Architect vs. general contractor
Should you hire an architect or a general contractor first?
Hire the architect first if design matters most. Bring a builder in early to see a price before the plans are done.
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Building outside the Fort Worth area? Here’s how we draw plans for a house we never visit.
The difference
Architect vs. general contractor: what each one does
An architect designs your house and draws the plans. A general contractor builds it: hires and schedules the trades, buys the materials, and runs the job site. A design-build company does both under one contract.
| Who you hire | What you hire them for | When the build gets a price | Looking out for you during the build |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architect, hired on your own | Designing the house and drawing the plans | When builders bid the finished plans, unless you bring one in sooner | If it’s in their contract |
| General contractor, hired on your own | Building what the plans show | When it sees the plans, finished or still being drawn | That’s not its role; it runs the build |
| Design-build company | Designing it, drawing it and building it, under one contract | While the plans are still being drawn | Runs the build; there’s no separate designer checking it |
Design-build as Texas law defines it: Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 59.001(5). A designer overseeing the builder for the owner: Charles Pankow Foundation, Revisiting Project Delivery Performance (2018), p. 3.
On a house in Texas, you don’t legally need an architect at all, at any size. Here’s what Texas law requires on a house.
Ask us which one your project needsWhat the order changes
Who you hire first decides when your plans get a price
What really changes is timing. The later a builder sees your plans, the later you find out what they cost to build.
How finished your plans are when the builder is hired
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One design-build company, 0 to about 20% drawn
The builder is pricing the house while there’s still time to change it.
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A builder hired alongside your architect, 20 to 60% drawn
The builder checks the price while the plans are still being drawn.
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Architect first, then bids, close to 100% drawn
The builders price a finished set. If it comes back over budget, the plans get redrawn.
When each kind of builder is usually hired, as a share of the design complete, on the projects in the Charles Pankow Foundation’s 2018 report Revisiting Project Delivery Performance (Molenaar and Franz), p. 3.
Who’s responsible if the plans are wrong, in Texas
On a house, this law covers only design work Texas requires a licensed architect or engineer to do (§ 59.001(4)). That can include some foundations, when the slab sits on expansive soil. Houses are exempt from the Architects Act, and the engineering law exempts drawing plans for a private dwelling too, when the person drawing them doesn’t offer engineering services, with exceptions such as that slab (Tex. Occ. Code § 1001.056).
For the design work it does cover, if you hire the designer and the builder separately, the builder isn’t responsible for defects in plans someone else supplied. It reads:
“A contractor is not responsible for the consequences of design defects in… plans, specifications, or other design documents provided to the contractor by a person other than the contractor’s agents, contractors, fabricators, or suppliers, or its consultants, of any tier.”
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The builder still has to speak up. It must tell you in writing about any defect it finds, or should have found using ordinary diligence, before or during construction (§ 59.051(b)).
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Design-build is the exception. Under a design-build contract, that protection doesn’t cover the part of the design the builder was responsible for (§ 59.002(c)(1)).
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It can’t be signed away. The chapter says it “may not be waived” (§ 59.003).
Where no license is required, this chapter doesn’t decide who’s responsible for a mistake in the plans. Read your contracts for it.
This explains the statutes. It isn’t legal advice about your contract.
The “design-build saves money” claim
Is design-build cheaper than hiring an architect and a general contractor?
Not by much, according to a 2018 study of 212 large building projects that compared design-build with hiring an architect first and taking bids. Design-build was faster.
- Cost per square foot
- 0.3%
- Lower cost per square foot for design-build than for hiring an architect first and taking bids on the finished plans.
- Speed, design through completion
- 102%
- Faster design-build delivery, design through completion, measured in square feet per month.
Measured on 212 large buildings. The study has no category for single-family houses.
You’ll see “design-build costs 6% less” quoted a lot. That figure is from a 1998 Construction Industry Institute study. The 2018 report for the Charles Pankow Foundation ran the same comparison on newer projects, from about 10,000 to over 550,000 square feet: offices, industrial and high-tech buildings and multi-story housing, most of them publicly funded. It found the cost gap had narrowed.
What matters more for your budget: final costs tended to grow less when the builder came in early and the contract was open-book, like cost plus a fee. You can get that with an architect too, by bringing a builder in while the plans are still being drawn.
