What is the most important investment you will make in your home?
Is it the land? The construction? The craftsmanship? The materials and finishes?
Each is a substantial commitment. Yet none of them, on its own, is what you hope to live with.
What you hope to live with is something less tangible.
The morning light that draws you into a room.
The quiet comfort of a space that feels entirely your own.
A table where friends gather and conversations continue long after dinner.
The connection between indoors and the landscape beyond.
The places where we feel at ease, where relationships deepen, where memories accumulate, and where we develop a sense of belonging.
These are the qualities that transform a house into a place.
None of them can be purchased individually. They emerge from how every decision is brought together — and that is the work of architecture.
And bringing them together begins long before design.
The Whole Investment
The cost of construction is not the total cost of creating a home.
Land acquisition, architecture, engineering, construction, interior environments, landscape, furnishings, technology, finance and contingency all represent commitments of capital.
But these investments are not independent. Architectural decisions establish how the site is occupied, how spaces relate to one another, how the building responds to its environment, how materials and systems are integrated, and how the finished residence will be experienced.
A remarkable site may justify a greater investment in land. An intelligently organized floor plan may deliver a richer living experience without additional square footage. A better building envelope may improve overall comfort, resilience, and long-term operating performance.
Each decision influences others. Each has financial consequences.
Architecture may represent a relatively small share of the total investment, yet its influence extends across virtually all of the individual investments.
Every allocation is a decision about how you want to live.
Breaking down the investment
One vision. The whole investment.
How architecture relates to the financial commitments that bring a residence into being.
Illustrative total project investment100%
Construction, including builderLabor, materials, systems, general conditions, overhead and profit60.0%
Land acquisitionThe site, including brokerage20.0%
Architecture · HBTgDefinition, design, documentation and construction-phase services7.2%
Other consultantsEngineers, survey and acoustics1.8%
Interiors and landscapeInterior curation, furnishings, art and landscape architecture6.0%
ContingencyOwner's reserve for the unforeseen5.0%
Architecture relative to construction
12%
Illustrative architectural fee on the full construction contract
Architecture within the whole
7.2%
Architecture's share of the total investment shown above
A relatively small share of the investment. A defining influence on the whole.
Define Before Design™
Illustrative allocation for a new residence, including land. These are percentages, not a market average or a quotation. The architectural fee in this example is calculated on the construction contract only, not on land or the total. Financing, taxes and other acquisition costs are not included. For a property you already own, land drops out of the total, so the remaining categories form a larger share of a smaller whole.
Understanding Architectural Investment
Architectural fees are influenced by more than the size or construction cost of a residence. The scope of services, the complexity of the design and build efforts, the level of customization, existing conditions, and the degree of involvement during construction all affect the professional effort required.
Renovations frequently introduce concealed conditions, structural limitations, existing systems, and code-compliance challenges. They may warrant a higher fee percentage than new construction, even when their budgets are smaller.
For planning purposes, the explorer below illustrates four levels of architectural service: approximately 8–10% of construction cost for Essential, 10–14% for Integrated, 14–18% for Signature, and 18–20% for Private Commission. Higher levels generally involve more detailed development and coordination, and greater involvement during construction, as defined in the agreement. These are illustrative ranges, not quotations. Narrowly defined permit-documentation assignments are scoped separately.
To make that tangible: an illustrative 12% fee on a $1,000,000 construction contract is approximately $120,000. The percentage is an example, not a standard fee. The appropriate level depends on the project and the responsibilities it calls for.
Putting Architectural Fees in Perspective
We readily recognize the value of professional services in a residential project. A real estate brokerage may receive a negotiated commission of approximately 5% of a property's price. A general contractor may apply a markup of 25% to direct construction costs—equivalent to 20% of the final contract—to cover management, overhead, risk, and profit.
Architectural fees have similarly been calculated as a percentage of construction cost for more than a century. Today, comprehensive residential architectural services commonly range from about 10–20%, depending on scope and complexity.
These percentages are calculated on different bases and compensate different responsibilities. Understanding their value requires looking beyond the numbers.
