We started with describing our wants, needs and wishes. He returned with very basic concepts for 10-12 general layouts. We picked three that we liked (two were similar and we liked half of each to be combined into one). he came back with the two somewhat more fleshed out plans. we then focused on one and have ben dealing with it for a while now. We have gone back and forth via e-mail on small changes. The entry and a small 4person seating area need a little more refinement. Big changes are usually in person meetings. we are getting pretty close now. We have had 6 or more in person meetings. Hope that helps.

We did roughly this:

Meet at site, discuss house and yard use in relation to site.

Email back and forth a few times, Houzz idea books to get a feel for what we like.

3-4 hour sit down sketch meeting (ARG calls it a charette) with lots of trace and final result of this session is very close to house as built.

Lots of tweaking and details with local architect after that.

[Edited to add: before getting our property the design concept architect suggested looking at layouts and photos and making lists so we would have a better idea of what we wanted. I lurked on this site for a bit ;-)]

We were remote. After we selected the architect we met for several hours. We completed some homework. He gave us 3 concept sketches. We picked our favorite one.

From that we got a more detailed drawing, but it still wasn't a formal plan. This one probably went back and forth "a few" times by email.

The first (not sure what it's called) 'finished' plan - with Floorplan and elevation - my spouse didn't like. But had we stuck with that, the house would have been more in line with the budget.

Once we got to a completed set and identified selections, we paid for a formal estimate. As a result of that we made some non-trivial changes to cut about 10% from the cost.

One more walk through but no structural changes just for interior stuff.

That's when we gave the go ahead to create the construction documents.

Two points:

#1. Changes have consequences. Sometimes these are not aparent at first. We went back and forth a lot on the master bath / closets. I don't think we ended up at the right place.

#2. When we shaved off that 10% we lost some volume and architecture. 2 years later I wish I could buy that back. But since it was a cash build and we were determined not to make the mistake of spending too much, we were very rigid.

It was an interesting process heh. Good luck!

We did very much the same as Oaktown.

Initial meeting in his office to discuss generalities, mostly about how he works and fees.

Meeting at site, walked all acres, discussed general lifestyle while there as to what our inside/outside activities look like and expectations for future use. Zeroed in on views we wanted to highlight from inside the house, got excellent suggestions at that time that tweaked our initial ideas.

Meeting(s) at office, began with bubbles and lots of discussion, a couple of very rough floor plan sketches which then yielded a couple of rough designs, one of which checked all our boxes and became our starting point.

From there we started working design specifics, altering dimensions and walk paths. Some of that continued right into the build process with minor tweaks that we made on the fly but we did owner/builder and had that flexibility.

We had email communication but our in person meetings were very productive and left little to adjust. It was more a matter of giving us time to sit with the plan and changes and not have to make snap decisions. From interview to permit approval was under 5 months but I believe we're more the exception than the rule. Part of that is DH being in the construction industry, part being at a stage of life where we are experienced about what we want and how we live, and part is living in an area where the permit process moves smoothly.

Our process sounds similar to the others. Met first for him to see the lot and neighboring houses. Discussed roughly what we wanted in a layout, what we liked/disliked about our current house and any must-haves. Met a second time in person to drive around our neighborhood and nearby 'hoods to see other custom homes being built to show him style wise what we liked and disliked. This also gave him an idea of the variety of homes that are going up around us....craftsman, Victorian, farmhouse, Tudor, ranch, modern, really anything and everything would have fit!

A couple of weeks later, he emailed a floorplan and elevations. I did not like it at all at first! I nit-picked everything about it and sent him a list of changes back. Another few weeks later, he sent two additional floor plans that incorporated my changes. Well, I didn't like those any better and started studying all three for comparison. I realized then that I actually liked his original plan the best and he had really incorporated most of our must haves. It just looked so different from the standard stock plans, that I couldn't wrap my brain around it.

So back to the original plan we went and made tweaks from there. Shaved off some square footage, layout of the kitchen was changed (thanks Kitchens forum!), and mudroom and laundry were adjusted to be separate rooms vs combined.

We met a third time in person to go look at houses he had done (still under construction), so he could show us various window styles, door styles, staircases, mudroom layouts, etc. so we could visually see a few things we were going back and forth on. After that, it was all minor tweaks such as window sizes, double hungs vs casements, exterior cladding and interior door swings. I think our final version was version 9. So if he was keeping track accurately, then 9 would be our number. No clue if that's normal or not since this is the first time we've worked with an architect.

Time from first meeting to final CD set was 9 months. Again, no clue if this is normal or not. He was extremely busy and was doing our project as a friend so ours may have fallen to the bottom of his priorities.

All really helpful, thanks!!

The meat of our plan is mostly the same. We did add about 200 sf to the great room. We've been fine tuning for about 8 months, with about half a dozen revisions. The thing that has really helped us, is seeing things in 3d. I thought this was overkill, at first, but it helps so much to see windows and doors and flow in a 3d model.

