Architecture for the Puget Sound
Comprehensive Design Services from Seattle to the South Sound
“If I could give 10 stars, I would.”
New Construction & Site Acquisition
Considering a complex lot or purchasing land? We assess the property before design begins to confirm feasibility, view corridors, and budget alignment. Essential for waterfront and steep slope sites.
Don't buy the land until you know the potential.
The Foundation: Feasibility & Site Validation
Success starts with a roadmap, not a guess. Most project delays and budget overruns happen because the research wasn't done upfront. Whether you are building on a steep slope in Gig Harbor or navigating a complex lot in Seattle, you need to know what is possible before you invest in blueprints.
We clarify the complex early on:
Site Feasibility: We analyze your land to determine exactly what can be built, identifying critical areas or topography challenges.
Zoning & Code Strategy: We navigate the regulatory environments of King and Pierce Counties so you don't face surprises later.
Budget Alignment: We help match your wish list to your investment reality before the design phase begins.
Whole Home Transformations
Love your location but outgrown the house? We analyze the existing structure and zoning limits to determine if a renovation or a teardown is the smarter investment.
Understand the constraints before you demo.
See how this University Place home with Fox Island views got a whole new life without the addition the homeowners assumed it needed.
Looking for Land in the South Sound?
Don't make an offer until you know what lies beneath the surface. From Geotech stability to Archeological buffers, hidden constraints can stop a project before it starts.
Includes 7 Deal-Killers to Check Before You Make an Offer
The Right Contractor Changes Everything
Most custom home and renovation budgets don't blow up during construction. They blow up the moment the wrong contractor walks in the door.
The traditional approach — finish drawings, send to five contractors, pick the lowest bid — sounds logical. In practice, it produces a wide spread of numbers on the same scope, a value engineering scramble to close the gap, and a contractor who won the job by underbidding and plans to make it back on change orders.
We do it differently. Before your drawings are complete, we identify a small group of contractors whose quality, capacity, and track record fit your project. You meet them. You choose. That contractor comes into the design process early — pricing in real time, flagging constructability issues before they're baked into the documents, and arriving at a budget you can trust before anyone breaks ground.
The result isn't just a better number. It's a builder who's invested in your project from the start, not a stranger who inherited someone else's drawings.
Architecture: the art of living
Imagine yourself in a space that sparks wonder, inspires you, and brings calm into your life. How would life be different for you in that environment?
We don’t just design houses; we choreograph how you live. From the way the morning light hits your kitchen island to the flow of a dinner party, every detail is intentional. We combine high-end design sensibilities with rigorous technical documentation to ensure your vision survives the construction process.
Custom Home Design: Tailored to your specific site, whether it's a waterfront property or an urban infill.
Holistic Integration: Merging structure, landscape, and interiors into one seamless experience.
Technical Documentation: Your drawings are your contract with the contractor. Vague drawings produce vague bids, change order disputes, and finished rooms that don't match what you imagined. We produce construction documents precise enough that when the contractor asks a question in the field, the answer is already on a sheet.
“We had less than 4% of construction overages over the course of the project.”
“Andrew, you are a really fine designer of living spaces.”
Interior design: down to the doorstops
Architecture doesn’t end at the exterior walls. A truly custom home feels cohesive because the architecture and interiors speak the same language. We eliminate the disconnect between "the shell" and "the finish" by designing them together.
Integrated Interiors: Kitchens, baths, and built-ins designed architecturally, not just decorated.
Material Selection: Curating finishes that are beautiful, durable, and regionally appropriate.
Lighting Design: Sculpting natural and artificial light to elevate the mood of every room.
Enjoy a personalized environment that stands the test of time and trends.
Integrated interiors means we specify every plumbing fixture, review every shop drawing from the millwork fabricator, approve every tile layout, and confirm every lighting submittal before anything gets ordered. That process generates a paper trail — who specified what, who approved it, and when. So when the finished room matches the drawing, it's not luck. And when something doesn't match, there's no ambiguity about where the deviation happened.
By the time a contractor orders materials, every finish decision has been shown in drawings, itemized in schedules, and resolved in writing.
No "we'll figure it out on site.”
Visualization: see it before you build it
Uncertainty is expensive. 3D visualization is the antidote. We build your entire project in a virtual environment—set on your actual terrain with real-world sun angles—before a single hammer swings.
Sun & Shadow Studies: See exactly how the light will look in your living room at 8:00 AM on your anniversary.
Virtual Walkthroughs: Explore your future home on your own computer, giving you the confidence to make decisions early.
Regulatory Navigation: This Is Strategy, Not Paperwork
Permits are not a formality. In Pierce and Kitsap Counties — and on any project with a co-op board, HOA, or design review committee — the approval process is where projects stall, shrink, or die.
We've navigated building department engineers who rejected proposals on procedural grounds. We've argued for design approvals by pulling precedent from prior approved projects in the same building. We've steered clients away from filing pathways that would have added months and toward ones that moved quickly.
We know the difference between a comment that requires a drawing revision and one that requires a conversation.
This is not something you want to figure out on your first pass. Regulatory knowledge is accumulated — jurisdiction by jurisdiction, reviewer by reviewer, project by project. Ours is.
This kind of knowledge accumulates. We know which reviewers respond to precedent and which ones need a drawing revision. We know which filing pathways move and which ones stall. We've been back to the same jurisdictions, the same building departments, and in some cases the same buildings — years apart — and used what we learned the first time to protect the next client faster. That's not something you can replicate by reading the code.
When a reviewing engineer flagged a bathroom expansion as requiring board approval, we pulled eight precedent approvals from the same building — including one where we were the architect of record — and presented them as part of our formal response. The approval moved forward. That kind of institutional knowledge doesn't come from reading the code. It comes from doing the work.
Construction Administration: What "Staying With You" Actually Means
Your drawings are a promise. Construction administration is how we keep it.
On a typical remodel, we review and respond to 40–60 contractor submittals — shop drawings, product data, material samples — verifying that what gets ordered matches what was designed. Every site meeting produces written minutes distributed within 48 hours, so verbal decisions don't evaporate. Every change to the scope gets priced, documented, and approved in writing before the work begins.
When something unexpected turns up in the field — a pipe where the drawing says there isn't one, a structural condition that changes the plan — we're the ones who resolve it, quickly and on the record. When the contractor asks a question, the answer comes from the architect, not from whoever happens to be on site that day.
At the end of construction, there's a punch list. Then a shorter one. Then a sign-off. Nothing closes until it's right.
You hired us to design something specific. This is how we make sure you get it.
“I’d be a drowning man sinking slowly into the deep, were you not there as my giant life preserver.”
Custom Home Strategy Call – 30 Minutes That Could Save You 6 Months
The Custom Home Strategy Session
30 Minutes to Align Your Vision with Reality.
Building a custom home in the Puget Sound is a complex undertaking. Before you commit to land or lock in a design, you need a clear roadmap that connects your aspirations to the regulatory and physical realities of your site.
In this complimentary consultation, we will:
Evaluate Feasibility: Quickly identify zoning or site constraints that could impact your design goals.
Define the Roadmap: Outline the specific steps required—from permitting to construction—based on your timeline.
Align Expectations: Provide a high-level reality check on budget vs. vision, so you can move forward with confidence.
Not ready to start?
If you are just beginning to dream and aren't ready for a Feasibility Study, download your Custom Home Feasibility Guide. It guides you through the initial questions every homeowner should ask.
