Homes Designed Around the Way You Live — Custom Residential Architecture in Seattle, WA

For a custom home or a significant renovation, an architect is what turns a building into a home that's genuinely yours. A stock plan is designed for no particular person or site, so it fits your life and your land only by chance. We design the opposite way — every decision made for how you live and for your specific site, light, and views — which is why architect-designed homes feel so different to be in. We also manage risk on the biggest project most people undertake, catching costly problems on paper, navigating permits and code, and holding construction to the standard the drawings set. On a home you'll live in for years, that difference is well worth it.

The mindset is the same — design around how you live and the specifics of the site — but the constraints differ. A custom home is a blank site where we shape everything from the ground up. A renovation or addition is a conversation with an existing house: we honor what's worth keeping, correct what isn't working, and add in a way that feels inevitable rather than bolted on. Both are core to our practice, and some of our most satisfying work is transforming a home a family already loves into the one they always wished it could be, seamlessly blending old and new.

As involved as you'd like — but the process always starts with you. The early discovery phase, where we learn how you actually live and what you're hoping for, is the most important part, and we'll ask a lot of questions. From there, many clients love being part of the creative journey and we bring them deeply into it; others prefer to set the direction and trust us with the thousand decisions, checking in at key milestones. Either way, it's a collaboration, and our job is to make the process clear, unhurried, and genuinely enjoyable rather than overwhelming.

A custom home is a considered undertaking; from first conversation through design, permitting, and construction it typically spans well over a year, and we won't rush the decisions that make it right. On fees, residential architecture is usually a percentage of the construction cost or a negotiated fixed fee based on scope, and after an initial conversation we provide a clear framework with full transparency. Good design also pays back — in a home that's more functional, more durable, holds its value, and avoids expensive mistakes — so we're happy to talk about it in those terms, not just as a line item. We're candid about numbers from the first meeting.

The whole way through. Design is the beginning, not the end of our involvement. We handle feasibility and zoning up front, produce the full construction documents, and shepherd the project through Seattle's permitting and design review — which can be genuinely complex here. Then we stay engaged during construction, answering the builder's questions, reviewing the work, and protecting the design intent and quality on site. Having your architect involved from the first site walk to the final walkthrough is how you make sure the home you approved on paper is the home that actually gets built.

Our studio is on the Seattle waterfront, and we design homes throughout the city and the Eastside — Capitol Hill, Madison Park, Queen Anne, Bainbridge and Mercer Islands, Laurelhurst, and the surrounding communities are all regular territory. We know the local light, terrain, permitting, and the builders and consultants who do excellent work here, which matters a great deal on a residential project. For a special home a bit further afield in the Northwest, we're glad to talk. If you're building or reimagining a home in the Seattle area, we'd love to hear about it.