COMMERCIAL / RESIDENTIAL / PASSIVE HOUSE
HOW WE WORK
A sixty-second read before we talk.
Hiring an architect should not be a guessing game. The work below is the studio c engagement process, written out plainly so you can see what you are paying for, what we deliver, and where the natural decision points are. Read what is relevant to your project. Skip what is not.
Most projects move through the diagnostic phases (a free phone call, a paid site visit, a paid feasibility study) before committing to a full design contract. Each diagnostic phase is structured to produce something useful on its own, so that even owners who do not engage us for full design walk away with information they can act on.
01
15-MIN. CALL
Free
The first conversation determines what comes next. The fifteen-minute call exists to answer two questions, one for each of us. You learn whether studio c is the right firm for what you are building. I learn whether your project is something we are positioned to handle well. The call is structured but informal. You describe the project: what you are building, where it is, what you are trying to achieve, and what your rough budget and timeline look like. I ask the questions that surface what the project actually requires. If the property is in a jurisdiction with unusual entitlement requirements, if the structure has constraints that affect what is possible, or if your budget and scope are in tension with each other, these are things that belong on the table from the beginning. By the end of the call we both know whether the next step makes sense. If it does, we discuss the site visit and what it includes. If it does not, I say so directly and, where possible, point you toward an architect or design-build firm whose practice fits the project better than mine. Either outcome saves both of us time. There is no proposal at the end of this call. A responsible proposal cannot be written before the work has been done that allows it to be written. That work begins with the site visit.
04
SCHEMATIC DESIGN
Schematic Design is where the project becomes a building. The feasibility resolved what is possible. Schematic resolves what we are going to do within that possibility. The phase produces the big moves: the parti, the massing, the layout, the key sections, and the early decisions about character. We work iteratively. Multiple options are explored, then narrowed. You see the options, react to them, and the feedback loops back into the design. This is the phase where collaboration is most active and where the building's identity is established. For residential and small commercial projects, schematic design typically produces a coordinated set of plans, sections, and elevations sufficient to communicate the design intent to you, to your consultants, and to anyone whose preliminary input is needed. For larger or more complex commercial work, schematic design also produces a preliminary cost estimate and a phasing strategy. For passive house projects, the envelope strategy and the preliminary energy model are developed in this phase, because envelope decisions made now constrain everything that follows. Schematic closes with a documented agreement on the design direction. From here the project moves into Design Development with the major character of the building already settled.
07
CONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATION
Construction documents lock down about two-thirds of the design decisions for a building. The remaining third gets decided during construction, by whoever is on site when the question comes up. A concealed condition turns out different than the drawings assumed. The window manufacturer sends shop drawings for approval. The contractor proposes a substitution because the specified product has a long lead time. A change order arrives. The inspector raises a question. Somebody decides. A good builder is a partner. Most of the builders I have worked with bring genuine craft, real problem-solving instincts, and honest field input that makes the project better. studio c treats the builder as part of the team. What CA adds is a second professional voice that represents the design intent and your long-term interest as those decisions get made. I review shop drawings and submittals against the design intent. I coordinate with the structural, envelope, and mechanical consultants at the inspection moments that matter, so the items that need to be observed (insulation, air sealing, waterproofing, structural connections, mechanical rough-in) get observed by the right professional before they are buried. I review change orders before you sign them. I represent your interest to the contractor, the inspector, the subs, and the suppliers when something has to be decided. Many owners hire a contractor with a permit-level set of drawings and skip CA because nobody told them what CA does, or because the price comparison made it sound optional. The drawings get you the permit. CA is what gets you the building. studio c strongly recommends staying through CA on every engagement. Owners who choose otherwise should at least understand what they are giving up before they decide.
