Building a Shortlist of San Francisco Architects

Chapter 4 of 12Part II: Choosing an Architect

There is no official list of the right architect for your project. The California Architects Board says plainly that it does not run a referral service and cannot recommend architects. So the shortlist is your work. The good news is that San Francisco has a large pool of practices, many of them small studios that focus on houses, and a little structure turns a long search into three or four solid interviews.

Where candidates come from

The Board’s consumer guide suggests the obvious sources, and they still work: recommendations from friends and relatives, searches online and referrals from professional associations such as the American Institute of Architects and its local chapter. In San Francisco a few more sources are worth using.

Projects on your own street

If a house near you has had work you admire, ask the owner who designed it. Construction sites often show the permit card, and owners are usually happy to talk once the work is done. A project on your block also tells you the architect has dealt with the same zoning and the same neighbors.

Public permit records

The Department of Building Inspection keeps permit records by address. Looking up recent permits for houses like yours can surface names of firms that regularly take similar projects through the city. Treat this as a lead, not an endorsement: a permit shows that someone filed, not how the project went.

Your other professionals

Structural engineers, contractors and real estate agents who work in the city see many architects’ drawings. Ask them who produces clear, complete sets and who answers questions during construction.

What to look for in a portfolio

Most architects show finished photos. Those tell you about taste. For a San Francisco project, look past the photos for signs of the work behind them:

• projects of your type and size, such as rear additions, vertical additions, ADUs or full remodels of older houses;
• work in neighborhoods with zoning and building ages similar to yours;
• before-and-after drawings or plans, which show how they solve tight lots and stairs;
• projects that went through neighborhood notice or historic review, if yours is likely to.

The Board also suggests asking what percentage of the practice involves your type of structure and whether they have recently designed one. A firm that mostly does commercial interiors may be excellent and still a poor fit for a hillside addition.

A simple scoring sheet

Question	Why it matters here
Have they taken projects like yours through SF Planning recently?	Rules and staff practices change; recent experience counts most
Is the license current, with no discipline?	Checked in minutes; see Chapter 5
Who would actually work on your project?	Small studios and large firms staff jobs differently
Do they have room in their schedule?	Busy firms may not start for months
Did they respond clearly to your brief?	The first reply is a preview of how they communicate

Small studio or larger firm?

San Francisco’s residential work is spread across practices of very different sizes. A one- or two-person studio usually means the principal designs your project and answers your calls; the trade-off can be limited capacity when several clients need attention at once. A larger firm may offer more people, in-house visualization and deeper experience with city review, but your day-to-day contact may be a project architect rather than the name on the door.

Neither is better in general. Match the practice to the project: a garage conversion or kitchen and bath remodel rarely needs a large team, while a new house on a steep lot with a long review ahead may benefit from one. Whatever the size, ask who will actually do the work, a question the California Architects Board includes in its own interview list.

Mistakes that make shortlists weaker

• Choosing only from photos of finished interiors, without seeing plans or projects like yours.
• Ruling out practices outside your neighborhood; zoning and building type matter more than distance.
• Waiting until the design is half done by a friend or contractor, then asking an architect to take over.
• Skipping the license check because a firm looks established.

First contact

Send the one-page brief from Setting Your Scope and Budget Before the First Call to five or six practices and ask whether they take projects of this kind and when they could start. Some will decline, which is useful information in itself. Others will offer a short call or a site visit. Some charge for an initial consultation; ask before you book.

Before any meeting, run each name through the license check described in Checking an Architect’s License and What It Tells You. It takes a minute and removes anyone whose license is not current.

Narrowing to the interview list

Three or four interviews is a practical number. Fewer gives you little to compare; more tends to blur together. Keep the practices whose work fits your project type, whose recent experience covers San Francisco review, and whose first reply showed they read your brief.

The questions to bring to those interviews are in Interview Questions That Separate Good Fits From Good Portfolios.