By Standard Building Company. Published October 22, 2026.
If your project is bigger than a surface refresh, you will hire someone to design it and someone to build it. The question is whether those are the same firm. The traditional model, called design-bid-build, is to hire an architect or designer first, finish the drawings, and then send them to contractors for bids. Design-build puts design and construction under one contract with one firm. Standard Building Company is a design-build contractor, so we have a point of view, but this guide tries to lay out both models fairly, because there are projects where the traditional model is the right choice.
How design-bid-build works
You hire an architect. The architect designs the project through several stages, produces a permit set, and often helps you select a contractor by sending the drawings out for competitive bids. You then sign a separate contract with the contractor who builds it. The architect may stay on through construction to review the work and answer questions, or may hand off at permit.
The strengths are real. You get an independent designer whose only job is your design. You get competitive bids on a finished set, which can surface a lower price. And for complex or unusual architecture, a specialized architect may produce a design a builder-led firm would not.
The weaknesses show up in three places. First, the budget. Architects design to a program, and the price is not known until the bids come in, which is after the design is done. It is common for the bids to come in well over what the owner planned to spend, and the fix is a redesign, which costs more design fees and months. Second, the gap. When a detail cannot be built as drawn, or a condition in the house does not match the drawings, the owner is between two firms with two contracts. Third, time. Design, then bidding, then construction, in series, is the slowest path.
How design-build works
You hire one firm. That firm designs the project, prices it as it is drawn, pulls the permit, and builds it. At Standard Building Company that means a cost range at concept, a budget at design development, and a fixed written price at the permit set. The people who drew the plan are the people who have to build it, so the drawings are buildable, and when a condition in the house changes the plan, one firm resolves it.
The strengths: the price is known at every stage so the design is steered to the budget instead of the budget discovered at the end; there is one point of accountability; design and permitting overlap with pricing and ordering, so the project is faster; and the builder's knowledge of what things actually cost and how they go together is in the room from the first sketch.
The weaknesses: you give up competitive bidding on a finished set, so you are relying on the firm's pricing being fair, which is why a design-build firm should show its estimate in detail with allowances called out. And the designer is not independent of the builder, which matters more for highly architectural work than for a kitchen or an addition.
Cost compared
For most residential projects, design-build costs less in total. You pay one firm instead of two, the design is priced as it goes so there is no expensive redesign round, and construction starts with drawings the builder already understands, which means fewer change orders. A traditional architect's fee on a residential project is commonly a percentage of construction cost, often in the range of 8 to 15 percent for full services; design fees in a design-build firm are typically lower and are often credited toward construction.
The case where design-bid-build can cost less is a large, well-documented project with a clean set of drawings sent to several qualified contractors in a slow market. Competitive bids can shave the construction price. That advantage shrinks in a busy market, and it disappears if the first round of bids comes in over budget and the project has to be redesigned.
Timeline compared
Design-build is faster because the stages overlap. Pricing happens during design. Long-lead items are ordered at permit instead of after a bid is accepted. Permitting and construction planning happen together. On an addition or whole-home remodel, that commonly saves two to four months compared to a design, bid, then build sequence.
Accountability compared
This is where the two models differ most. In design-bid-build, when something goes wrong, the question of whose fault it is sits between the architect and the contractor, and the owner is the one who pays while it gets sorted. In design-build, the firm that drew it is the firm that built it, and there is nobody to point to. For a homeowner who does not want to referee, that is the main reason to choose design-build.
When the traditional model is the right choice
A few situations favor hiring an architect separately. If the architecture itself is the point, a distinctive custom home where you want an architect's full creative attention, a specialized residential architect may be the right lead, with a design-build firm or a GC building it. If you already have a trusted architect, keep them, and hire a builder who will work with them. If the project is large enough and the market slow enough that competitive bidding will produce real savings, and you have the time for the sequence, bidding a finished set can pay.
We work in all of those arrangements. We build from other architects' plans, we review and price plans you bring us, and we can provide design and permitting alone for owners who want to bid the construction out.
How to choose
Ask yourself three questions. Do you want the price known while the design is being made, or are you comfortable finding out at the end? Do you want one firm responsible for the result, or two? Is the architecture the point, or is a well-built, well-priced, on-time project the point? For most Northern Colorado remodels, additions, ADUs, and custom homes, the answers point to design-build. For a few, they do not, and we will tell you if we think yours is one of them.
The next step
If you are planning a project in Loveland, Fort Collins, or anywhere in Northern Colorado, the first meeting is a walkthrough where we tell you what the house needs and what the project will cost before anything is drawn. Call (970) 430-5884 or send the contact form.
Related services
- Whole-Home RemodelsGut renovations, floor plan changes, and full updates of older homes, designed and built by one firm.
- Custom HomesNew homes on your lot in Northern Colorado and the mountain towns, from site plan to keys.
- Design & PermittingConcept drawings, permit sets, engineering, and the submittal itself, done by the firm that will build it.
Standard Building Company works on homes only. For commercial, industrial, or public projects, contact Standard Development Company.