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• Clearly the greatest potential for significant cost <br /> savings exists for the most part in the pre-design <br /> and other phases before bid; therefore it follows <br /> that this is the area where cost control and the <br /> study of options are most effective. Cost control <br /> in the construction phase is effective but, at this <br /> point, it rarely accounts for more than keeping <br /> costs for changes in line with what was originally <br /> bid, and affords little or no opportunity for real <br /> savings. <br /> Is there a crucial phase in cost control? <br /> Experience has shown that the transition from a <br /> program into a design concept is one of the most <br /> crucial phases in a project's development. Once the <br /> program is completed and confirmed and the budget <br /> established, the responsibility is given to the <br /> architect to package the client's space <br /> requirements in the most efficient manner possible. <br /> Since dollars relate directly to gross floor area, <br /> this activity requires special attention and <br /> monitoring. There will be a number of possible <br /> concepts which should be tested for functional, <br /> • operational and budgetary validity. Some can be <br /> obvious non-starters, others rejected for <br /> subjective reasons, but all serious concepts <br /> require a careful analysis on a truly comparative <br /> basis for decision-making. This is the fust test <br /> against the program budget and in that sense is <br /> crucial to ongoing development, since the <br /> building's form and quality are not being committed <br /> in the schematic design stage which follows. <br /> • <br /> 9 <br />