Our Process

Every project begins with a thank you and by listening.

After speaking with a potential client on the phone, we schedule an initial complimentary meeting at the project site. This may be a vacant lot, an existing home or condominium, or a ranch property.

Initial Consultation

During this site meeting, we discuss the client’s programmatic, budgetary, and scheduling priorities. We also ask the client to describe the project in almost abstract terms. What should the home feel like? What adjectives describe its character? What kind of home do they want to live in?

Many clients have collected images of likes and dislikes over many years, and those images are very important. Before we turn too quickly to images, we want to focus on the client’s words. Asking a client to think critically about the character of the home, and not just its list of amenities, helps bring the deeper purpose of the project forward. It begins to clarify what is important to them, why they are doing the project, and what the home should ultimately express.

Proposal and First Design Meeting

A proposal is then sent to the client. It reflects our understanding of what we heard and outlines our service fee and billing practices. Once we are retained, we visit the site again on our own to study its character more closely.

Typically, about three weeks after that visit, we meet with the client to present a proposed schematic floor plan/site plan. This hand-drawn design reflects what we have learned from both the client and the site. It gives form to our early conversations and begins the schematic design phase.

Schematic Design

20% of total service and fee

Schematic Design begins once the first floor plan and site plan have been presented. If the initial direction feels right, we take the client’s feedback and begin refining the design. All phases are collaborative.

Throughout the process, we are educating our clients, and they are educating us. We are not designing a home from a distance. We are designing it with them. Our role is to give physical form to the client’s ideas, desires, and priorities. For a home between 3,000 and 7,000 square feet, Schematic Design typically takes three to four weeks.

20% of total service and fee

During Design Development, the design becomes more refined. We continue to meet with the client every 2–3 weeks as the floor plan, site plan, elevations, materials, finishes, and details begin to come together.

This is also the phase when the client’s collected images become especially useful. What began as abstract words and early hand-drawn plans begins to move into more specific decisions about how the home will look, feel, and function. Budget is also an important part of this phase. A design that beautifully expresses the ideas and desires of the client means nothing if that design is not in budget.

Toward the end of Design Development, we will begin conversations with a small number of builders to help confirm that the project is indeed in budget.

Coordination with the structural engineer and other consultants also begins during this phase. This may include MEP, lighting design, landscape architecture, or other members of the project team. Design Development typically takes 4-6 weeks. We work closely with everyone involved so the home is considered as a whole from the beginning.

Nothing is an afterthought.

Design Development Phase

Construction Documents Phase

40% of total service and fee

During the Construction Documents phase, the design is developed into a complete set of architectural drawings in CAD. We continue to meet with the client every 2–3 weeks as plans, sections, elevations, schedules, interior elevations, finishes, and details are refined and completed.

This is also when many final selections are made. We may visit showrooms, stone yards, tile shops, and other vendors with the client so that finishes and materials are carefully selected before construction begins.

The goal of this phase is to create a clear, complete set of documents for permitting, bidding, and construction. The more complete the drawings and selections are before construction begins, the more accurate the final construction bid can be.

For projects ranging from 3,000–8,000 square feet, Construction Documents typically take from 3 to 6 months.

Bidding and Negotiations Phase

5% of total service and fee

During this phase, contractors prepare bids for the project. We typically recommend two bidders, and occasionally three. We work closely with each bidder to answer questions, clarify details, and make sure they understand the drawings and the intent behind them.

A complete bid for a full set of architectural, structural, and landscape drawings typically takes 4–6 weeks. Any builder who says they can have the bid in two weeks is not a builder we need to consider.

15% of total service and fee

Once construction begins, the site is under the builder’s direction. Our role is to help make sure the work reflects the intent of the drawings.

We attend regular site meetings with the builder and client, answer questions, clarify details, and visit the site periodically on our own as the home takes shape. Toward the end of construction, we assist with the punch list and remain involved until the project is fully complete.

Construction Administration

From First Conversation to Home

The process is structured, but it is also human. At every phase, we are listening: to the client, to the site, and to the quiet voice of the house.

Each project is uniquely about the people who will live there and the site it belongs to. The home should express values, not motifs. We stay away from trends so we can find what speaks completely to and about the client.

Thank you for your trust.

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