Have you shown him pictures of what you like? Assuming the answer is yes, has he explained why a certain elevation won't go with your inside floor plan? It sounds like it's worth sticking with him and just trying to get him to understand what you want. Are there examples of his past work that you like? You might be able to start there, not with a design but a 'feel.'

Do you really know your vision and can explain it to someone else? Maybe what you see in your head is not what you are describing to him! Have you seen what you want in photos? Showing him photos of the exact elements you want will be the easiest way for him to really "see" what you want.

Probably too soon (and too late in the overall project) to think about switching, but you could always bring in someone else as a consultant to help bridge the communication problem you are having with the architect right now. The consultant could be another architect, interior designer, etc.

Tcufrog- I bought a couple of expensive inspiration books to leave with our architect who soaked in the aesthetic of what we wanted. I marked our favorite looks with notes on colored 3m page markers. He had about two month to percolate. For him, a picture was worth a thousand words. Not so much with the builder though:(

It might take more than two tries. I would stick with it. That's a lot of ground to recover with someone new.

Agree with the pictures thing. Can you share a Houzz ideabook with him? That's what we did with our architect. Gave him a sense of what we were looking for.

Also what chicagoans says about using examples of his past work. That was one of the criteria we used to select our architect so it was easy for us to refer back to homes he had done for other people.

My spouse kept saying he wanted "more drama" with the roofline. What does that mean? We had to use pictures to articulate it because *I* wasn't even sure quite what he meant by "drama."

Good luck!

I like his other work but isn't in style I am going for. I've emailed him a carefully edited group of inspiration photos which had very specific info under each describing what I like about them and didn't like. I was also very specific about what I didn't like about them. I currently have a foot injury I'm recovering from so I can't drive as far as his office. When it gets better I plan to meet with him and the builder at his office.

I gave him the brief of rustic elegant with lodge influences but not so much of a lodge influence that it looked like it belonged in Montana with antler racks everywhere. I also told him I didn't want to look dated in 20 years so nothing trendy. That's a real problem around here and has led to some awful houses. I also told him that I wanted it to be relatively inexpensive to maintain and I'm willing to spend a little extra up front to save on maintenance/upkeep down the road. Finally I told him that I no stucco and I wanted it to look at home on our beautiful wooded lot. In addition, I showed him photos of my inspiration and told him why I had chosen them as inspiration.

I also gave him a landscaping brief so that the house exterior would work well with my landscaping plans. I specified that I was planning to use native landscaping in front with little to no grass. We're in the middle of a multiyear drought. It's not nearly as bad as CA but it's a real issue that I think will only get worse since the area is growing. I also included a circle drive that matches the contours of the few trees already in front of the house. We chose the site of the house and driveway to preserve those trees.

One of the big problems of consumer vs. architect is often that all the early work may be singularly focused on the floor plan, especially with consumers who are focused on cubbies in the laundry room, walk-in closet features, kitchen finishes and the like. In such cases, it may be that little study is given to the resulting exterior forms, massing and character created by the plan as it takes shape. In every case, interiors and exteriors should always be studied simultaneously, since each is influenced by the other. Good architecture does not consist of simply draping some sort of exterior elevation on a finished floor plan like a stage set in a theater. Plan and exterior must be harmonious with one another--each must compromise in order that the other is successful. I don't know if this fits your situation--you seem to have very strong ideas and expectations, but you have not described how his first two façade studies have fallen short of your ideas and expectations. Are you willing to compromise and allow some of the architect's expertise to be used or must everything simply be your vision?

It does look like a stage set to me. I am willing to compromise and have kept many of his ideas even though they would not be my first choices. We are hemmed in by many build lines and other constraints and I understand that but the changes I'm requesting won't affect the shape of the home or moving windows or doors. They involve exterior cladding choices, color, and exterior decorative details. I did during the first meeting discuss with him at length him my overall vision for the interior and exterior and I feel like with the interior floor plan he's done a good job of capturing that. I thought that since he really seemed to understand during the design of the interior my initial design brief I had high hopes for the exterior.

I will see if I can upload the elevation designs today. I need to see if I can scan the first one and get a good enough scan to upload.

We found that making a sketch of what we wanted was more effective than pictures of unrelated stuff we liked. We made the most progress when we did an interactive session where our architect did sketches while we talked about what we liked or didn't like about what he was drawing-- hearing him talk about why he was making the choices he was or why something we were asking about simply wouldn't work mechanically was very helpful. It only took about two one-hour sessions (and a big pad of tracing paper) to get to a much better solution than either of us had started with. His ability to make useful sketches on the fly might be unusual though.

Working together, with the architect doing sketches and explaining why/why not, is always the best approach to establish the basic concept for plans and exteriors. It usually doesn't take very long and helps to establish a sound direction and a good relationship. It's a wise idea to discuss this approach early with the architect.