The consultation with your contemporary architect in San Francisco felt perfect. The architect had an impressive portfolio, the chemistry was good enough, and you left feeling confident about moving forward. But three months into the collaboration, something feels off.
You’re looking at fresh sketches and renders. But the house doesn’t feel like your house. This is a thing, and it happens all the time.
Why is that?
Here’s what probably happened: your architect might have asked you what you wanted but failed to understand how you actually live. The truth is, the average architect follows a predictable script. They want it easy. And you end up paying the price for a custom living space that falls short.
After 25+ years of designing luxury homes in San Francisco, I’ve learned that the real magic happens in the questions most architects never think to ask. These aren’t the obvious ones about budgets and timelines (though those matter, too). These are the deeper questions that reveal who you are and how you want your home to support the life you’re building.
The truth of the matter is that you can afford the home of your dreams. And you should get it without having to write a painful check to cover your inexperience.
You deserve better, so without further ado, here are the ten questions that separate an exceptional contemporary architect in San Francisco from the rest and why your architect should be asking every single one of them.
1. “What frustrates you about your current home?”
Why most architects skip this: It’s easier to focus on what clients want rather than what isn’t working. Plus, many inexperienced architects think their job is to make clients happy, not to dig into problems.
Why this question matters: Frustrations reveal opportunities that wish lists miss entirely. When someone says they want a bigger kitchen, that’s surface-level information. When they explain that their current kitchen forces them to walk around each other during dinner prep, or that there’s nowhere to put groceries when they come home from shopping—now we’re getting somewhere useful.
For instance, imagine building a home where your morning routine flows seamlessly from bedroom to coffee to shower, instead of the awkward dance you currently do around your partner. That kind of insight only comes from understanding what’s broken, not just what sounds nice.
This question also uncovers how urban design principles can solve daily frustrations. The right contemporary architect in San Francisco knows that we’ve got narrow lots, and space is precious. Understanding exactly where clutter accumulates or where traffic jams happen helps us design solutions that feel effortless.
2. “What’s your actual budget, and what happens if we exceed it?”
Why most architects avoid this: Money conversations are uncomfortable, especially in the honeymoon phase of a project. Your typical contemporary architect in San Francisco prefers to get clients into billable hours first and deal with budget realities later.
Why this question is crucial: Starting with construction costs as a black box sets everyone up for disaster. Getting ahead of financial parameters makes the entire design process efficient because every decision can be synchronized with your actual scope and budget.
The follow-up question—what happens if we exceed it—reveals whether you have flexibility or if the budget is truly fixed. This affects everything from material choices to the design approach itself.
How to figure out your construction budget (Link to feasibility study blog post)
3. “Let’s dive deeper into how you’ll actually use each space.”
Why lesser architects stop at surface level: It’s faster to hear “home office” and move on. Why complicate things with details?
Why depth matters: If you say you want a home office, an inexperienced architect might allocate space and call it done. But how will you actually use that office? Do you take video calls that require a professional backdrop? Do you need natural light to feel energized, or do you prefer the focus that comes with controlled lighting? How much equipment do you need to accommodate your needs? How do you want the space to make you feel when you walk in at 6 am or 10 pm?
For instance, imagine building a home where your workspace actually enhances your productivity instead of fighting against it—where every element, from the acoustics to the view to the storage, supports your best work rather than distracting from it.
This is where urban design in San Francisco becomes critical. We’re working with unique constraints—narrow lots, close neighbors, specific light patterns—and the only way to optimize these spaces is by understanding exactly how you’ll inhabit them.
4. “What are your goals for this project beyond the design itself?”
Why this gets overlooked: Most architects assume the goal is “good design” and leave it at that.
Why it’s essential: Some clients prioritize staying on budget above all else. Others care most about timeline. Some want to avoid surprises from the city planning process. Others want an architect who collaborates in a specific way or takes them through a particular process. Make sure that your contemporary architect in San francisco takes the time to go through all this with you.
These goals shape every aspect of how we approach your project. If timeline is critical, we’ll structure the urban design and permitting strategy differently than if budget flexibility allows for a more exploratory process.
5. “Have you gone through a construction project before?”
Why contemporary architects don’t ask this question: Because they know full well that the lion’s share of problems come from construction issues and they don’t want to expose the fact that they aren’t skilled at handling them. So design becomes the smoke and mirrors. And construction becomes the venue where fingers are pointed. Change orders occur. And YOU get billed for the pleasure.
Why this question is essential: The ability to advocate for the owners during the construction phase is one of the most essential, yet unsung and important tools in the architect’s toolbox. If you’ve survived a rocky construction process before, the right architect will be able to hear you and then demonstrate how pre-planning and oversight relieve your stress.
Ultimately, understanding your construction experience level helps us calibrate our communication style and set appropriate expectations. In other words, your insights help. But if you don’t have any experience, we become your advocate during the construction process and literally become your boots on the ground.
6. “How long have you lived in your current home?”