02
SITE VISIT
$480*
A site visit is the first paid work of the project, not a sales meeting. It produces real deliverables that you keep regardless of whether you continue with studio c afterward. What I do during a site visit varies by project type, but the core is consistent. For most projects, I bring a LIDAR scanner and capture the existing structure with sub-centimeter accuracy. I hand-measure the conditions the LIDAR cannot reach. I document grade across the lot at multiple points, because building height is calculated from average natural grade and an unsloped assumption will not survive plan check. I photograph the visible structural conditions, the envelope, the existing mechanical and electrical systems, and the immediate site context. For commercial tenant improvement projects, I document the existing space, the demising conditions, the path of egress, and the accessible elements that may trigger Chapter 11B alteration requirements. The last twenty minutes of every site visit is a walk-through with you on site. We look at what I am seeing in real time. Questions that come up during this conversation become inputs to the feasibility study that follows. The walk-through is also where I sense-check whether the project we discussed on the call is the same project you actually have. They are not always the same. The site corrects what the conversation could not. The fee is fully credited back at engagement signing, and includes the LIDAR scan, the hand measurements, the photo record, and the documentation work that follows the visit. You receive a brief written summary of what was observed. The data captured on the visit becomes the foundation for the feasibility study. *Site visit fee structure. The base $480 applies to sites within 20 miles one-way of the studio c office, which covers all of San Francisco, the East Bay, and the inner Peninsula. For sites further out, a tiered travel adjustment is added: $520 total for 20 to 40 miles one-way, $580 total for 40 to 60 miles, and a custom quote beyond. The base fee is fully credited back at engagement signing regardless of which tier applies. Bay Area travel time adds up quickly, and the tier is the simplest way to be honest about how distance affects the fee without billing windshield time by the hour.
05
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
Design Development (DD) is where the systems get resolved. Schematic decided the character. DD decides how the building actually works. This phase resolves the questions that schematic left open. Material specifications. Structural concept coordinated with the structural engineer. Mechanical and electrical strategy. Envelope detailing. Fenestration. The interactions between these systems matter as much as the systems themselves, and DD is where those interactions get checked. A passive house envelope coordinated with a forced-air heating strategy that does not respect the air-sealing plane will not perform. A commercial tenant improvement with structural penetrations not coordinated against the existing building's lateral system will not pass plan check. DD catches these things before they become problems in the next phase. We continue to work iteratively with you during DD, but the iterations narrow. The character of the building was decided in schematic. DD refines it without re-opening it. By the end of DD, the project has a coordinated set of drawings, the systems are resolved, and the cost estimate is meaningfully more reliable than the schematic estimate was. DD also produces the energy modeling and code compliance documentation that the CD phase will need. For projects pursuing passive house certification or Title 24 compliance pathways with custom elements, the analysis work happens here so that CD can document what is already proven, rather than scramble to prove what was assumed.
03
FEASIBILITY STUDY
$1,500 to $3,800**
The feasibility study is the paid deliverable that determines whether your project can be built at the scope, schedule, and budget you have in mind. It is also the work that other architectural firms have historically given away as part of an unpaid proposal. Part of why those proposals were so often wrong is that the architectural thinking inside them was not paid for, and therefore not given the time it required. A feasibility study takes several hours of professional time to structure properly. Different jurisdictions have different submittal requirements for the same type of work. San Francisco's planning code treats tenant improvements differently than Oakland's. El Cerrito's ADU pathway has height tiers tied to transit proximity that do not apply in unincorporated Contra Costa County. The feasibility phase resolves these jurisdictional differences against the specific facts of your property and your goals. What you receive at the end of the feasibility study depends on what your project requires. Typical contents include a code and zoning compliance memo using measured field data, a pre-application coordination memo from the city's planning division where the jurisdiction offers preliminary review, a structural feasibility coordination with an engineer you contract directly, a surveyor coordination if boundary or topographic data is required, a viability assessment for each scenario being considered, and a refined preliminary concept for the scenario that is feasible. The deliverable is sized to what the project actually needs. The feasibility study fee covers studio c's professional time. Pass-through consultant costs (structural engineer, surveyor, geotechnical, and others as required) are billed by those consultants directly to you. I coordinate their work but do not mark it up. The feasibility study also produces the scope and fee for the design contract that follows. A design contract built on a feasibility study is grounded in measured field data and confirmed jurisdictional requirements. A design contract built on guesses is the source of most of the bad project outcomes you have probably heard about. **The fee range reflects scope variability. A single-scenario feasibility for a straightforward jurisdiction lands at the lower end. A multi-scenario analysis with pre-application coordination through a city planning division, structural feasibility review with an engineer, and a refined preliminary concept lands at the upper end. Most projects land somewhere in the middle. The specific number for your project is named in writing after the site visit, scoped to what feasibility actually requires.
