What to Ask Before Signing a Design Contract for a Small Project

If you are an owner about to commission an architect for a small project, the design contract is the most important hour you will spend on the project. Not because of the legal language, which most architects use a similar form for, but because the conversation that goes into the contract determines what you actually get for your fee.

Most owners we work with come in with one or two of the questions below already in mind. The rest tend to surface during the project, often late, sometimes in ways that cost real money. Better to surface them up front.

1. Who is actually on this project, and for how many hours

Architecture firms vary widely in who works on a project after the proposal is signed. Some sell time with the principal and deliver work done by a junior staff member. That is fine if the staff is good and supervised, but it is not what was sold.

Ask the firm to name the people who will spend hours on your project, what each of them will do, and roughly how many hours each will spend. A trustworthy answer sounds specific. A vague answer is a flag.

2. What happens at each phase, and how long does each phase take

A design contract usually breaks the work into phases. Concept, schematic, design development, construction documents, bidding, construction administration. The contract names them. The question is what you actually get at the end of each one, and how long it takes.

Ask for a sample deliverables list from a comparable project and a calendar that shows when each phase ends. If the firm cannot show you a sample, the phases on your contract may not have specific outputs attached.

3. How will visualization be used during the design, not after

Renderings are often sold as a marketing deliverable at the end of design. The same rendering work is more valuable if it runs through the design, helping you and the architect catch problems at the scale of a real room before drawings get coordinated.

Ask whether visualization will inform decisions during design, or only present them at the end. The first is design tool. The second is brochure work. The fee for either can look the same on paper.

4. What happens if I need to change something later

Owners change their minds. The site reveals a constraint that was not visible on the survey. A material lead time blows up. The contract should say what kinds of changes are absorbed within the fee, what kinds trigger additional services, and how additional services are billed.

Ask the firm to walk you through a typical change request on a project like yours. If the answer treats change as a problem to manage rather than a normal part of the work, expect friction.

5. Who is responsible if a code or zoning issue surfaces late

For a small project the architect is usually responsible for catching the basics on code and zoning, but the limits of that responsibility are worth naming. Some projects need a civil engineer, a structural engineer, a mechanical engineer, or a code consultant. The contract should say who hires whom and who carries the responsibility if something is missed.

Ask: what scope sits with you to procure, what sits with the architect, and what do you do if a code question shows up between phases.

6. What is the construction administration scope

This is the easiest line item to under-scope and the one that costs owners the most when it is light. Construction administration is the work the architect does while the builder is building: answering questions, reviewing shop drawings, responding to field conditions, doing site visits.

Ask how many site visits are included, what the response time is on field questions, and what happens if the construction phase runs long. A short, cheap construction administration line in the contract often turns into a long, expensive change order.

7. What does the fee include and what does it not include

Some firms quote a fee that covers nearly all standard work. Others quote a base fee with several common items billed hourly. Both are legitimate. The contract should make clear which model you are signing.

Ask for the firm’s exclusion list. The things they assume someone else will do. Survey, geotechnical, environmental, landscape architect, interior designer, photographer, brochure layout. Cost surprises usually come from items the firm did not assume they were doing.

8. What does a typical project of this size cost, in design fee and total

Owners often anchor on a design fee number without a sense of how the design fee scales with the total construction cost. A useful rule of thumb is that design fees for small projects fall in a band that depends on the typology and the complexity. The architect should be able to tell you where in the band your project falls and why.

Ask for two or three comparable projects and the design fee for each.

9. What is the timeline from signing to permit set

For a small project the answer is usually four to nine months from signing the contract to a permit-ready document set, depending on jurisdiction. The firm should be able to give you a specific number for your project, not a generic range.

Ask the firm to walk you through the calendar from signing to permit application.

10. What do you do if I want to stop, mid-project

The contract should have a termination clause. Read it. Most are fair. Some are not. The right answer is that you can stop, that you pay for work done to date, and that the work product is yours.

Ask the firm to walk you through what termination looks like in practice. The answer reveals how the firm handles relationships under stress.

Why this matters

Small projects are where owners and architects most often misunderstand each other. The fee is small enough that an owner does not feel they can spend hours on diligence, and the firm does not feel they can spend hours pitching. So both sides sign a contract that papers over the actual question.

The ten questions above are the actual questions. Asking them does not slow the project down. It speeds it up by surfacing the decisions that would otherwise show up six months later.

Related: Read how we work, or see our design-build approach.