From first conversation to finished building.

I want to understand the project before I understand the building. What’s the site like? What’s your budget — honestly? What’s the timeline? What do you actually care about and what’s negotiable? Most architects skip this part or turn it into a sales pitch. I just listen. Sometimes a 30-minute phone call tells me everything I need to know about whether we should work together. If it’s not a good fit, I’ll say so. That saves us both six months.

I walk the site. I study the zoning. I pull the setbacks, the height limits, the parking requirements — all the invisible rules that shape what’s actually possible. For commercial projects, I’m mapping the municipal approval path before you’ve spent a dollar on design. How many planning commission meetings? Which variances will we need? What’s the review board going to push back on? This is the part most clients never see, and it’s the part that prevents the most expensive mistakes.

I don’t hand you floor plans and ask you to imagine the rest. I build cinematic 3D walkthroughs — the same presentations I bring to planning commissions. You see the building from the street. You walk through the front door. You stand in the kitchen and look out the window. This isn’t a gimmick. It changes the conversation. Clients catch problems at week six instead of month six. I refine until it’s right. Usually two to three rounds. Sometimes one.

Construction documents are where good design either survives or dies. I produce the full set — plans, sections, elevations, details, specifications. Everything a contractor needs to price accurately and build correctly. I’ve seen too many projects fall apart because the documents were vague, incomplete, or contradictory. That doesn’t happen here. Every detail gets resolved on paper, not in the field at $150 an hour.

Municipal approvals are where projects stall. Zoning board hearings, planning commission reviews, building permits — each one is a potential three-month delay if you’re not prepared. I present projects myself. I know the review process in Rochester, Rochester Hills, Troy, Birmingham, Lake Orion, Oakland Township, and most of southeast Michigan. I know what each board cares about, what questions they’ll ask, and what format they want to see.

Construction administration is where the architect earns their fee — or proves they were never really needed. I review submittals. I answer RFIs. I visit the site. When the contractor calls with a question about a flashing detail at 7 a.m., I pick up. The goal is simple: make sure what gets built matches what we designed. Not approximately. Not close enough. The actual thing.