Experience
Carmelhill Architects has a diverse portfolio and varied experience as shown in our portfolio section. We ask that you review our portfolio area to review some of our past and current work.

 

Hiring and architect
Interviewing an architectural firm is important. You are interviewing us to see if we will meet your needs, be able to work with your contractor, and if we'll be able to provide you with a design within your budget. For most clients, this will be the first and only time they will hire an architect. The initial meeting and interview is also important because you're about invest a large amount of money into your project, so you want to hire the right architect. A firm that is experienced, responsible, and easy to work with. Every project has unique needs and unique obstacles which we are ready to address.

 

Design Process
We provide every client with a full color photo montage rendering of the proposed design along with the standard design floor plan. This helps our clients fully understand what their finished project might eventually look like. A lot of architects aren't capable of doing in-house renderings, or they skip the expense of doing it. Sometimes we'll go even deeper into the design and provide you with rendered cutaways or 3D "bird's eye" views of the design plan. We feel it's an essential part of the design process.

Invoicing
We try to keep our billing and contracts simple. Normally we don't require any retainers or deposits. We like to break the project down into two simple parts. The design phase and the blueprint phase.

 

We invoice 50% at the midpoint which is the design approval stage. We will give you color renderings of your project along with design floor plans. When you approve these designs we will send you a 50% invoice.

 

We'll start your final construction drawings after the design approval and design

 

payment are received. When the blueprints are complete we'll send you a final 100% invoice. No drawings will be filed or distributed until the final payment is received.

 

In architecture there are generally four ways of calculating a fee. Stipulated lump sum, hourly, percentage of the cost of construction, or fee per square foot.

 

The stipulated sum is based on past experience with previous projects. We don't use this method because we feel every project is different and should be addressed individually.

 

We sometimes use the hourly fee on exterior renovation projects, which is usually $110 per hour.

 

Our prefered way of calculating fees is based on the amount of square footage you are adding or renovating. This fee varies on the complexity of your project, the amount and scale of the project, and whether it's residential, commercial, or retail.

 

Besides design and construction drawings, we do color renderings and photo montages, Zoning Variances, legalizations, space planning, asbuilt drawings, septic designs for Health Department approval, Planning Department submissions, quantity take offs, construction budgets, and permit expediting.