Architectural Quality Conceptual Cost Estimating

At the ARCC conference in Philadelphia last May, I presented a method for cost estimating that I teach to my students. The method is intended to fit into a BIM-based workflow for conceptual design. After sketching a building concept with conceptual masses, conceptual floors, and conceptual walls, the designer assigns quality factors to each building system. Costs for each major building system are obtained from Means Square Foot Cost Data. The Means data also has factors for the percentage cost of each building system in a typical project. The architectural quality cost estimate is obtained by multiplying the cost per square foot by the system adjustment and the quality adjustment for each building system, and then summing these.
The Means data also has addons for various "green" technology, such as solar hot water heaters, photo-voltaic arrays, and rainwater capture. These items can be added to the estimate to account for a construction cost premium of sustainable technology.
The method is intended to help students to gain a sensitivity to construction cost and how it is affected by building quality. Students can pursue various optimization strategies based on visual performance, energy performance, construction cost, and attractiveness to tenants.
I have attached example spreadsheets so you can see the formulas used to move data from one cell to another.
I have also attached spreadsheets for site cost and project cost. so that students can see how construction cost is only part of the cost equation.
My goal is not to get accurate estimates, but to help students gain awareness of the factors in cost containment and design by optimization.

Spreadsheets for download are at Architectural Quality Conceptual Cost Estimating