A beautiful sunset today.

San Diego CityBeat has this article on the new breed of San Diego design-builders. A design-builder is where the architect and general contractor is one entity. Building a custom home using a design-builder is still rare, a typical custom home is build by hiring and contracting with an architect and general contractor separately. It happens that our house is being build by an architect-led builder. The stated advantages of a design-builder is because the architect and builder is a single accountable entity, the architect and build are always on the same page. When the architect and builder are separate entities, this isn’t always the case resulting in cost overruns, delays, and design compromises during construction. One argument I’ve heard again design-builders is that you lose the checks and balances between the architect and builder.