Usual Building Design Steps

Reasonable people may disagree, but here are the common sequential steps in designing.

Design Process

• Funding
• Brainstorm with other funder/executors
• Talk to City Planner
• Rough sketch some ideas with executors/friends
• Talk to neighbors
• Integrated Design Process
• Interview architects (test them with some small space design questions: eg. What are a couple things that you would do to make a small space feel and act bigger? tall ceilings, join living/dining room, high windows, coupling functionality
• Find builders and subs (ideally, you want to have identified a builder, plumber, mechanical, electrical subcontractor)
• Architect draws up schematics for consideration
• Have meeting- talk through design goals
• Schematic refinement
• 3D model (use SketchUp)
• Develop drawings for City
  • Permit process- In Portland, processing takes 10 days for new construction, then another 10 days for corrections
• Permits