Hi Riva.

What you have asked for depends upon many, many factors. The cost per
square foot is the most common but depends upon the complexity of the
exhibits.

The fees are usually percentage based, proportional to the budget and
also depend upon the complexity of what you are looking for. Average
budgets for fees for average exhibit design projects run at about 25% of
the exhibit construction cost. More high tech exhibits can drive the fee
cost up again depending upon the complexity of the exhibit.

Fabricators have better  insight to the cost of the exhibit then the
designers does at the start. The fabricators developing their cost on a
firm set of drawings and specifications. Designers have a hard time in
pinning down exhibit fees, because at the onset of a project, all we
have to go on is usually an idea of the exhibit based on a RFP. So
getting and hourly cost is really hard without complete details of
exactly what you want and applying a hourly cost times an estimated
number of hours to design it. This is why most use the percentage of
cost numbers. The amount of programming that you have completed directly
effect the fees.

The design fees increase with complexity simply because the more complex
an exhibit is the more design and prototyping is required. If high tech
is used then we hire computer geru to develop what we need and that can
be expensive if the requirement is not close to a standard off the shelf
program. Not an easy thing to explain.

For Children’s Museum’s I have developed a guide of cost per square foot
verses complexity. It can be used for science-related museums and
similar interactive museums. Museum-l Does not like attachments so let
me know by email and I’ll send you an electronic copy for your use. It
brakes exhibit cost down to square foot prices based on complexity. This
is for exhibits cost not for building cost. Children’s Museum’s usually
do not have the greatest budgets so we have to use some of the
Construction cost to supplement the exhibits. By this I mean that if we
designed the exhibits a furniture then one could expect the exhibit cost
to cost double. We design allot of the exhibit pieces to be built by the
General contractors with the intricate pieces built by the fabricator
and installed after the walls are up. Saves “mucho” bucks depending upon
the exhibits. Some of these combinations Contractor Vs Fabricator can be
seen on my web page.

William M. Greaves AIA, NCARB
Principal
Architects iN Design
http://www.architectsindesign.com
[log in to unmask]
1(757) 478-6489 PHONE
1(757) 496-6489 FAX/PHONE

Hi,

I run the exhibits program at the Newberry Library in Chicago.  I've
been asked to do some research about the cost of exhibit design.  I
would appreciate hearing from people about how they budget for
exhibit design.  Per square foot?  If so, how is the dollar amount
per square foot established?  As a percentage of the production
budget?  If so, what percentage of the production budget?  Flat rate
bid?  Hourly rates?  Etc.

Please feel free to reply to me directly at [log in to unmask]

Thanks in advance.

Riva Feshbach

--
Riva Feshbach
Exhibits Manager
The Newberry Library
60 West Walton Street
Chicago, IL 60610
312-255-3536
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