Design Process: Step 1

Our architect asked for an initial 2 hr meeting to gain a good sense of our design preferences and the specific needs we want this house to meet – and that we should bring any relevant photos and anything else that would help.

We had prepared a wish list of desired rooms and their approximate sizes, in order to estimate the overall size of the house and also to get clear on what would be their min. and max. sq. footage. We had also found ourselves asking about, and noting, different room sizes as we toured the homes we looked at. Obviously he has to make all this fit together, so we need to be flexible, but the list was helpful as a basis for discussing our needs for this house.

The discussion beyond these more specific aspects was more intriguing as we sensed our architect wanted more specifics on our design choices -- beyond those house photos we had selected. So he asked us to comment on some pictures of elements of Palm Springs houses. Looking back, we feel we had possibly avoided getting too specific on design elements as we really want him have some freedom and potentially test us with ideas we may not have considered.

At our next meeting he will present “a freehand site plan, floor plans, elevations and perspectives,” as per his process.