Because our architect is in another state, we haven't had many face to face meetings. We met once at his home, and once at our lot where he spent the day taking photos and measurements. We went through a pretty detailed questionnaire on our wants and needs. We got one rough sketch, but I think he said that was atypical for how he works. The first plan he sent us was pretty concrete and detailed and because we were happy with it, we have fine tuned that.

I try not to think about all the trees that gave their lives in planning our house. For paper that is.

First visit to site to talk and sit down to discuss wants, needs and would be nice to haves. Discuss style likes and dislikes. Showing pictures of things we like/dislike. And of course budget. ours was an all cash build.

First set of plans. Many things discussed and dismissed. Reconfigured. Contractor there, very basic discussion of costs. Reboot.

Second set of plans. More things dismissed, relocated, resized.

Third set of plans, really close, a few changes made. Contractor there, another basic discussion of revised costs.

Fourth and final set of plans except some minor reconfigurations of kitchen area.

There were phone calls, emails and visits to site with architect and contractor within the time period of first meeting and final plans.

kayce03's comment jogged my memory - I had forgotten the 3D. I added the Autodesk3D software to my computer that our architect uses and it allowed us to 'walk around the entire outside, into any doorway and through the house' as we were developing the plans. We could see how the sun would track through the house at various times of day and in different seasons - VERY helpful. It also allowed us to see the actual sight lines and could be adjusted from sitting to standing positions - because it's different walking in the front door then it is sitting on a sofa in the living room.

We were also remote and worked with our architect over about a 20 month period whenever we were in town -- probably about 8-10 times -- with some, but minimal, email conversations in between. Out first meeting was just a discussion in which I did show him my drawings for flow. His first rough hand drawn plan incorporated the general idea, but he had worked his magic, really only moving one room (for the better), but rescaling, shifting, etc. in ways I couldn't imagine. We loved it! The rest were refinements with one bigger change when DD and SIL (it's a multigenerational duplex) decided that they wanted their master to face the creek rather than the front with a view to ski mountain as they had originally said. We started the process in Sept. 2014 with the first meeting and the final plans are dated June 1, 2016.

Though my basic concept remained the same from initial crazy 3 floor concept in Jan 2015 to an almost single level version which was used for permit submission in Sept 2016; there was much back and forth between me and my DW since I was the designer and my DW was my primary customer, despite I got away with a lot :)

Pine baron she asked about people who worked with an architect.

That is so funny.

My record is 35 different renditions with my client.

I am so glad I never had any inclination--nor sufficient talent--to consider architecture as a career! It sounds more akin to psychological counseling than artistry.And catering for a living to the whims of people with no taste but firm convictions....

Thirty.... five....

I'm trying to wrap my head around that and mentally promise to do my utmost not to be "that client."

We did a 4-hour design charrette with the architect team, followed by a 20-minute site visit. Then another 4-hour design charrette, after which we were basically all set. After that was sent for bid, we had 2 brief meetings to make a few small changes, sacrificing some wow-factor elements to rein in the budget. Once the build began, we made a few slight changes--for example, the way excavation worked out, it cost under $2000 to add a full bathroom to the guest room, which seemed like a no-brainer.

The design charrettes saved so much time, misunderstanding, and back-and-forth. I couldn't believe how much we accomplished in those two meetings!

"35 different rendition with my client..." Which is why I always did schematic design on an hourly basis, with a fixed fee for completion after the clients approved the schematic design.

The charrette approach to schematic design is a very good, effective approach.

As Arialvetica wrote above, I use a charrette approach. For local design all conceptualizing is done in a face to face design session with the client an integral part of the process. It minimizes the '"back and forth," meaning your architect showed you a plan, you proposed changes, he/she modified it, you asked for more changes, the architect chaned it again". I can float an idea and draw it up and get owner reaction right there in lieu of guessing and involving possible "back to the drawing board" stuff. No spectators are allowed because everyone is an active participant. I wrote about the process in a colleagues blog "Life of an Architect" here http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/design-in-a-day/ and put another on this site a while back here...please scroll down to my photo heavy 5/12/16 post http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3887104/what-should-i-expect-from-my-architect-long?n=22 This one was like 3 sessions over the course of around 4 weeks.

Excellent approach, ARG. Consumers, who wait to get a set of plans from a "designer" and then have to wait 6 weeks for exterior elevations, should pay close attention...!

Virgil, our architect operates the same way. We were on an hourly during the schematic stage and considered the estimated gas with the architect as part (almost all) of your entertainment budget on our trips/vacations out there. I don't recall exactly, but I think we spent 10-12k in that phase before moving on to fixed fee for the later phases. I think goal was about $50k. As an hourly biller myself, I was cost consciousness in taking up his time with minutiae and silly stuff, but at the same time wanted to spend rhe time it took to get things right before moving on. Well worth the time and money! He still consults a bit as we build, but so minor he hadn't been billing for it. He is doing a couple other homes in our subdivision right now, so he keeps a friendly eye on our progress. Just last week he asked us to consider changing the grading plan out back because he thought it would look better (and honestly less expensive). We agreed.