Plum Projects LLC

The short version; this review is ridiculous. Plum does not lie or steal from their clients.
If you care to read on you are welcome to a different narrative than the one above.

Plum was engaged early in the design process for this project over 4 years ago and completed it in early 2023. The original scope was simple and project concerns were addressed immediately - the architect explained that the client had developed a home previously that was beyond their budget and wanted to begin the process again with the clear understanding that cost was central to the design process.

Working with the Lead Architect on the project, bi-weekly calls were scheduled to discuss progress and assess cost implications of decisions made during the design development process. This went on for approximately a year prior to the plans being submitted for permit. Unfortunately the original Lead Architect on the project left the firm immediately after submitting the plans with the city for permit review, and with him went much of the project knowledge that had been developed to keep the project financially on track. This person was an advocate for the project and the client in a way that could not be transferred and was lost in his transition.

While giving lip service to budgetary concerns, the scale of the project shifted adding roughly 30% to the project, along with many new details. Pricing was higher than originally hoped and a series of meetings to compress costs, or value engineer, occurred to balance the scope and selections. This process was fully transparent as to what compromises were being proposed and accepted between the architect team, client, and Plum. The extent of these cuts were significant. Plum repeatedly discussed the need for collective accountability and that cost control would be informed by decisions that had yet to be finalized.

Unfortunately a disciplined follow through immediately was forgotten. Plum had no way to anticipate costs with incomplete information, and a series of very significant costs were added. Every time a decision was presented, the client chose the more costly option. Strategies to reduce cost were abandoned and added back to the project. Plum does not have the authority to force clients to stick to original plans and budgets.

When reviewing a list of additional scope and associated costs it is clear where the ‘mysterious’ cause of budget overage was.

All of this is not to say that the project was entirely smooth and that Plum did not make mistakes - we did. We own our mistakes, and there were several on this project that were significant and entirely ours. Plum absorbed the associated costs entirely. This did not affect the timeline as a whole: the European windows were behind schedule due to final detailing and signoff by the owner and architect. The critical path timeline remained intact.

The issues with accounting reporting were real, but never falsified. Part of the complexity of this was Plum’s internal struggle with the transition from owner payments of invoices to bank financing. The bank required that we submit billings in an entirely different method and transfer allocated funds between line items. Plum was directly advised by the bank on how they wanted this to be completed and we complied. Transferring from one accounting system to another in the middle of a project and expecting a seamless transition was challenging. Thankfully this experience changed how our project accounting is being managed and in the end was a positive growth opportunity.

In closing, it is critical to state 2 specific financial related issues that the review forgot to mention:
Plum applied many credits to offset costs
Plum worked for 4 months without a single invoice being paid with the understanding that the final payment would be issued upon completion. This did not happen. Between credits to the project and the final payment not being issued, Plum was not compensated over 10% of the project total, which did leave us unable to close some vendor and subcontractor billings upon completion.

Plum’s goal is “Project success” - this is achieved by managing every project with a collaborative team of project partners, all of whom are aligned in the strategies of approaching problem issues, making informed decisions as a team, and maintaining open and continuous communication between all parties. These are the guiding principles of a successful project.