This first conversation is mainly about the “big ideas” that will drive the design of your project, either that be a house, a venue, or an office.

After we’ve listened to your needs and dreams, we’re ready to start designing. And what we do when we design is draw. As we sketch we’ll explore various ways your home could be organized and positioned on its site. Many of these concepts won’t be a perfect fit, but some of them will show promise and those we will develop into a series of Concept Options that we will present to you.
To move onto the next phase, a single design direction will need to be identified. Usually a single option will reveal itself to be the preferred direction although sometimes a hybrid of multiple schemes will be combined to create a fourth “crossbreed” option.

Once a design direction has been identified, there will still be plenty of work to be done. We’ll begin to flesh out the rough sketch of the concept option into something that is more refined and real. While doing this, we’ll also integrate any comments and changes you have requested into the developing design. We’ll also review local codes to permit procedures so we’ll all know what to expect moving forward.
Although we’ll be communicating less with you during this phase since the big moves of the design have by now been approved, we need to begin making everything real. Dimensions will be verified and construction and material details will be developed to allow for your project to be built as imagined.

Once the project is under construction, the Contractor will need to have questions answered about the intent of the design and it’s a good idea to have someone knowledgeable about construction acting as your representative on the site. From time to time a Contractor will suggest a change to the design to save money or allow the project to be more easily constructed. Sometimes these are good ideas that make the project better but often they have unintended consequences. It can be helpful to have someone familiar with the design acting on your behalf – that’s where our Construction Observation services come in handy.