for Builders & Developers
55 listings for architecture & design in Santa Clara County on Cablanico,
the B2B network where builders and GCs hire their trades.
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Architecture and design firms produce the drawings, specifications, and code documentation a project is entitled, permitted, and built from. Practices tend to specialize: architects focused on new construction, on ADUs and additions, or on multi-family work each bring different fluency with the codes and review processes that dominate those project types, and matching the firm to the project type usually matters more than portfolio polish. Around the core architectural set, a project may add landscape architects, often required on multi-family and commercial submittals, interior designers and exterior designers for finish and material direction, 3D rendering services for client presentations and design review hearings, and Title 24 providers who prepare the energy compliance documentation California requires whenever a permitted scope touches energy-regulated building components. In the project sequence the architect leads pre-construction: feasibility and schematic design, coordination of the consultant team including structural, civil, MEP, and energy, and production of the permit set. For builders and developers, the key contracting questions are scope boundaries and deliverable stages. Establish what is in the permit set versus a fuller construction set, who coordinates the consultants, how many revision rounds are included, and whether construction administration, meaning RFI responses, submittal review, and site visits, is in the fee or billed hourly. Ambiguity on these points is a common source of change orders and schedule slip once construction starts. Timelines are driven less by drawing production than by jurisdiction review cycles, so ask about the firm's recent experience with the specific city or county where the project sits. We recommend confirming that a firm using the architect title holds a current license, through the California Architects Board or the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners, both of which offer free public lookup tools, and confirming professional liability insurance appropriate to the project size.
Ideally during due diligence, at least for a feasibility pass. A short study of zoning capacity, buildable envelope, and likely entitlement path costs little compared to discovering after close that the intended project does not fit the parcel. Full design services then start once the acquisition and program are settled.
Recent permitted projects of the same type and in the same jurisdiction, since an architect fluent in ADU review in one city may be slow in multi-family plan check in another. Get the deliverable list, revision allowance, and consultant coordination responsibility in writing. We also recommend confirming licensure through the state board's free public lookup and asking for a certificate of professional liability insurance.
A permit set contains what the jurisdiction needs to approve the project: code compliance, life safety, structural, and energy documentation. A full construction document set adds the detail, schedules, and specifications subcontractors price and build from. Building from a bare permit set pushes decisions into the field, which tends to surface as RFIs and change orders. Agree up front which level the fee covers and what the GC will receive for buyout.
4also serveAlameda County
Title 24 providers prepare the energy compliance calculations and forms California requires whenever the permitted scope includes energy-regulated components such as envelope, HVAC, water heating, or lighting work. They are needed before submittal, since the compliance forms are part of the plan set, and their documentation later drives which HERS field verifications the project must complete.
On anything beyond simple projects, usually yes. RFIs, submittal reviews, and clarification sketches need to come from the designer of record, and pricing that involvement up front is cheaper than buying it hourly mid-construction. At minimum, define who answers field questions and how fast, so the schedule does not hinge on an unscoped relationship.
