Most of our projects are in Baltimore County, but we've worked in Baltimore City, Harford, Carroll, and Anne Arundel Counties, as far away as Maine, Colorado and South Carolina.

Yes. The initial meeting with a client is complimentary, usually at the prospective client's home or the project site. Following that meeting, a fee proposal is developed, outlining the scope of the project and the services required to complete it.

The typical residential addition or renovation starts with a visit to the client's home to meet the client and determine their needs. A fee proposal is presented within a few days of that meeting. If accepted, the work begins with the documentation of existing conditions (measuring and photographing the areas of the house that will be affected by the project). That information, together with a list of the client's wants and needs, becomes the basis for the schematic design(s), which includes floor plans and elevations. Once the client has decided on a design for the project, the work enters the design development phase, during which enough construction information is added to the drawings to allow for preliminary cost estimating by several contractors. Those builders usually have suggestions for reducing costs, improving the process, and so on, which can be incorporated into the next phase of the project, construction documentation. In this phase, the construction drawings are completed in preparation for filing for a building permit and construction. The last phase of our work is construction administration, during which we are available to answer questions or make site visits during the construction process.

The length of time a renovation takes depends entirely on the scope of the project and the quality of the preparation for the project. For instance, a tiny bathroom can take forever if the selected tile or plumbing fixtures are not on-site when needed. However, it's important not to compare new construction timelines to renovation. Any time demolition is undertaken, and the protection of existing construction is considered, the project will take more time.

We generally provide a fixed fee for most or all of the phases of our work, which are broken down in our proposal. We find that that makes it easier for our clients to budget for their projects. However, sometimes, the scope of work has not been sufficiently defined to allow that, and the proposal is for work done on an hourly basis, at least until the scope is narrowed down.

This may seem obvious, but our clients tell us that what they value most about Hiser + Kopits Hiser Architects is that we listen. The foremost complaint I hear about other architects is that they don't seem to listen to what the client says about what they want. What I enjoy most is collaborating with my clients and their contractors. Working together to develop creative solutions to the client's residential dilemmas is really fun.