06
CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENT & PERMIT SET
Construction Documents (CD) are the drawings and specifications detailed enough for the building department to issue a permit, for contractors to bid, and for the project to be built without ambiguity. CD is the longest and most detail-intensive phase of a design contract. It is also the phase that most directly determines what happens during construction. What CD produces is the legal record of design intent. Sheet by sheet, the drawings document the conditions, the systems, the details, and the specifications that the contractor will work from. The discipline of CD is to anticipate the questions that will come up during construction and answer them in the documents, before they become field decisions made under time pressure. CD also produces the coordination with consultants. Structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, civil, landscape, and any specialty consultants finalize their drawings during this phase, and studio c coordinates those packages into a single coherent set. The same project becomes seven different sets of drawings if coordination is not active. We make it one set. For most projects, the CD phase ends with permit submission. For projects with phased permitting strategies (foundation permit first, superstructure permit second, tenant improvement permit during base building), the CD phase is structured around the submission sequence. The deliverable at the end of CD is a permit-approved set of drawings ready to bid.
Is studio c the right fit for your project?
studio c is built for projects where building science, code expertise, and design discipline justify a real architect's involvement.
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Commercial tenant improvement: restaurants, clinics, offices, retail, light industrial. $150,000 to $5,000,000 construction budget range.
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Custom residential, ADUs, and SB-9 lot splits where building performance matters as much as aesthetics.
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Passive House design, both new construction and deep retrofits. Dual PHIUS and PHI certified.
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Code compliance, accessibility (CASp and ADA), and permit strategy for owners navigating jurisdictional process.
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Wildfire defense and home hardening for properties in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI).
Who are we not a fit for?
We are not the right architect for every project, and saying so up front saves both of us time.
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Pure drafting work. If you need permit-ready drawings without architectural decisions, you want a drafter.
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Design-build packages where the architect is hired only to stamp drawings prepared by others. studio c is the architect of record, or we are not on the project.
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Projects under $100,000 construction cost. The architect's fee on small projects cannot deliver the value our process is built for.
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Lowest-bidder shopping. If you are comparing on fee, we are not the right call.
Telling you who we are not for is faster than wasting each other's time.
Q. Why don't you offer free consultations like other firms?
A free consultation is a sales meeting. We replaced it with a free fifteen-minute call where we can both decide quickly whether the project is a fit. The deeper work that used to happen inside the free consultation (code review, site analysis, preliminary design thinking) is now the paid feasibility study, because that is what it actually is. Owners who pay for feasibility get a written deliverable they keep, regardless of whether they hire us for full design.
Q. Why does the feasibility study cost $1,500 to $3,800?
Q. What if I just need someone to stamp drawings my contractor already produced?
That is not the service studio c offers. The architectural stamp without the architectural process exposes both you and the architect to risk that neither of us should be taking. If the project genuinely needs only permit-ready drawings, a drafter is the right professional. If it needs architectural decisions made and documented, we are. The two are different jobs.
Q. How much will the full project cost in architect fees?
Architectural fees scale with construction cost and complexity.
For a typical engagement covering schematic design, design development, construction documents, and construction administration, the total runs between 8 and 12 percent of construction cost for residential and small commercial work.
The percentage is the result of phase-by-phase fees that account for project complexity, jurisdictional requirements, and the level of construction administration involvement. The feasibility study produces the specific fee proposal for your project.
Q. Do I have to engage you through all the phases?
No. Some clients engage us through only feasibility and use the deliverable to make their own decisions. Some engage through schematic and design development, then take CDs to another firm. Most engage for the full sequence because the value of one architect carrying the project from feasibility through construction administration is real. The choice is yours, with one exception: we strongly recommend not skipping Construction Administration. The drawings get you the permit. CA is what gets you the building.
Q. What is your turnaround time?
The fifteen-minute call is usually within a few days of reaching out. The site visit is typically scheduled within two weeks. The feasibility study takes two to four weeks depending on jurisdictional response times and consultant scheduling.
Full design contracts run six to fifteen months depending on scope. Construction administration runs for the duration of construction.
