1 contract.
Not 4.

The problem is never the drawings. It’s the seams between them.

Every commercial drawing set is really 3 or 4 sets produced by different professionals: architectural, structural, mechanical-electrical-plumbing, and sometimes civil.

The failures live at the seams—the rooftop unit placed over a bay that was never framed for it, the electrical room that lost its clearance when the floor plan shifted, the storm line that crosses a grade beam.

The same conflict has different consequences depending on when it is found:

“That choice looks administrative.
It is not.”

Same disciplines. Different responsibility.

Both structures can work. The practical difference is who manages the space between each consultant’s scope.

1 agreement. Feasibility through occupancy.

This is the core service: programming, concept design, design development, construction documents, permitting, and construction administration—with structural and MEP engineering engaged under our contract rather than yours.

You sign once. We hire, pay, and coordinate the engineers, and their conflicts are ours to resolve before the set leaves the office.

The delivery process moves through 6 phases, from understanding the site to appointing a construction team:

Planning ranges, not a project quote. Timing varies with owner decisions, project complexity, and jurisdiction workload.

Two things about that sequence are worth stating plainly. Design time is driven by how quickly decisions get made, not by how fast anyone draws — a schematic phase budgeted at six weeks runs to twelve when the site plan stays open. And construction documents are the cheapest place in the entire project to fix a problem: a dimension corrected during CDs costs nothing, the same dimension corrected in the field costs a change order. The engineering coordination happening inside our contract is concentrated exactly there, in the CD phase, which is why it pays for itself before ground breaks. Scope details are on the full architecture page.

The same structure, on a leasing clock

A tenant space earns nothing until it opens, which reshapes everything about how TI work runs. Landlord criteria get coordinated in the first week, not discovered at permit. The test fit happens before the lease is signed whenever possible, because the cheapest lease to fix is the one you have not executed. And the permit set is built to clear plan review on the first pass — a resubmittal cycle on a TI costs four to eight weeks of rent on a space that is already yours.

Houston-area jurisdictions differ enough that the same suite can permit in three weeks in one city and ten in the next; we set the review path before design starts, not after. More on tenant improvement.

When the team is already hired

Sometimes the design team exists, or the project is design-build, and what you need is not another designer — it is someone licensed reviewing what the team produces, on your behalf, with no stake in defending the drawings.

As owner's representative we level bids so you compare like against like, review invoices and change orders before you pay them, monitor schedule and quality on site, and translate the project into decisions you can actually make. The service exists because of an information asymmetry: most commercial owners build once every several years, while contractors and design teams do it every day. Details at owner's representation.

The cheapest problems are found before closing

Before you commit to a site, a feasibility study answers whether the building you intend actually fits — zoning and deed restrictions, parking and detention sized realistically, utility availability, and the code triggers that decide the budget before any elevation exists: occupancy classification, sprinkler thresholds, accessibility scope. The study costs a fraction of one month of carrying costs on a site that turns out not to work. See feasibility and due diligence.

What this is not

Temelar provides no construction services and holds no construction contracts — the general contractor is, and stays, yours. That separation is deliberate: an architect who also builds is checking their own work during construction administration. Ours is the independent set of eyes.

The honest limitation

Single-contract delivery does not make engineering free, and it does not make review queues shorter. The professional fees are broadly the same under either structure, because the engineers get paid regardless of who holds their agreements; the permit office does not care whose name is on the coordination. What changes is where the coordination failures land — inside the design team's fee, or in your construction budget as change orders. On that one variable, the structures are not close.

Frequently asked questions

Do I still need to hire my own structural or MEP engineer?

No. Under a full-architecture agreement we engage and pay the engineers, and their coordination is our responsibility. You hold one contract and one point of accountability.

Does single-contract delivery cost more?

The combined professional fees are broadly the same either way. What differs is who absorbs coordination failures: under separate contracts they typically surface as construction change orders billed to you; under one contract they are ours to resolve before the set goes to permit.

What size and type of projects does Temelar take on?

Office, retail, industrial, medical, hospitality, multifamily, and institutional work across Greater Houston and Texas — from single-suite tenant improvements to ground-up buildings. If a project is a poor fit, we say so at the first call.

Where to take this next

If you are weighing a site or a lease right now, the fastest useful step is a feasibility conversation — what governs the property is the first thing worth knowing, and it is not something to guess at. The sector pages set out how delivery differs by building type. When you are ready to talk specifics, send the site, the use, and the rough square footage through the contact page — you will get a straight answer on scope, schedule, and fit, usually the same day.