Working With an Architect

The three ways an architect's fee is usually structured, when each one fits, what the fee covers, and what California requires your contract to say.

Five ways to change a house, from reorganizing the plan to building new, with projects that show each one, four questions that sort most houses, and how a city can draw the line on demolition.

What an architect does between the first conversation and the finished house: nine phases, from pre-design and programming to bidding and construction observation, and the question each one answers.

Deficient framing, a hidden pipe, a failing stair: what four of our renovations uncovered, what can be learned before construction, and how an architect responds when a wall is opened.

When California law requires an architect, how architect-led, design-build and contractor-led projects differ, and when a remodel does not need an architect at all.