Architectural Designs

How would an architect go about getting their plans for a house made into an actual home?

My uncle wants to become an architect. He has made blue prints, a fully furnished 3-D model, and even a computer simulation of a really good house plan/design! How would he go about getting his plans made into an actual home?

Public Comments

1. First of all, if the house is to be within any City/Town limits, he needs to check with the Building Inspector to see if he needs a licensed architect to sign off on them. If he does not, he is still going to be miles ahead of the game to pay a licensed architect to look them over and be sure he hasn't missed anything. Once all plans, blueprints and schematics pass muster, all he needs to do is hire a competent General Contractor. To do this, he'd do well to contact a few architectural firms and ask for recommendations, then fully check out those recommended by asking them for client references, contacting the client references and asking them not only what they think about that Contractor's work, but how much cost overrun occured, how many delays (other than weather-related) occured, how many times something was red-tagged, etc. Once he settles on a General Contractor, he needs to ask the Contractor to contact some of his clients and see if he can let your uncle tour their homes to see the quality of his workmanship. Remember this: if your Uncle fails to get a licensed architect to look over his plans and, to be doubly safe, to draw them up for him and sign off on them, he's going to have one heck of a time arguing anything he has a disagreement with the Contractor about. The Contractor is going to have a very good point when he's able to say "Look, you're an amateur, no licensed architect even looked at these and now you're telling ME that i don't know what I'M doing?"
2. No one is too old to return to school. Architecture school can be a rewarding and fun time, Work for sure but rewarding. THEN he can be an Architect. There are only two states in the US that don;t require an Architectural degree to be a licensed Architect. Home plans are one thing and an architect is another. He could always be a home designer without a degree. Home design is a very very small part of Architecture. In fact, there are more homes designed by NON-architects than Architects. I would recommend he work with a local home builder he might know to get some experience designing before he jumped out on his own..... Good luck.