Design-Build or a Separate Architect and Contractor: Which Is Better for a Los Angeles Remodel?

What design-build means

In design-build you sign one contract with one licensed general contractor, and that contractor is responsible for the design, the structural engineering, the permit, the construction schedule and the price. The drawings are produced by licensed architects and engineers the builder works with, under the builder's agreement, and they are drawn to a budget the builder has already measured on site. When the plans go to LADBS, the same company answers the plan-check corrections and then builds what it drew.

California law makes this straightforward for houses. Business and Professions Code §5537 allows a wood-frame single-family dwelling of two stories or less to be designed without an architect's license, which is why a contractor can carry residential design in-house; where the building department requires structural calculations, a licensed engineer stamps them, and for anything that needs an architect's stamp, a licensed architect provides it. The point of design-build is not to skip the professionals; it is to put them under one accountable roof.

What hiring an architect and a contractor separately means

In the traditional design-bid-build route you hire an architect first. The architect interviews you, draws the project, often takes it through plan check and then issues the drawings to several contractors for bids. You choose a builder, sign a second contract, and the architect may stay on to administer construction: review submittals, approve payments, answer questions from the field. Two licensed professionals, two agreements, two invoices.

That structure has real strengths. An architect who answers only to you can push a design further, run alternatives and bring an eye the builder does not have. The weakness is the gap in the middle: the price is not known until the drawings are finished and bid, and if the bids come back above the budget, the drawings go back for revision at your cost and on your calendar. On a 1950s Valley house that gap is where projects stall.

Design-build vs. architect + contractor at a glance

Who is responsible when something goes wrong?

This is the question that decides most people. In design-build, if a beam is undersized, a window does not match the elevation or plan check asks for a correction, the company that drew it is the company that builds it, and the fix is its problem inside the fixed price. In the two-contract model the same error becomes a conversation between the architect and the builder about whose fault it is, while you hold both contracts. Good professionals resolve it; the structure still puts you in the middle.

Either way, verify the licenses. A contractor's license is checked at cslb.ca.gov (Right Image Builders is CSLB #1021284); an architect's license is checked with the California Architects Board. A design-build company should be able to tell you, in writing, which licensed architect and which licensed engineer will stamp your drawings.

How does the cost compare?

A separate architect bills design as its own fee, usually tied to the construction cost, plus construction administration if you keep the architect through the build. Design-build folds design and engineering into the fixed price, so there is no second invoice and, more importantly, no redesign loop: the drawings are made to the budget measured at the first visit, not to a budget discovered at bid. On a kitchen, a bath, an ADU or a suite addition that is the larger saving.

Where a separate architect earns the fee is the custom project: a new hillside house in Sherman Oaks or the Hollywood Hills, a whole-home remodel that rethinks the plan, an exterior in a Glendale historic district or the Whitley Heights HPOZ where the design review board will look at authorship and detail. Those projects benefit from a designer who answers only to you, and we build from those drawings gladly.

How do permits and timelines compare?

The permit path is the same. LADBS (or the City of Burbank, Glendale or Beverly Hills) reviews zoning, structure, energy and the trades, and someone has to answer the corrections. In design-build the people who drew the set answer them, and construction scheduling starts while plan check runs: cabinets ordered, the crew booked, inspections planned. In the two-contract model the architect answers corrections, the bidding happens after the permit or in parallel, and the builder's schedule starts when the contract is signed.

The construction timelines on our pages apply to both: 5–8 weeks on site for a kitchen, 3–6 for a bathroom, about 5–8 months in all for a garage conversion, 9–14 months for a detached ADU, 3–6 months of construction for a ground-floor addition and 4–6 for a second story. What the two-contract route adds is the bidding period and any redesign; see how our process runs.

When a separate architect is the better choice

• A custom house, or a whole-home remodel that changes the plan so completely that it is one.
• A complex hillside design south of Ventura Boulevard or in the Hollywood Hills, where retaining, access and the Baseline Hillside Ordinance shape the building.
• An exterior under design review: a Glendale historic district, the Whitley Heights HPOZ, a Beverly Hills street with its own review.
• A project where you want competing design ideas before any builder is involved, or where the architect is part of why you are building.
• A commercial tenant improvement where the landlord's architect controls the shell drawings; see commercial build-outs.

When design-build is the better choice

• A kitchen or bathroom, where the design questions are layout, cabinetry, tile and systems, and the budget is the decision.
• An ADU of any type: the rules are set by state law, the drawings are standardized, and the value is in getting to the Certificate of Occupancy on one schedule.
• A room, suite or second-story addition that should read as original: the builder who matches the stucco and the roof pitch is the right party to draw them.
• A whole-home remodel inside the existing character of the house.
• Any project where you want one number, one schedule and one phone call when something needs deciding.

What to ask either way

Ask for the license numbers of everyone who will stamp or sign: the contractor (CSLB), the architect (California Architects Board) and the engineer. Ask who answers plan-check corrections and whether that time is inside the price. Ask whether the price is fixed and itemized, how change orders are written and priced, and what the deposit is; California caps it at $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract, whichever is less, and requires a written home improvement contract with the scope, the schedule and the payment terms. The contracts guide covers the rest.

What we recommend

For kitchens, bathrooms, ADUs, additions and whole-home remodels across the San Fernando Valley, Glendale and Burbank, design-build on one fixed-price contract: it is the structure that turns a planning range into a number you can sign before the walls open. If you already have an architect, or your project is the kind that should start with one, bring the drawings; we review them, price them line by line and build them, and the engineering and permit coordination stay inside our contract. The hiring section of our FAQ answers the other questions people ask before they choose.

Sources (checked October 2026): Business and Professions Code §5537 (an architect's license is not required to design a wood-frame single-family dwelling of two stories or less); Contractors State License Board: Check a License, "What You Should Know Before You Hire a Contractor" and the home improvement contract requirements of Business and Professions Code §7159; California Architects Board: license verification for architects; Business and Professions Code §7159 (home improvement contracts: required contents, deposit cap, progress payments, written change orders, right to cancel); Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, plan check and permit information; Right Image Builders service and neighborhood pages (2026 planning ranges, timelines, permit authorities). Cost figures are Right Image Builders' 2026 planning ranges from its service and neighborhood pages.