Design-Bid-Build Contract Relationship Essentially, the owner retains the Architect who in turn retains Consultants in order to prepare drawings and specifications. The Architect also assists the Owner in obtaining. bids/proposals. From the bids, the Owner will award a contract(s) for construction.
Many architecture firms rely primarily on referral and repeat clients. This is a passive approach to business development which could also be described as “Hope Marketing” because it's based on the idea that a steady stream of clients are going to call or walk in without much effort on your part.
Even for relatively small projects, this can take the best part of a day. Then it will be a few weeks before you see any drawings. For smaller projects, you are looking at approximately four weeks. For larger ones, it can be considerably more than that.
An architect must use a written contract when contracting to provide architectural services. The architect must provide the contract or use a written contract provided by the client (many public agencies and corporations use their own contracts).