Interior Design

TRM’s provides design services for interior environments for a variety of environments across all market sectors.  With each project, we look to bring a new approach to traditional challenges.  Our design results from an intimate understanding of our clients' wishes and fiscal goals, from which we can discover design opportunities helping them plan for the long term.

We are happy to offer space planning, programming, furniture and fixture selection, finishes, custom millwork and cabinetry, and lighting design.  Our goal is to be a one-stop-shop for your building needs.

Landscape Design

Landscape architecture is a means of integrating a building with its context.  Our in-house landscape designer is often called upon to solve this design issue in a variety of project types from single-family residences to high-profile restaurants.

Feasibility Studies

TRM is often called upon to conduct feasibility studies for projects of many sizes.   Feasibility studies begin with site planning [link] to determine whether it is a good fit for the project.  After looking at building code and zoning regulations, TRM can begin space planning and programming [link] to form a budget [link] of construction costs based on square footage.  These steps can yield a conceptual design for use in presentations to committees or boards in order to obtain approval to begin the project.

Construction Administration

We at TRM like to see a project through completion to ensure that our client receives the same result that we set out to achieve.  As such, we have found it beneficial to provide construction administration.  From meetings with the construction team to regularly-scheduled construction site visits, we make ourselves available to answer any questions, and address any problems should they arise in the field.  In some instances, concealed existing conditions reveal themselves during construction and necessitate a speedy, clever, and cost effective solution.  TRM is ready on standby to address these issues with drawing revisions, site sketches, or field directions, in order to keep your project on schedule and on budget.

As a final effort to ensure standards of quality are maintained, and that the client ends up with the product design he agreed to, we are happy to perform a walk-through of the project as it nears completion in an effort to develop a final punch list of items needing attention.

Construction Management

TRM has the capability to cover the construction process from start to finish.  Whether assisting with the bid and negotiation process, or expediting agency approvals, TRM’s goal is to keep your project on schedule and on budget.

Our skilled team of project managers and technical specialists strive to keep the construction process as smooth as possible, finding practical solutions to project challenges, should they arise.  We analyze the construction timeline and processes to ensure that on-schedule and efficient delivery of your projects is maintained.

Design / Build

TRM's 15 years of design-build experience has provided us with best practice solutions in our project delivery.  In that time, we have developed trusting relationships with quality contractors.  On our end, we do our best to stay current on building and zoning codes, common issues, methodologies and standards, while striving for continual innovation.  Utilizing the strengths of our members, it is our mission to provide successful projects to the owner by working as a team.

Cost Estimating

A key challenge of architecture and project development is trying to manage design and construction costs.  Two factors - time and money - are of utmost importance to our clients.  To ensure that both are addressed appropriately and maintained throughout a project, we have developed in-house cost estimating teams whose goal is to assist our design teams in meeting our clients’ schedule and budget requirements.

Our estimators work with clients to develop an initial cost plan that breaks out construction costs for their program.  Additionally, we are often called upon as an independent third party, or fresh set of eyes in commercial lending projects.  We draw upon our nearly 40 years of experience to provide the most accurate estimate of projected expense, keeping our clients on track to complete their projects as planned.

Architectural Design

Our design approach here at TRM is rooted in our nearly forty years of providing exceptional service to our clients.  Our work benefits from fostering a productive and reciprocal relationship with our clients, whether working together on a unique, one-off project, or a prototypical roll-out.  Our impressive list of long-standing return clients is indicative of our staff’s ability to find creative design solutions and deliver high-quality construction documents, ensuring the continued success of our clients.

Historic Preservation

TRM’s expertise in historic preservation is both extensive and detailed.  We are proudly located within the Allentown, Buffalo’s historic neighborhood, in a city so rich in its architectural legacy that it saw host to the 2011 National Preservation Conference.  Each day we are surrounded by 19th and 20th century gems, and we are proud to have played a key role in restoring and preserving their irreplaceable character.   TRM’s own offices at 448 Delaware were recognized in the 2002 City of Buffalo Preservation Board Awards, with our rehabilitation of 591 Delaware shortly after in 2009.  TRM’s decades of preservation experience, coupled with our attention to detail and appreciation of historic legacy, give us our competitive edge on historic preservation projects.

Expert Witness Testimony

TRM offers its services to those looking for a top-caliber architect expert witness.  Whether for a plaintiff or defense matter, our diverse knowledge, experience, and credentials are able to meet the special requirements of your case.  Our research, report writing, consultation, record review, and testimony for deposition and trial will assist you in forming a winning case strategy.

LEED Certification Consulting

As the firm responsible for registering the first LEED project in the City of Buffalo, TRM has always been on the leading edge of sustainable design expertise.  With an intimate knowledge of the LEED rating systems, clients seek us out to consult on best means for LEED certification on their particular projects.  We are proud to have taken the lead on certifying our long time client’s first LEED Certified project, with The Cheesecake Factory’s 2013 restaurant opening at Destiny USA, the nation’s largest LEED Gold regional retail center.  With the success of that project, we were asked to consult in formulating a plan to roll out all new locations to achieve the LEED Certified level at minimum.

