Luis Boza Architect
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Guide
The Tailored Space approach.

A space made for how you live. Bought exactly how you need it. Most architects ask you to commit to the whole journey before you've solved anything - Tailored Space doesn't.

Take this with you
The same phases and packaging, as a five-page PDF - for a site visit, or to forward along.
The full approach

Seven phases, five ways to package them. Click a number or letter below to see it on its own - no scrolling through the rest.

The Phases
01
Pre-Design
What are we actually working with?

You get exact scaled drawings of your existing house, find what can change and what can't, and learn about applicable codes and zoning regulations. You leave knowing what is possible before anyone draws a wall.

Typical deliverables
  • Define your scope, budget, schedule, and project team
  • Measure the existing conditions in the field
  • Draft existing conditions drawings: floor plans, sections, and elevations
  • Review the zoning, code, and permitting requirements that apply
  • Identify any variances, use permits, or board approvals you may need
  • Coordinate any surveys the project requires: topographic, utility, or plat
Project-dependent; the exact list is set in your proposal.
02
Schematic Design
What could this become?

You see the idea in three dimensions for the first time, and you can react to it. You leave this phase knowing whether it is the one, or what has to change.

Typical deliverables
  • Research and develop a conceptual approach from the Pre-Design findings
  • Design two preliminary options for you to review
  • Draft diagrams, two-dimensional plans, and three-dimensional perspective views to communicate each option, and other representations as required
  • Build a digital 3D model of each option
  • Present the options and hear your feedback
  • Consolidate into one Schematic Design, with up to one round of revisions
  • Present the final design for your approval
Project-dependent; the exact list is set in your proposal.
03
Preliminary Pricing
Optional · After Schematic Design
I want to know now: "How much does what we just designed cost?"

A budgeting check after Schematic Design. A contractor prices the work early, so you know where the number stands before paying for full documentation.

Typical deliverables
  • Identify and coordinate with a contractor
  • A site visit or walk-through with the contractor, to answer questions they may have
  • Respond to questions during their review of the drawings
  • A Preliminary Pricing Analysis, presented to you
Project-dependent; the exact list is set in your proposal.
04
Design Development
What is it made of, and how does it come together?

Materials, assemblies, and the details that decide how the finished rooms feel. You leave this phase with a design resolved enough to price and to build.

Typical deliverables
  • Coordinate closely with your project's engineers and consultants
  • Develop plans that show what gets removed: the demolition plan
  • Develop plans that show the wall layout, power, switches, and receptacles, and the ceilings: heights, materials, and lighting locations
  • Develop building cross-sections and exterior and interior elevations
  • Integrate structural framing and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems into the plans, resolved architecturally
  • Present the Design Development set for your approval
Project-dependent; the exact list is set in your proposal.
05
Construction Documents
Will it get approved, and can it be built as drawn?

The drawings that a contractor prices and a plan reviewer approves. Vague drawings become change orders, so this is where your budget is protected or lost.

Typical deliverables
  • A complete set of construction documents, with the details, schedules, and specifications a contractor needs to estimate and build from
  • A permit document set that demonstrates all applicable building codes and zoning regulations have been met
Project-dependent; the exact list is set in your proposal.
06
Permit Acquisition and Pre-Construction Services
Optional · After Construction Documents
Can you help me get this permitted, and help me find and bid out a contractor?

A dedicated phase for the permitting process. I submit, answer every jurisdiction request, and revise the drawings until the permit is in hand.

Typical deliverables
  • Permit application and document submittal to the governing jurisdiction
  • Answer RFIs from the reviewing officials
  • Revise or add drawings the permitting process requires
  • Track the application through to approval
  • Determine a list of contractors appropriate to construct the job
  • Issue RFPs for contractors to bid the job
  • Oversee the bid process
  • Produce a summary and analysis of contractor bids, and present it to you
  • Assist in the review of the agreement with the selected contractor
  • Facilitate execution of the selected contractor
Project-dependent; the exact list is set in your proposal.
07
Construction Administration
Does what gets built match what we designed?

Something always changes on site. I know why, and I am there to protect what you approved, your representative until the last day.

Typical deliverables
  • Site meetings, weekly or biweekly
  • Signed payment requisitions
  • Approved change orders
  • Sketches in response to contractor questions
  • Clarifications
  • Approval of submittals and material samples
Project-dependent; the exact list is set in your proposal.
How They Package Together
IncludedNot includedOptional phase
Package A
Design and Feasibility Study
Client-hired
PD
SD
PP
DD
CD
PA
CA

You get as-built drawings, a consolidated design direction, and a contractor's estimate for it. You leave knowing what the design is and what it costs to build - enough to decide whether to hold or move forward.

Why grouped this way: Design and a real price, before committing to anything past this point.
Package B
Design Assist
Client or GC-hired
PD
SD
PP
DD
CD
PA
CA

The full design arc, start to finish, without a separate pricing checkpoint in the middle.

Why grouped this way: When a contractor is already involved and can price directly, the formal Preliminary Pricing step isn't needed - design moves straight from concept through full technical resolution.
Package C
Development and Execution
Client-hired (CA always is)
PD
SD
PP
DD
CD
PA
CA

Everything from a resolved design through a completed, inspected project: permit drawings, a permit in hand, a selected and bid-out contractor, and peace of mind during construction.

Why grouped this way: The back half of the project, bundled because each phase depends directly on the one before it - and because Construction Administration only means something when it's independent of whoever is building.
Package D
Documentation
Client or GC-hired
PD
SD
PP
DD
CD
PA
CA

You already have a resolved design - from an earlier phase, another architect, or your own sketches - and need it turned into a permit-ready, buildable set.

Why grouped this way: The design decision is already made. This is purely the technical translation of it.
Consultant coordination - structural, MEP - normally happens during Design Development. If that step was skipped, some of it gets folded into this scope, confirmed once the starting point is clear.
Package E
Documentation and Permit Acquisition
Client or GC-hired
PD
SD
PP
DD
CD
PA
CA

The same permit-ready documentation as Package D, plus getting the actual permit in hand and the contractor bid process handled.

Why grouped this way: For projects where the design is settled but nobody's carried it through approval yet.
As with Package D, some consultant coordination normally handled in Design Development may fold into this scope if that step was skipped - confirmed once the starting point is clear.
Construction Administration is always client-hired, even when an earlier package was done as a contractor's design sub. CA's whole value is independent oversight - representing your interests during the build - and that only holds if it isn't answering to the contractor it's watching. It can be added to Packages A, B, D, or E once construction is ready to start.

When a contractor hires directly, this takes a different, lighter form: Construction Support. Available to interpret the drawings and answer questions as the crew builds - without the formal duties of full CA, like reviewing payment requisitions or approving change orders.
Any of these can also be delivered as a Design-Build Partnership, with the contractor collaborating from day one rather than joining after design - see Project Delivery Methods for what that changes.
These five aren't the only shape this can take either. Some clients want just Pre-Design - a straight answer on what's possible before spending anything else. Some want all seven phases in one continuous engagement with no pause at all. The packaging is a conversation about what your project actually needs, not a fixed menu - take one phase, three, or all seven, and each is priced on its own so nothing commits you to the next.
Package fees depend on the scope of your project. Once that scope is determined, Luis prepares a detailed proposal for your review.
Next step

See what your budget actually builds with a defined scope going in, versus without one.

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