DESIGN PROCESS

We offer a free consultation to begin the process and meet you at your location so that it is convenient for you. 

Our Goals for the consultation for homeowners 

• Get to know you and your family, your current space (remodels, additions, pop-top), the way you want to live and what your comprehensive goals for your space 
• Answer any  questions that you may have. We pride ourselves on really listening to our customers to understand your needs 

• Look at your current space (remodels, additions, pop-top) with your needs in mind to start to envision how we will transform it to fit the way you want to live 

• We go back to the office with all the information we gathered to write up a proposal with a custom scope of work and fee schedule.  
• You will receive a written proposal within a day of the consultation.  
• When you get the proposal, you will notice that all our work is phased and itemized. We do this for not only complete transparency so that you know the services that you are getting, but also that we only bill for the work we complete.  

• Not often, but occasionally, we will get through Schematic Design and when the project is bid out, it no longer becomes feasible financially. By phasing out our work and being efficient, we are able to get bids early in the process so that you aren’t stuck paying   full– service architecture for a project you can’t afford. 

• Depending on the size of the project, rough field measurements can sometimes be done at the first consultation if it is convenient for you. If not possible at that time and you are comfortable with my proposal, a time is scheduled for a later date, at your convenience,for us to visit again to take existing conditions dimensions in order to produce what is called “as-built drawings”.  
• This will allow us to get on paper the existing house and to start the schematic design process. This will take anywhere from 1-4 hours typically, depending on the size of the project.  
• As-built drawings are done for the portion of the house that is affected and dependent on what the city will need to issue a permit.  

• This is the beginning of the design process. We will take the field measurements, proceed a plan of the existing conditions and start the transformation process! This is the most exciting part of the process because you start to see what could be!  
• The creative process begins and many overlays are done to build your dream space. We produce 1 to many concepts, hard lined or sketched, to present to you at our next meeting.  
• We meet again (can be in person or virtually) to go over the concepts that were produced. This process repeats itself twice, sometimes more, until you are comfortable with the comprehensive design 
• After this phase, we are usually ready to get rough bids on the work 

• The drawings are sent out to a contractor to give us a rough bid for cost of construction. The contractor chosen can be your contractor or one of the contractors that Tripp Design Group knows, if they are available 
• Keep in mind, although Tripp Design Group has contractors that we know, their work and bids are completely separate and in no way can we verify their quality or their cost of work. TDG chooses their recommended contractors based on past experience, but we always recommend getting multiple bids and choosing the contractor you are most comfortable with 

• During this phase, the sketches are put into BIM (Building Information Modeling) software to produce a 3D model and hard-lined floor plans. This helps us really hone in on the design and make sure our plans work from a construction stand-point.   

• Elevations, sections and a roof plan are developed to start to understand and further develop the design 
• During our next meeting, these developed plans and elevations are presented. Upon verification that everything is where you want it, Construction Drawings can be started 
• At 50% Design Development, files can be sent to a structural engineer, if needed, for them to begin their work on producing structural drawings that the city or county will need for permit submittal 

• Floor plans, elevations, roof plan, sections, architectural details and electrical plans are developed in preparation for city or county permit submittal.  
• We coordinate our drawings with the structural engineer and any other consultants that are needed. You can take a hands off approach at this point and let us take care of getting the documents ready 
• At 90% Construction Drawings, we meet a final time before permit submittal to go over the plans. No changes should occur at this point so that we can stay on schedule, although we are always open to your ideas and comments 

• There are a couple of different ways this can be done. The traditional way is to have a licensed contractor who will be doing the work submit for permits. A lot of contractorscharge an extra fee to do this and all depends on the contractor. Most of the time, if known upfront, the contractor’s fee for submitting for permits is included in their bid 

• The other way to do this is for you to pull a homeowner’s permit. You can save sometimes a significant amount of money by pulling the permits yourself. There may be some restrictions to this depending on the project. If this is an option you would like to do, I can advise you if you have questions. Unfortunately, I don’t offer this as a service as most municipalities won’t allow the architects or other professional service people to submit for permits for their clients. 

• After permits are in hand, construction can begin as long as the contractor is scheduled.  
• During construction, as your advisor, I include in my fees 2-3 site visits. The amount of site visits included are dependent on the size of the project and can be more or less. 

• These site visits happen at:  

• Rough frame (when the framing is complete and before mechanical, electrical and plumbing go in) 
• Substantial completion (to be determined per project but usually before fixtures and finish work happens) 
• Completion 

• The site visits are to verify that the work being complete is being done per the drawings, is schematic in nature and in no way are they to verify that the work is being done correctly. It will be the contractor’s job to verify his work as well as the city inspectors that come out to sign off on the work