Sustainable Design

Sustainable design is efficient design.  Environmentally responsible design and energy efficient design are both ingrained into our firm’s design culture, and appear in every design decision we make.  We genuinely understand that the decisions we make with our clients have a ripple effect not only through the project’s bottom line, but through demands on municipal systems, occupant health, natural resources, and our local economy.  We strive to ensure that the decisions we make are to the benefit of all parties involved.

Learn how our sustainable design solutions have benefited projects and brands such as the Lexington Real Foods Cooperative, 591 Delaware, NOCO Express, and The Cheesecake Factory.

Construction Monitoring

TRM has nearly a decade worth of experience in construction monitoring for commercial lending institutions.  Our experts comb through construction documentation, analyze construction budgets, work schedules, conduct on-site progress inspections, examine disbursements, invoices and draws.  We issue concise, but informative, reports that provide independent third-party assurance that is based on factual observations, thereby enabling better cost control and construction loan monitoring.

Construction Mediation

The building and construction industry is very complex, in that it involves many parties and large sums of money.  Unfortunately, this sometimes results in a somewhat adversarial setting when disputes arise.  Construction Mediation has become the most common and effective way to resolve these disputes in the building and construction industry, and parties and interests seek to quickly and properly resolve issues rather than letting them fester and halting work for years, thereby incurring massive amounts of expenses, profit loss, and torn relationships through litigation.

TRM has helped resolve disputes on projects ranging from one million dollars to over twenty-three million.  We are happy lend our expertise and proven mediation experience to your issues with contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers, contractual disputes, professional negligence, or financial errors.  TRM’s experienced mediators facilitate all parties in working towards a speedy, cost-effective and mutually beneficial settlement, with the goal in mind of keeping projects schedules and rebuilding trust and relationships.

Code Anaylsis

TRM is available to conduct building code and zoning regulation reviews.  We look at all applicable zoning ordinances, land use plans, site plan review regulations, and applicable building codes to determine any impact that they may have on a project.  We will work closely with a client to find a solution - should a project be adversely affected by regulations – that will not compromise the aesthetic and programming goals of a project.

Prototype Development & Maintenance

Over the past 38 years, TRM has developed and maintained dozens of prototypes for our local, regional, and international clients.  Whether a client is looking for basic design guidelines or a fully-maintained, optioned program, our team has decades of experience in developing and mastering prototypes that are highly efficient, replicable, and adaptable.  See our Client List and discover some of the prototype work we’ve done in long-standing relationships with Tops Market, Wilson Farms, The Cheesecake Factory, Grand Lux Café, ESPN Zone, Planet Hollywood, NOCO Express.

National Site-Adapt / Multi-Project Rollout

Whether a client has two locations or two-hundred, ground-up or in-line, we have the resources and experience to deliver high-quality construction documents with quick turnaround.  Having decades of experience in successfully delivering rollouts for grocery, restaurant, and convenience store clients, our proven ability to mobilize a team around each client’s special needs and expansion strategy has allowed for TRM to play a key role in a mutually beneficial relationship aiding in our client’s success.

See our Client List and get a glimpse of some of the multi-project rollouts we’ve taken on with Tops Market, Wilson Farms, The Cheesecake Factory, Grand Lux Café, ESPN Zone, Planet Hollywood, NOCO Express.

Forensic Architecture

TRM’s forensic architecture services help our clients make long-term economic decisions in planning for the life of their building.  By identifying building distress, and isolating its source, we can of extend the life of the buildings and improve overall quality for occupants.  In addition to the age of building components, we look to settlement, moisture infiltration, pest infestation, and natural disasters that all contribute to the distress of existing buildings. Our experienced team members provide research, site investigation, documentation of existing conditions, and financial analysis in order to propose remediation or a monitoring solution for the building.

Fixture Plan Coordination

With nearly forty years of retail and grocery project experience, we have come to understand that having efficient and accurately detailed fixture plans is critical to a project’s success.  At TRM, we develop close working relationships with our clients in an effort to fully understand their unique operational requirements. By using BIM, our design teams are able to auto-populate plans and equipment and finish schedules, easing the purchasing process for clients.  Additionally, with our experience, our designers have the industry expertise to research new sustainable and efficient products, materials and equipment in an effort to continually contribute to the improvement of our clients’ brand.

Building Information Modeling

When working on any project, accuracy, timeliness and integration are essential to a building’s success.  Building Information Modeling (BIM) can play a mutually beneficial role in all three aspects.  As BIM software has become increasingly utilized in our profession, TRM continues to be on the forefront of implementation. TRM first adopted ArchiCAD in 1994 with its first virtual building.  Our commitment to utilizing BIM as a tool for design solutions has beneficially resulted in better construction documents, clarity of design visualization, more accurate cost estimates, and a simplified process for purchasing.