Need a Los Angeles Architect to design your custom beach house? We can help!
Excited to custom-build your dream house? Do you have some idea of styles you like and rooms you need, but you don’t know where to start? That’s okay! All you need to do is to find a great design-build team. Then let them figure things out—including helping you find the perfect Los Angeles architect.
Hiring An Architect Used To Be The First Step
For a custom-build project, the traditional workflow has been design-bid-build. To break that down, the parcel-owner (soon-to-be homeowner) usually hires an architect first. The architect draws up the plans, and then builders bid on the project. But in recent years, streamlining the process by hiring a design-build team first has become an increasingly popular option. That’s because the design-bid-build model is slow, cumbersome and prone to veering off-budget. If an architect and a design-build team aren’t in sync from the beginning, the architect is likely to design something that will cost too much to build. Then the client blows their budget or pays for extra designs and anxiously makes last-minute decisions that they thought were already made. Sound stressful? It is.
Now There’s A Better Way
Cost is just one reason that your initial hire should be a design-build team. There are other benefits to this option, as well.
1. Expert Builders & Designers Know Expert Los Angeles Architects.
The building and design world is a small niche. All the key players know the other key players. An experienced design-build team has worked with capable architects who specialize in a variety of styles. They know which Los Angeles architects excel at which styles. So while an architect may get “five stars” on a consumer rating app, that architect may not be the right person for your particular design project. A design-build firm can help you sort through the noise.
Design-build teams also know the on-the-ground reputation of Los Angeles architects, both through word-of-mouth and firsthand work experience. They know who cuts corners and who doesn’t, who designs to code, and who’s designs often have to be revised. They know who respects budgets and deadlines. If you want your new home to be delivered on-budget and on-time, hiring a design-build team before hiring any other professional is your safest bet.
2. In Terms of Final Project Cost, Hiring a Design Bid Team Is More Economical.
When your architect and design-build team are working as a unit from the start of the project, you’ll get a more accurate final cost analysis. White Sands stays with your project from foundation to furniture. We can factor expenses into the initial budget that architects don’t think about and most people underestimate. These expenses include interior design, such as cabinets, fixtures, wine storage, etc., as well as elements that have to be accommodated early in the building process, such as motorized window coverings.
If the design-build firm is working with the Los Angeles architect before the plans are drawn, the entire team can better tailor the design to meet the project budget. The builder can advocate for you earlier in the process, before the architect does something that will inflate the budget down the line—causing you to pay the architect’s hourly rates for a redesign. Design and built are inextricably related, and things run more smoothly when important choices are made together: things like materials, the location of your house on your lot, the placement of “mechanicals” that keep your home-systems going but aren’t pleasant to look at, and the potential to add things like a rooftop hot tub in the years to come.
3. A Design-Build Team Saves The Client Time & Stress.
If you’re building a custom-home, it’s much easier to deal with a single point-of-contact. If you communicate with both an architect and a contractor separately, you may have to facilitate communication between those two parties. A design-build team will act as your trusted advocate from beginning to end. They can project manage the entire process, including dealing with paperwork and permits, creating a timeline and budget, and ensuring that you love the deliverables. A design-build team makes custom-building a less stressful and less hands-on process for you. A fully integrated design-build team streamlines and reduces the overall cost and time it takes to build your new home. And they take full responsibility for the process and the results.
4. Design-Build Teams Are Better Problem-Solvers.
Building a custom-home is full of unknowns. Maybe the soil isn’t what you initially thought, or the plans the architect drew failed to account for your neighbor’s huge window that looks directly into your master bedroom. Many home-building decisions have to be made (or remade) in the field. But if your build team has to wait on the go-ahead from an architect or the two have to negotiate during the actual construction phase, this could significantly delay your project. And delays increase your expense. But if you have an integrated design-build team—a group of experts who are accustomed to working together and bringing projects in on time and budget—they can deal with issues swiftly and confidently. Many issues may even be headed off before they become problems, because your build experts can anticipate and immediately alert your architect to potential problems.
5. Excellent Interior Design Makes Your House A Home.
We’ve already mentioned that Los Angeles architects frequently underestimate the cost of interior design when creating a final budget, but often the importance and impact of interior design is also underestimated. Lighting, fixtures, cabinets, floors, window dressings, interior paint, furniture and even appliances are a huge part of the overall ambiance and livability of your new house. But interior design is also about the way you move through and occupy spaces, which can be directed through furnishing as well as architectural choices.There’s an entire field of scientific study, interior design psychology, dedicated to the importance of interior design.
Interior design includes major choices, such as wallpaper, but it also includes intimate but highly practical minute details, such as the most convenient place for your toilet paper holder. Do you like to sit down in the shower? Then you probably want a bench. Do you want to feel energized and productive in your study? Maybe you need an orange accent wall. Do you want your bedroom to feel relaxing? Then we should stay away from angled walls and ceilings there.
A design-build firm like White Sands Coastal includes interior design service. This means we can paint you a better picture of the overall finished product from the very start of the process, since our overall vision includes fixtures, furniture, and lighting. We can also give you a better cost-estimate, since our final cost estimate has everything—from light-sensing motorized shades to smart-home amenities, as well as your elevator and personal rock-climbing wall, basement theater, or whatever it is you’re into.
Trust Your Design Build Team
Hiring a top design-build team should be your first decision when you’re custom-building. We promise, it will be one of your smartest decisions. With our insider expertise we can help you choose a Los Angeles architect that fits your style and personality. You’ll be happier with your new home, less surprised about the final cost, and more relaxed while it’s being built.
Thanks for reading,
Hawlie Ohe
Hawlie Ohe heads White Sands Interiors, and she and her husband are raising two boys along the South Bay coast. Hawlie brings the curiosity that fueled her first career, as a journalist, to her interior design approach: Who are you, who do want to be, and how can this space get you there? Great design makes you feel present and engaged, and Hawlie is here for it. Because she wants to help you be “here” (in this space, in this moment), too.