Molenaar and Franz, Revisiting Project Delivery Performance, Charles Pankow Foundation, December 2018, pp. 1, 7–8, 12 (Table 5 for the 1998 figure).
Who to hire first
Which to hire first, and when each one makes sense
Start with what you already have, and what you want most.
Hire an architect first if…
- You’ve chosen a designer for their work, and the design is the point.
- You want several builders to bid on one finished set.
- You want your designer checking the builder’s work during construction (put it in their contract).
Hire a general contractor first, or alongside your architect, if…
- You want a builder’s price while the design can still change.
- You already have finished plans and want them built as drawn.
Hire a design-build company first if…
- You want one company responsible for the plans and the build.
- You’d rather sign one contract than two.
- You’d rather not carry messages between an architect and a builder.
An architect is a good choice when you want an independent designer.
How we work
Hire us for the plans, the build, or both
Pick the one that fits: plans you can take to any builder, a build from plans you already have, or both from one team.
Plans only
Buy the drawings and nothing else if that is what you need. Permit-ready sets for less than an architect charges, from a team that builds what it draws.
Our sets range from $2,000 to $16,000: a simple single-room set at the low end, a permit-ready set for a large, high-end build at the top. See what moves the price
The build, from your plans
Bring plans from another firm or contractor, and we’ll price them and build them.
Both: design-build
We design it, draft it, and build it, so the plan you approve is the plan that gets built.
Priced cost-plus, every dollar visible.
We coordinate with outside engineers and get the stamped work into the permit set, so you get one path through the city and a stamp from someone licensed to give you one.
We build in and around Fort Worth. Our drafting and design travel much further; construction stays where we can show up.
A Benbrook custom home, designed and built by one team
Our team guided the project from floor planning and design through permitting, construction, and final completion.
See the house
How it works
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Meet Up. Bring whatever you have: an idea, a sketch or a finished set.
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Team Up. We tell you which way to hire us fits, and what it will take.
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Glasses Up. You move in, or you take your plans to the builder you choose.
Building new? See how a custom home goes with us. Hiring a builder here? Here’s what a general contractor in Fort Worth does with us.
Common questions
Questions about
architects, general
contractors and
design-build
Statutes read 2026-10-18 at the Texas Legislature’s site.
Are a general contractor and an architect the same thing? Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 59.001(5)
No. They’re two different jobs, and you can hire them separately or together. When one company takes both on, Texas law calls it a design-build contract: the contractor agrees to build the project and to be responsible for developing the plans it builds from.
Is it better to hire a general contractor who works with an architect? Charles Pankow Foundation, 2018, p. 3
It’s a good middle path. Your architect still designs the house and works for you, and a builder you’ve hired prices the plans while they’re being drawn. On the projects in a 2018 study of delivery methods, builders hired this way came in when the design was 20 to 60% complete. You keep an independent designer and see the cost before the plans are finished.
What do you give up with design-build vs. an architect?
Two things. You don’t get several builders bidding one finished set, and the people designing your house work for the company building it, so there’s no outside designer checking the work. If either matters most to you, hire your designer first.
Does design-build mean a fixed price? Charles Pankow Foundation, 2018, p. 3
No. A design-build contract can be a lump sum, or cost plus a fee, with or without a guaranteed maximum price. We bill cost-plus: the real cost of materials and labor plus a transparent markup.
Who’s responsible if the plans are wrong? Tex. Bus. & Com. Code ch. 59 · Tex. Occ. Code § 1001.056
In Texas, for design work the law requires a licensed architect or engineer to do, such as the engineering for some slabs on expansive soil, a builder hired separately isn’t responsible for defects in plans someone else supplied. It must still tell you in writing about any defect it finds, or should have found using ordinary diligence. Under a design-build contract, that protection doesn’t cover the part of the design the builder took on. Where no license is required, this law doesn’t decide who’s responsible. Check your contracts for it.
Design-build vs. general contractor: can you still get competing bids?
Not in the usual way, because there’s no finished set to hand around when you hire. What you can ask for is open pricing. With cost-plus, you can see exactly what’s material and what’s our fee.
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Get a price range while your plans can still change
Hire in the wrong order and you can pay for plans you can’t afford to build, then pay again to redraw them. We draw plans, we build from other people’s plans, and we do both, so we’ll point you to the order that fits, even when the answer is to buy plans only. The first conversation is free.
