01

FOR ARCHITECTS

A builder who protects your design

Most homeowners hire an architect first and a builder last. By the time the builder arrives, the drawings are finished, the budget assumptions are baked in, and the only tools left are subtraction and compromise. Fernhill joins while the design is still moving, so the budget shapes decisions instead of undoing them.

Most homeowners hire an architect first and a builder last. By the time the builder arrives, the drawings are finished, the budget assumptions are baked in, and the only tools left are subtraction and compromise. Fernhill joins while the design is still moving, so the budget shapes decisions instead of undoing them.

ON THIS PAGE

02 How we work with architects

03 Built work, credited

04 The Build Project

05 Reading for architects

02

HOW WE WORK

How we work with architects

01

Early pricing

We price the design as it develops, not after the drawings are done. At schematic you get order-of-magnitude ranges. At design development you get a line-item cost model with our assumptions written next to each line.

You find out what a detail costs while you can still shape it, and the budget conversation never turns into a redesign conversation.

02

Drawings reviewed as they develop

We review sets in progress and return written constructability notes. What we would price first, what the site makes difficult, and where a small drawing change saves a large field cost.

Fewer RFIs, fewer field surprises, fewer compromises made under schedule pressure.

03

One shared budget

The client sees one number, built with you in the room. The monthly cost report the client receives is the same one we work from, unedited.

Nobody gets handed a problem after months of design work, and nobody referees a fight between the drawing and the price.

04

No silent changes

We call you before anything changes in the field. Your detail gets built as drawn or renegotiated with you, with the cost difference on the table.

It never gets value engineered behind your back.

Pre-construction is scoped and priced on its own. Build with someone else and you owe us nothing.

Pre-construction is scoped and priced on its own. Build with someone else and you owe us nothing.

How pre-construction works →

Crew working on the opened roof edge during the Overstory structural remodel

The Overstory remodel opened to structure. The expensive surprises arrive on paper instead of mid-project.

A walkthrough conversation inside the Overstory remodel with finished surfaces protected

A walkthrough during the Overstory remodel. Decisions get made in the room, with the drawing and the price on the same table.

03

BUILT WORK

Built work, credited

Every Fernhill project page names its architect. Three recent projects:

Soaring Eagle custom home at dusk, architecture by LC Studios

Soaring Eagle

Loveland, Colorado

Architecture

LC Studios

→

Ridge House custom home at dusk, architecture by enContext Architecture

Ridge House

2026

Architecture

enContext Architecture

→

Vertical wood siding and glass entry of the Overstory remodel, architecture by HMH Architecture & Interiors

Overstory

Boulder County

Architecture

HMH Architecture & Interiors

→

04

THE BUILD PROJECT

“

Architects come on The Build Project to talk about fees, delivery models, and where projects go wrong. Guests have included Harvey Hine of HMH Architecture + Interiors, Adam Wagoner of High, Low, Buffalo, and Mike Piché of Piché Architecture.

Architects come on The Build Project to talk about fees, delivery models, and where projects go wrong. Guests have included Harvey Hine of HMH Architecture + Interiors, Adam Wagoner of High, Low, Buffalo, and Mike Piché of Piché Architecture.

Architects come on The Build Project to talk about fees, delivery models, and where projects go wrong. Guests have included Harvey Hine of HMH Architecture + Interiors, Adam Wagoner of High, Low, Buffalo, and Mike Piché of Piché Architecture.

Listen to The Build Project →

Alex Molkentin at the microphone, from the Modern In Denver feature on Fernhill

05

READING

Reading for architects

All Working With Architects articles →

Articles tagged Working With Architects, pulled in automatically as they publish. Send them to a client who is choosing a builder, or read them to check how we think.

Interior living space: a linear gas fireplace set in a white plaster surround below an abstract painting, and beyond it a floating stair of oak treads on blackened steel stringers with slender vertical balusters. Three log-round side tables stand on a black-and-white geometric rug between a grey sofa and a cord-woven lounge chair.

Pre-Construction

·

6

min read

Design-Build vs. Architect-Led: Choosing in Boulder

A gable roof sheathed in blue pro clima SOLITEX ADHERO 3000 weather barrier fills the foreground of a hillside build site, with ponderosa pines, a stone spoil pile, a contractor van and a partly framed second structure behind, and the snow-covered Front Range including Longs Peak on the horizon.

Working With Architects

·

6

min read

How to Choose an Architect for Your Boulder Custom Home

A bedroom with pale concrete-block walls and a dark stained walnut plank ceiling. Two black-framed windows look into dense evergreen planting; a bed with a brown coverlet sits beside a built-in bookcase, with an upholstered armchair and a timber chest against the far wall above oak flooring.

Working With Architects

·

3

min read

Why Residential Construction So Often Goes Wrong

06

FOR YOUR NEXT SET

Bring us a set in progress

Send drawings at any stage, napkin to permit set. We will tell you what we would price first and what we would flag, before anyone signs anything.

alex@fernhillbuildstudio.com

alex@fernhillbuildstudio.com

720-325-7456

How pre-construction works →