Consider a professional football team.
The owner establishes the objectives and provides the capital. The head coach develops and directs the season-long strategy—not simply the next game. Supported by offensive and defensive coordinators, position coaches, and other specialists, the coaching staff evaluates performance, responds to changing conditions, and continually refines the strategy necessary to pursue a championship.
The quarterback leads execution on the field, translating the coaching staff's game plan into action, while individual players perform their specialized responsibilities.
A residential project follows a similar structure. You are the owner. Your architect is the head coach, supported by a team of design and technical specialists. The general contractor is the quarterback, responsible for executing the construction plan, while the trades carry out the work.
A capable quarterback may execute a play brilliantly, and individual players may perform their assignments flawlessly. But do those players see the season-long strategy, or are they focused on the immediate task before them?
Their responsibility is to execute the play. The coaching staff's responsibility is to understand how every play, every game, and every decision contributes to the larger objective.
The same distinction exists in architecture. Individual trades may deliver exceptional workmanship, and a contractor may coordinate construction with great skill. Yet neither is responsible for defining and maintaining the overarching architectural vision.
That is the architect's role: to see the whole, anticipate the consequences of individual decisions, and maintain the strategy that connects the owner's investment to the intended outcome.
A project can be constructed competently, completed on schedule, and delivered within budget without necessarily achieving the larger aspirations that inspired it.
Are we simply trying to finish the game, or are we building a team capable of winning the championship?
Drawings communicate decisions; architectural judgment gives those decisions purpose, direction, and coherence.
The architectural fee is one part of the investment. The decisions it supports influence nearly every other part—and ultimately the value of what is created.
The explorer below lets you examine these relationships in the context of your own project.
HB Thompson Group · Investment Explorer
Every investment is a choice about what matters.
How much to devote to the site, the building, its performance, and the architectural thinking that brings everything together are not merely financial decisions. They shape the home you will ultimately experience.
Explore how these investments relate to one another, and consider where architectural judgment might make the greatest difference.
The value of architecture is not measured only by what is drawn, specified, or constructed. It begins with recognizing possibilities that may not otherwise be apparent.
One couple had found the farm they had long hoped for, but not the house: a dated 1950s Cape Cod. The only place they could imagine a primary bedroom addition was along the side of the house, with no view at all. Studying the site, and how they wanted to live there, revealed another possibility: a primary suite with a balcony overlooking the barn and pastures. The same need for space became the reason the house now feels like theirs.
A client may arrive with a particular solution in mind: an addition, a larger room, a different floor plan, an entirely new home. Yet the first solution is not necessarily the one that will best serve the life they wish to create. Architectural judgment means questioning those assumptions, understanding what matters most, and directing the available investment toward a more meaningful result.
Sometimes the greatest value lies not in adding more, but in adding the right thing.
Define Before Design™
At HB Thompson Group, we believe great design never starts with design.
It begins by understanding what makes a place worth belonging to, caring for, remembering, and passing on.
The most important question isn't what you want to build. It's what you want your life there to become.
Our first conversations are not about selecting a style or determining square footage. They are about understanding you.
How do you live today? What would you like to change? Where do you feel most at ease? How do you gather with others? What do you hope this home will make possible ten or twenty years from now?
These conversations can reveal opportunities that a conventional project brief may never uncover. From that understanding, we define the project's purpose, priorities, investment expectations, and the roadmap that guides design and construction.
Defining the project is only the beginning. The vision must be developed into architecture, documented for construction, and carried through the decisions that arise as the residence takes physical form.
That is why our practice is organized as Project Definition · Architecture · Project Build. Architectural services during construction and HBTg's role as builder are distinct responsibilities; which of them a project includes is defined at the outset.
The most consequential decisions often occur before the first line is drawn.
A Place Worth the Investment
An exceptional home is not measured solely by its size, construction cost, or the expense of its finishes.
It is measured by the quality of life it makes possible, its relationship to the place it occupies, and the value it continues to provide over time.
The objective is not simply to build within a budget. It is to create a place worthy of the investment.