How an Architect Puts the Pieces Together

In this industry, it’s common to quickly design a house or community. But it takes an uncommon designer to know which aspects of a client’s vision are going to be feasible or not.

A good architect has the knack and ability to turn concepts, visions, and ideas into constructible details. Throughout design, documentation, and construction, picking the right development team and the right architect will determine how closely the final product resembles an original vision and determine the shape of the bottom line.

Design

Recently, we completed a series of luxury homes called Highrock at Ascension, where the site provided a unique design opportunity to position the homes so that from the moment you walk through the front door you experienced views of the Las Vegas Strip.

'We were able to leverage our site plan knowledge into a floor plan design that recognized and capitalized on this type of opportunity to build value.

Specifically, each floor plan at Highrock shares two common traits:

The first is the large areas of glass presented at the entry to each home (see photo above), mirrored by an equal expanse of glass at the rear (photo below). 

The second is a spine wall that flanks these glass elements, drawing the viewer’s eye from the entry, through the home, and out to majestic views of the Las Vegas Strip. 

Highrock also allows a high degree of customization, enabling the owners to add even more glass to the home, expanding views and letting in more natural light.

These moves, combined with each home’s single-story footprint, solidify an indoor-outdoor connection and allow each residence to become an expression that interacts with the desert itself.

Documentation

Coordinating and communicating the cost of design details among the develop-design-build team across structural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing aspects results in a construction set without any costly surprises.

An experienced architect knows how these systems interact and sees where changes to the design can make the home more buildable and cost efficient.

For example: the structural engineer may propose a steel beam to head off an opening. A good architect knows that steel can be a four-letter word in traditional single-family construction. Through coordination and often simple changes, a wood beam can be substituted while attaining the original design intent of the opening at a lower cost for labor and materials.

A great set of CDs isn’t about making grand gestures, but about squaring away small details to make an impressive design easier to build.

Maybe it’s resizing a bathroom so the vanity counter doesn’t run into the door trim, or adjusting a laundry room dimension so the front-loading washer and dryer will have the correct clearances.

There is a lengthy list of these details for even a modest development, and a good architect can address small details before they make their way into the field. 

Construction

Challenges inevitably come up during construction, and the right architect will be just as active a collaborator during this phase as the first two.

Site grading, for example, is one thing that can change from lot to lot in any development. I worked on a development where a side-loaded, single-car garage dropped down from the living area almost two feet due to the existing grade.

I made sure to get out to the site that same week to walk the condition with our client. We brainstormed together on site and developed a solution that worked … and not only for that home, but all similar homes in that development, and potentially even future projects. (Specifically, finding additional space for stairs in the hallway outside of the garage. As we continue to design homes with single-car garages, we look to integrate this extra stair space in from the beginning and “future proof” against grade changes.)

What matters most in construction is that all the collaborators can come together to navigate these challenges and deliver a project we can be proud of.

The knowledgeable architect stays with their client through each phase of the project. They listen to their client and learn what they loved about the architect’s design and what they can improve upon in future projects.

Providing this peace of mind is invaluable, and building this kind of collaborative partnership sets up the next development for success right out of the gate. Putting together the right design team is going to come with some upfront costs, but the positive impact on the bottom line is going to be obvious.