Heat pumps now outsell gas furnaces in the U.S. by the largest margin ever recorded. New codes, rising gas prices, and advances in cold-climate technology have made all-electric construction a mainstream reality, not just a coastal trend. Here is what building electrification actually means for the architect’s drawing set, and why it has to be part of the pre-design conversation.
The questions that determine whether a building project succeeds are rarely the ones clients know to ask at the start. After more than a thousand church projects and twenty-five years of practice, UNITE has learned that the most valuable thing an experienced firm brings to the first conversation is not a solution. It is a better set of questions.
Most owners assume that getting the drawings done is the finish line. It is not. The period between completed construction documents and an issued building permit is one of the most consequential and least understood phases of any project, and how well you navigate it determines when your contractor can actually start.
Passing inspection does not mean a building is insurable. Insurers are now the ones setting the real design standard for churches, hotels, and commercial properties in weather-exposed regions, and the gap between code minimums and insurability is only growing.
Most owners assume hiring an architect is the first real decision on a building project. How the project gets delivered, through design-bid-build, CM at risk, or design-build, is decided earlier than that and shapes risk, cost, and schedule for everything that follows. Here is how each method works and how to choose the right one.
Vacant retail boxes, tired offices, and aging warehouses are increasingly becoming churches, campuses, and community spaces. Here is why adaptive reuse has gone mainstream, where it saves real money and time, and the early investigation that separates a sound opportunity from an expensive surprise.
There is a particular silence that falls when the construction bids land well above budget. How a firm responds in that moment reveals what kind of partner you actually hired. Here is how we treat an over-budget bid as a design problem, not just an accounting one.
Most organizations buy the land first and call an architect second. The most consequential decisions in a building project are made before a deed is signed. Here is the feasibility work that protects everything that comes after it.
Mass timber has moved from architectural curiosity to credible construction strategy. Nearly 2,800 commercial and institutional mass timber projects are now underway in the U.S. Here is what developers, church leaders, and institutional owners need to know before evaluating it for their next project.
There is a meaningful difference between an architecture firm that produces drawings and one that genuinely thinks through problems with you. Understanding that distinction before you hire can determine whether a project succeeds or stalls when complications arrive.
