan shows the work as cards in weeks, with "Plan", "Look-ahead", "Week plan", "Constraints" and "People" views. Team members claim a card with "I've got this", mark it done and log time on it straight to their timesheet.

Issue design deliverables and 3D models to the client

Upload each milestone's drawing set, issue it for internal checking, then issue it to the client, which publishes it to the Client Portal. A set with the same name becomes the next version. Revit, IFC and other 3D models open in a viewer, and a ready model can be made "Visible to client".

Client inputs, design decisions and approval meetings

Client Inputs lists the answers, approvals and owner-supplied items you need from the client, who answers in the Client Portal; each answer is logged on Design Decisions. When a milestone's tasks are done, ARK can draft its approval meeting for you to schedule, mark held and publish the minutes to the client.

Track permit submissions and agency comments

Follow each submission to a building department or other agency from "Preparing" through corrections to "Issued" with the permit number. The agency's comments and your responses stay with each submission.

Design workflow templates and automations

The Workflow Director holds each project's phases, milestones and steps, and the automations that run when something happens, such as notifying the PM when a milestone is completed. Save a project's workflow as a firm template for the next project.

Design management on screen

Real screens from the sample firm every new ARK workspace starts with.

The Project Gantt, with the design phases on a timeline, a milestone diamond and the red line for today.

Who uses it on the project

Your firm: Sets up the phases, schedule and workflow, runs the Pull Plan, issues deliverables, logs decisions, tracks permits and holds approval meetings. Fee fields need a Finance seat.
Consultant: Sees the Pull Plan cards they own, help with or are assigned, the project facts read-only, and Deliverables when the firm gives them access. Never sees the 3D models.
Contractor: Opens the 3D models when their role on the project includes design deliverables.
Client: Answers client inputs in the Client Portal and sees the deliverable sets issued to them, models made visible, scheduled meetings and published minutes.

How it fits

Before: Funnel CRM. A project started from an accepted proposal carries the proposal's phase split and fee into Phases & Schedule.
After: Bidding. When no design milestone is still open, the project hands off to Bidding or straight to Construction.
All features in the order a project runs.

What it costs

Design is $34 per active project, per month ($12 when the firm also has Finance), and it is included in ARK Unlimited.

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