Built Around A monthly letter from HHA
What happens between the first conversation and the finished space.
Once a month, we write about the part of a project that rarely gets talked about: the design decisions, approvals, and timelines behind a home or a store. Real work, explained plainly by the people doing it.
The kind of thing you’ll read.
This is an example of what a typical issue covers. Three specifics from recent projects.
Timeline
A co-op board review usually takes 2 to 4 weeks once your package is complete.
The weeks before you submit are what set your start date. Preparing that package is most of the timeline, and it’s the part we help clients get right.
Approvals
In a landmarked building, Landmarks signs off before the DOB will issue a permit, even for interior work that never touches the facade.
It surprises owners who expected that work to stay between them and their contractor. Each issue covers which agencies get a say, and when.
Rollout
Your fourth store is where the standard for the next twenty gets set.
The fixtures, lighting, and back-of-house plan you approve there get repeated in every location that follows. We write about which ones are worth slowing down for.
What’s in each issue.
People. Process. Design. Community. Ideas. Materials. Sustainability. Service.
What co-op and condo boards, Landmarks, and the DOB actually ask for, and how long each step usually takes.
What changes for a brand between a few locations and many, and which decisions stop being cheap after the fourth store.
One design decision from a live project, and the questions behind it.
One question we get asked often, answered plainly.
Two or three things worth looking at, with our own read on each.
The people behind the projects — who we are, and how we work.
Who it’s for.
Homeowners
Planning a gut renovation, an apartment combination, or a townhouse.
Brands
Opening their next locations, and the internal teams carrying a rollout.
People who work alongside architects
Brokers, owner’s representatives, contractors, and advisors.
It comes from active projects.
Most weeks, someone here is in a board review, a Landmarks application, a permit filing, or a store opening in another state. Most of that never gets published. Typically, people only see the finished photographs. Here we focus on the months behind them.
A few of the brands we’ve worked with.
