Meaningful Spaces
Crafted for Life

Because our process is customizable to your project, in some cases, a consultation is all that is needed to assess what your individual needs. If a phased approach is necessary, appropriate milestones will be incorporated.

A time for intake, questions, and daydreaming, we’ll use images, inspiration, and priorities to get the the why behind your project. A deep dive into how you live, your current site, and any concerns will enable a smoother build — so the more you tell us, the closer we can come to realizing your vision. How do you use the space? Who will be using it? What leaves you wanting more? These questions help establish a clear criteria of what’s needed throughout our engagement.

After programming, we’ll translate your design into rough sketches that detail the size and location of walls, windows, doors, cabinets, and placement of the building on site. Decisions are guided by the climate, geography, budget, and environmental impact of your project, ensuring the essence of your vision is captured early in the process. This phase ensures any concerns are addressed that may affect construction, preliminary costs, and other factors that go towards your budget.

With sketches complete, your architect will prepare more detailed floor plans, elevations, and cross-sections that capture all aspects of the design. Interior and exterior finishes, lighting, windows, insulation, structural systems, and moisture protection complete the picture and ensure compliance and building codes are adhered to. During this phase, it’s crucial you visualize yourself in the space — a process your architect will guide you through to ensure every nuance ladders up to your original intent.

Following refinement, your architect will set on paper the decisions made thus far. Blueprints for construction, encompassing drawings and specs, illustrate the quantities and relationships of the project’s components to ensure high-quality craftsmanship is carried throughout the build process. Contractors use these documents to determine actual costs and pass them along to your general contractor. Anything not contained in these documents are left to the contractor’s discretion, so we aim for complete documents to avoid hiccups.

As with all phases, your architect is your ally, and when it comes to bidding, they are an essential player in finding the right general contractor for the work. Two to three bids will be coordinated by us, and together, we’ll evaluate questions and substitution requests to simplify the complex. If you have pre-selected a contractor, we can weave them into prior phases and enable them to gather bids from sub-contractors so you get their input and align schedules early in the process.

Construction documents are not the end of your architect’s engagement on the project. They will act as your representative during the building process to ensure quality and blueprint standards are met. Your architect can answer contractor questions; observe the site; provide supplemental drawings, materials, and samples; and review change requests. This is a complex process, and your architect helps create a seamless flow of information — transitioning from drawings to a satisfying final outcome.

When determining the right level of services, consider the project’s complexity, size, and budget. Your architect’s fee will depend on your level of need. When it comes to structuring fees, you could opt to pay a percentage of the construction cost (10–18%) or hourly compensation for time spent by your architect (a common approach for smaller projects or larger projects where the scope is fully identified). A combination of the two approaches can also be considered. The relative complexity may have proportionally higher fees, and project travel may impact those costs. SALA uses standard AIA contract forms.