Why this seems irrelevant: What does move-in timing have to do with design?
Why it reveals critical information: If you just bought the house and haven’t lived there long, you may be unaware of potential problems that need addressing. Morning light patterns, noise from neighbors, how spaces feel during different seasons—these insights only come from actually living somewhere.
If you’re eager to remodel before moving in, we need to focus extra attention on discussing how the functions will actually work and how the house will adapt to your life changes. At this point, it pays to actually slow the process down a bit and a confident contemporary archtiect in San Francisco will have the guts to do so; and observe the residence in the sun, in the dark, during a rain storm, during the heat of summer, and so much more.
7. “Walk me through exactly how you use your kitchen.”
Why most contemporary architects in San Francisco generalize: Kitchens have standard functions. Why overthink it? Coffee. Eggs. Something in the oven for dinner. A microwave snack at 2 am, right?
Why specificity matters: What kinds of things do you actually need to store? What will live on your countertops? Do you prefer everything put away or easily accessible? What cuisine do you cook most often? Is your current refrigerator big enough, or do you dream of having proper storage for entertaining? Do you want to see into your pantry? How much stuff is in your pantry? Do you want a workspace in your pantry?
Do you both cook together or does one person cook while the other cleans? Do kids help with meal prep? Are there workflows that create bottlenecks in your current setup?
For instance, imagine building a home where cooking for friends feels effortless instead of stressful—where the flow from prep to cooking to serving to cleanup supports the kind of entertaining you actually want to do, not some generic idea of what a kitchen should enable.
8. “How will you actually furnish this room?”
Why architects skip this: Furniture is the interior designer’s job, right?
Why it’s essential for good design: This is the best way to figure out how big a room should be and how it should be laid out. We start with specifics: how many people will sit in your living room regularly? What size bed will you have? How many linear feet of book storage do you need?
Understanding your actual furniture helps us design spaces that work with your lifestyle rather than against it. It also informs urban design decisions about how spaces connect and flow.
9. “Why do you think you want that specific feature?”
Why inexperienced architects just add requested features: The client asked for a fireplace, so we design a fireplace. Simple.
Why the “why” matters: Often, clients request features because they think they should want them, not because they actually will use them. Someone might want a roof deck because it sounds impressive, but when you dig deeper, you discover they’ll probably never use it.
Or they want a fireplace because it seems cozy, but they only light fires once a year. Understanding the real motivation helps us either design that feature properly or suggest alternatives that better serve their actual needs.
Just like in your line of work… someone is paying you for your expertise. And you step up and deliver. You should 100% expect (and demand) the same from working with a contemporary architect.
10. “Tell me more about what you love in that inspiration photo.”
Why lesser architects just copy inspiration images: The client likes it, so we’ll replicate elements from it.
Why discussion beats copying: Inspiration images are incredibly helpful for narrowing down aesthetics, but we use them as conversation starters, not design templates. What specifically do you love about this image? The proportions? The light quality? The material palette? The way it makes you feel?
After discussing many images this way, patterns emerge that help us understand your aesthetic preferences at a deeper level. You might realize you’re drawn to natural materials but prefer clean lines, or that you love color but want it expressed through art rather than finishes.
For instance, imagine building a home where every material choice and design detail reflects your authentic style—not what you think you should like or what looks good in magazines, but what actually resonates with who you are.
Why These Questions Are Mission-Critical
When a contemporary architect in San Francisco takes the time to ask these deeper questions, everything changes. Instead of designing based on assumptions and industry standards, we’re designing based on your actual life, preferences, and goals.
The result is homes that feel inevitable—like they couldn’t have been designed for anyone else. Spaces that enhance your daily routines rather than working against them. Urban design solutions that maximize San Francisco’s unique opportunities while minimizing its constraints.
But here’s what surprises most clients: this process doesn’t slow down the design timeline. It accelerates it. When we understand exactly what you need from the beginning, we spend less time in revision cycles and more time refining details that truly matter.
Finding a Contemporary Architect in San Francisco Who Actually Asks
Not every contemporary architect in San Francisco can create beautiful spaces. Beware the architect that smiles and nods and doesn’t approach you with the curiosity that your investment deserves. The architect who asks a ton of questions, like the one’s above, are typically the one’s who care the most.
The difference lies in their willingness to dig deeper than surface-level requests and really understand how you want to live, and what will make your life more fun, efficient and connected. An architect who asks these questions—and genuinely listens to your answers—isn’t just designing a house. They’re designing a foundation for the life you want to build.
As an award-winning firm delivering unapologetic luxury for over 25 years, we’ve learned that the most successful projects begin with thorough conversations. Not because we like to talk, but we all know what happens when you assume…
Your dream home should feel like the most authentic expression of who you are and how you want to live. But that only happens when your architect cares enough to ask the right questions—and skilled enough to design solutions based on what they hear.
There’s no need to pay for a project twice. You’re now ahead of 99% of aspiring custom home owners out there and the next question you should really be asking yourself is who to talk to next…