Mario Zacharjasz, Co-Founder and Principal Architect, PZS Architects, LLC

My name's Mario Zacharjasz, and I'm an architect. I'm a principal at PZS Architects. What we do is we design buildings, we design shelter. Whether it's a student dorms, whether it's a library, a rec center, multi-family housing, private housing, hospitals, museums, universities, that's what we do. To be an architect you have to be a Jack-of-all-trades, in a way. You have to have a lot of knowledge of the built environment, contractors, developers, your clients, what their needs are. We're currently working on a project at Temple University, the College of Public Health. And that's in it's very, very early stages in programming. So we are meeting with all the professors, the deans, the committees, we're getting input to develop all the programming. Finding out all the classrooms, meeting rooms, administrative rooms, labs, auditoriums, all the different components that go into the building. You have a budget in mind. It goes out to bid to contractors, construction management companies, to build whatever the building is. And then once they're selected, could be lowest price, it could be best value for the university or the client. Then when they start construction there is construction administration and observation where you follow the construction. You become the client's representative representing the best interest of the client at the construction site, making sure they're following all the plans and specifications. Well, sometimes if you're working on a particular building that's existing, for example, and you're renovating it, and you're changing what was in there from before, you may run across an unforeseen condition. Something behind a wall or under the floor that no one knew about before. Those are things that pop up and could delay the project, or could be handled very easily, could cost more money, or could be a credit, depending on what it is.