Choosing a Commercial Architect: 10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Firm
Choosing a commercial architect is an important decision for any developer or business owner. You're not only hiring someone to design a building or prepare drawings. The architecture firm you select will coordinate with consultants, respond to permitting requirements, work through design decisions, and help address issues that can come up as the project moves toward construction.
That makes it worth asking more than what a project will cost or when the firm can start. Before hiring an architect, developers should understand how the firm works, what experience is relevant to their project, and how involved the team will be throughout the process.
Here are ten questions worth discussing before making that decision.
1. What Experience Do You Have with This Type of Project?
Commercial experience covers a wide range of project types. Designing a restaurant is different from designing an office, retail space, hospitality project, or ground-up commercial building.
Rather than looking only at how many commercial projects a firm has completed, ask about work that relates to the specific challenges of your project. A firm may not have designed an identical building, but experience with similar permitting requirements, operational needs, construction types, or consultant coordination can still be highly relevant.
Reviewing a firm's commercial projects can also help you understand the range and complexity of its work.
2. Who Will Actually Be Working on My Project?
The person you meet during the selection process isn't always the person managing the project day to day.
Ask who will be responsible for the work, who your primary contact will be, and how involved the firm's principals will remain as the project progresses. Understanding the team structure early makes communication much easier once there are multiple consultants, contractors, and decisions involved.
For developers managing several moving parts at once, knowing exactly who to contact matters.
3. How Do You Approach the Early Stages of a Project?
Before design begins, there may be questions about zoning, site conditions, program requirements, existing buildings, utilities, or what can realistically be developed on the property.
Ask how the architect approaches those questions and what information they typically need before moving forward.
For developers who are still evaluating a property, this conversation may begin even earlier. A feasibility study can help identify development opportunities and potential constraints before significant resources are committed
4. How Will You Help Define the Scope of the Project?
A clear scope helps everyone understand what is included in the architectural services and what may require additional consultants or coordination.
Ask what the firm's services include, what information will be needed from you, and which disciplines may need to become involved. Depending on the project, that could include structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, civil, landscape, or other specialized consultants.
This is also a good opportunity to understand the firm's overall commercial architectural services and how those services relate to your particular project.
5. How Does Your Design Process Work?
Every architecture firm has its own way of moving a project from an initial idea into something that can be permitted and built.
Ask how design decisions are developed and reviewed, when consultants become involved, what the client will be expected to approve, and how changes are handled as the project becomes more detailed.
You don't need to know every architectural phase before hiring a firm. You should, however, leave the conversation with a clear understanding of what happens next and how decisions will be made along the way.
For a closer look at what can influence that process, our article on commercial building design explains the major stages from early planning through permitting and construction.
6. How Familiar Are You with Permitting and Local Requirements?
Permitting can have a significant impact on a commercial project, and requirements vary by jurisdiction and project type.
Ask about the firm's experience working with local agencies and how permitting requirements are addressed during design. Depending on the project, zoning, accessibility, life safety, parking, utilities, fire protection, and other requirements may need to be considered.
An architect can't control how quickly an agency reviews a project, but the firm should be able to explain what the permitting process may involve and how it prepares for that review.
7. How Do You Coordinate with Engineers and Other Consultants?
Commercial projects rarely involve an architect working alone.
Engineers and specialized consultants may be responsible for structural systems, mechanical and electrical design, plumbing, civil work, landscape architecture, fire protection, or other parts of the project.
Ask how the architecture firm coordinates that work and how conflicts between disciplines are addressed. Good coordination during design can reduce questions and unnecessary changes later when the project reaches construction.
8. What Happens When the Project Reaches Construction?
Before hiring a commercial architect, understand what role the firm will have after the drawings are completed.
Depending on the agreed scope of services, the architect may respond to contractor questions, review submittals, clarify design intent, participate in site visits, or help address conditions discovered during construction.
The important part is knowing where the architect's responsibilities begin and end rather than assuming that every firm's construction-phase services are the same.
9. How Do You Handle Existing Buildings and Tenant Improvements?
If you're considering an existing property, ask how the firm evaluates existing conditions and determines what may need to change for the new use.
This is especially important for restaurants, offices, retail spaces, and other tenant improvement projects. Existing mechanical systems, plumbing, electrical capacity, accessibility, occupancy requirements, and previous renovations can all affect the scope.
If you're still deciding between adapting an existing property and developing a new one, our guide to tenant improvements vs. ground-up construction covers some of the considerations worth reviewing before making that decision.
10. How Will We Communicate Throughout the Project?
This may be one of the simplest questions on the list, but it's an important one.
Commercial projects involve decisions from owners, architects, engineers, contractors, agencies, and sometimes additional stakeholders. Ask how often you can expect updates, how decisions are documented, and who will communicate with you when an issue needs attention.
The answer should give you a realistic sense of what working with the firm will actually feel like not just what the finished architecture might look like.
Choosing the Right Commercial Architect
There isn't one architecture firm that's right for every project. The goal is to find a team whose experience, process, communication style, and services make sense for what you're trying to accomplish.
Looking at a portfolio is useful, but the conversations behind the work matter too. Asking these questions before hiring a commercial architect can help you understand how a firm approaches problems, communicates decisions, and supports a project beyond the initial design.
If you're currently evaluating firms, you can learn more about Markle + Diaz Architects' commercial architecture services and explore our commercial work to see the types of projects our team has worked on.
Planning a Commercial Project?
If you're looking for a commercial architect, explore our commercial services and recent projects to learn more about how we work.
