Virtue Construction
Architect-designed living space at dusk, a long window wall and warm light inside

DESIGN-BUILD WITH YOUR ARCHITECT · LAKE FOREST, IL

Design-Build with Your Architect in Lake Forest, IL.

Usually, design-build means one company both designs the house and builds it. Ours keeps your architect. They design it, we build it, and we work as one team from the drawing set to hand-off, across Lake Forest and 25-plus miles surrounding.

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A finished stair meeting a wall exactly as the architect detailed it

THE SCOPE

We Come In at Drawings.

Most of our work arrives through architects and interior designers. We enter at the drawing set and carry the detail through to hand-off. The drawings stay the architect's. The building is ours. The work is in the line between the two: where it sits, and what crosses it.

  • Drawing review and constructability input before pricing is set
  • Scope and budget built against the set, not around it
  • Design intent held through construction, no unilateral substitutions
  • Change orders raised in writing, early, before work proceeds
  • One point of contact for the architect and the client
  • Permitting pulled and inspections coordinated by us
  • Interior designers' selections and drawings built with the same discipline as the architect's

We take on a limited number of projects at a time, so the architect keeps the same contact from drawings through punch list.

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THE FIRST REAL DECISION

Bid It Out, or Bring a Builder In.

If you're working with an architect, one decision comes before any price. The architect can finish the drawings and put them out to bid, or bring a builder in while the drawings are still being made. Both routes build good houses. Many architects prefer one or the other, and it's worth asking yours why.

BID IT OUT

  • Several builders price the same finished set, side by side
  • The design is finished before any builder has a say in it
  • Competition puts pressure on the number
  • The familiar route: well understood by architects, and simple to run
  • Works only as well as the set is complete; gaps in the drawings turn into differences between bids
  • The builder's questions arrive after the price is set, usually as clarifications or changes

BRING A BUILDER IN

  • Cost and constructability questions answered while lines can still move on paper
  • Your architect hears early which details are expensive, and decides what to keep
  • A price that develops with the drawings, rather than arriving after them
  • A builder chosen on fit and track record, not on a single number
  • Less price competition, because you choose a builder before you have a final number
  • You commit to a builder earlier, which asks for trust before the drawings are done

Either route can build a very good house. What changes is when the builder's questions get asked: while a line on the drawings is still easy to move, or after it's been priced.

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BOUNDARIES

What's Included, and What Isn't.

INCLUDED

  • Every trade on site, scheduled, sequenced and coordinated as general contractor
  • Means and methods: how the drawings get built is ours to solve, and ours to answer for
  • Coordination with the consultants named on the architect's drawings, such as the structural engineer
  • The site and the schedule, from the first day on site through close-out

NOT INCLUDED

  • Architectural design. The drawings are your architect's. We build to them; we don't redraw them.
  • The architect's own services. Site visits, drawing revisions and the architect's fees are set by your agreement with them, not by us.

On site, it's never unclear who decides. What the house is belongs to your architect. How it's built belongs to us. Anything that changes the cost belongs to you.

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THE SEQUENCE

How a Project with an Architect Goes.

  1. 01

    Reading the Set

    Every sheet is read with you and your architect. Questions go back to the architect as a list, while every answer is still a change on paper.

  2. 02

    Pricing

    The number is built from the set as answered. Where the drawings leave something open, the price says what it assumed.

  3. 03

    Construction

    Your architect's design, our means and methods. When the site and the drawings disagree, that detail waits for the architect's answer.

  4. 04

    Hand-Off

    The punch list is worked against the drawings, not against memory, and the house is handed over.

Start dates depend on the drawings and permitting. We give you one once the set is priced.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions About Building with an Architect.

Isn't design-build one company doing both?

Often, yes. One firm employs the designers and the builders, and you sign one contract. That model works for many projects. Ours keeps your architect independent: they design the house and represent it through construction, and we build it. You get a design team and a builder working as one, without the design and the budget answering to the same company.

Do we need an architect before we call you?

No. Call whenever you're ready to talk about the project. But for most additions, whole-home renovations and new houses, the drawings are where the house is really decided, and a good architect makes the house better than a builder working without one could. If you don't have one yet, we'll tell you what your project needs and what to look for in an architect.

Will you change our architect's design to save money?

Not on our own. If a detail is expensive to build, we'll say so, explain why, and tell you and your architect what it would cost to build it another way. Whether to keep it is your decision, made with your architect. Often the expensive detail is the reason the house is worth building.

What happens when the house and the drawings disagree?

On an existing house, somewhere they always will. A beam isn't where the old plans showed it, or a floor isn't level where the drawings assume it is. When it happens, work on that detail stops. We document what we found and take it to your architect with what it means for the build, and the architect decides how the design responds. If the answer changes the cost, you see that before the work continues.

Can you work with an architect you haven't worked with before?

Yes. What makes it work isn't a shared history. It's a complete drawing set, questions asked early, and a builder who doesn't treat the design as negotiable. Every architect we work with regularly was a first project once.

Do you work with interior designers too?

Yes. Much of our work comes through interior designers as well as architects. A designer's selections and drawings are handled the same way as the architect's: built as specified, with questions taken to the person who made the decision.

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OTHER SERVICES

Other Work We Take On.

We build this in Lake ForestHighland ParkLake BluffDeerfieldLibertyville.

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Introduce Us to Your Architect.

Send the project type and location, and your architect's name if you have one. If there's a drawing set, mention it, we'll ask for it when we reply, read it, and tell you plainly what the build involves.

Request a Consultation

We respond within one business day.