Finding an Architect

With our spreadsheet of needs and wants prepared1, we were ready to begin our search for an architect.  As we weren't sure about how exactly we should go about selecting an architect, we started by asking friends and family.  Though we were able to get a couple of referrals, it turned out that our desire to work with an architect having experience designing green additions and remodels, or even an architect expressing a strong desire to do so, limited our choices considerably.  Even our real estate developer friend didn't have any personal recommendations to offer.  Given our location in the eco-conscious San Francisco Bay Area, the limited selection came as a bit of a surprise.  Some family members suggested visiting an open house that was being marketed as "green" in order to get the contact information on the architect who designed it but it turned out that the house had only a few "glossy green" features like bamboo flooring and Energy Star appliances.

To extend our search for an architect, we wound up searching the Internet.  We reviewed the web sites of over two dozen firms that had completed "green projects" in the Bay Area but the majority of the projects were more gloss than substance or else limited to large-scale construction.  Eventually we were able to narrow down and prioritize a list of firms based on our impressions as to their degree of green design knowledge and experience.  We then proceeded to contact five firms to see if they might be interested in our project and heard back from three of them.  In the end, we wound up interviewing two architects at the house and felt that both of them were well qualified, having both applied green designs to past projects and having lectured on the subject of ecologically responsible building design.  Their approaches were rather different, though.  Given that the property in its current condition does not take advantage of many of the virtues of the lot, we were most impressed by the architect who deferred his design ideas to take into account an analysis of the lot and the current structure.  In comparison, we felt that the other architect was full of good and bold ideas but was looking at it as more of a blank slate than it really is.  Another consideration was our personal impression of the architects, as we wanted to be comfortable with the working style and personality of whoever we picked given that the project is likely to span a year and a half to two years.

We probably could have interviewed other architects and firms on our list before making our final selection but, given that we found someone who we believed to be a good fit, it didn't make sense for us to continue with such a time-consuming endeavor.  From the time we began to the time we selected the architect we wanted to work with, over two months had gone by and we had already exceeded the window of time needed to begin construction this year.