Smith Gordon Gill Architecture

Working With Smith Gordon Gill Architecture

Smith Gordon Gill (SGG) is a residential and light commercial architecture practice based in Palm Springs, California. The firm handles everything from full custom homes to renovations of mid-century structures, with a lot of its work sitting in the desert communities around Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, and Scershi. If you are looking at engaging them for a project, the process is fairly standard for a mid-size boutique firm. The typical project starts with a design consultation, usually lasting about an hour, where you walk through your site conditions, budget range, and programmatic needs. From there, they move into a schematic design phase, then design development, and finally construction documents. It is not a quick-turnaround shop, and honestly that is a feature more than a bug. Their drawings tend to be thorough, which means fewer RFIs once the contractor is on site. One thing people do not always realize about working with a firm of this size is that the lead architect is usually involved throughout, but the day-to-day communications may come from a project architect or even a senior designer. I learned this the hard way on a project in Thousand Palms where I was waiting on a specific detail that only the senior architect could approve. The project stalled for about a week because the wrong person in the firm was trying to sign off on it. The workaround was simple: I stopped routing everything through the project manager and started cc-ing the senior architect directly on emails that required design decisions, not just scheduling updates.

How Their Design Process Actually Works

SGG tends to work in Revit these days, moving away from their earlier AutoCAD-heavy workflows. This is important if you are a contractor or a homeowner who wants to do cost estimating early in the process. Revit models make quantity takeoffs more reliable than pure 2D drawings ever did. When you are reviewing their schematic packages, pay close attention to whether they are providing a full BIM model alongside the PDFs. Some firms will hand you pretty renderings and call it a day, but SGG has been fairly consistent about delivering usable models on larger projects. The construction document phase is where the real work happens. Expect approximately eight to ten weeks from signed schematic design approval to CD delivery on a typical 3,000 to 5,000 square foot desert home. That timeline shifts dramatically if you are dealing with a site that has unusual solar orientation, slope, or if the county has specific energy code requirements. Riverside County, which covers most of their project area, has adopted the 2022 California Energy Code at the time of this writing, and that changes how you detail windows and insulation. A lot of smaller firms fumble this part and end up going back through their drawings twice. SGG has been through this cycle before, so they tend to get it right the first time.

Common Pitfalls When Working With Them

The biggest issue I have seen repeatedly is the gap between the design aesthetic and what the local builder can actually execute within the client's budget. Their work has a clean, minimalist Desert Modern sensibility that relies heavily on exposed concrete, large glass panels, and custom millwork. A typical custom home builder in the Coachella Valley will quote you 20 to 30 percent more for that level of finish than a tract-style builder would. This is not a flaw in the architecture, but it is a friction point that catches a lot of people off guard. Another thing that trips people up is the fee structure. SGG does not publish their rates, and like most boutique firms, pricing is project-specific. You can expect a traditional percentage-of-construction-cost model, typically ranging from 10 to 15 percent depending on the scope and complexity. For a $2 million project, that is a $200,000 to $300,000 design fee. Some clients find this steep when they compare it to volume firms. The trade-off is the level of detail and the reduced likelihood of costly change orders during construction. Whether that trade-off is worth it depends entirely on your project size and how much you value predictability.

What to Do Before You Contact Them

Have your site ready. If you own a parcel, have a recent survey and a topographic map. If you are working with an existing structure, pull the original permit records from the city or county. SGG has mentioned in interviews that starting a project without these documents wastes about two to three weeks in the early phase. It sounds like a small delay, but when you are trying to meet a builder's schedule, those weeks stack up fast. Also define your budget range before the first meeting. I know this sounds obvious, but most homeowners do not have a realistic number in mind. If you tell them your budget is $1.5 million and your dream house costs closer to $3 million to build in that area, you are going to waste everyone's time. Get a rough construction cost estimate from a local builder first, then add the architect fee, permits, landscaping, and contingency on top. That gives you a number that actually means something when you walk into the consultation. If budget is a real constraint and SGG feels like overkill for what you need, there are other options. Smaller local firms in Palm Springs and Indio often charge 6 to 9 percent and can still produce solid, code-compliant drawings. They will not have the same design pedigree, but for a straightforward renovation or a modest new build, the difference may not justify the extra cost. Use SGG when the project has real design ambition, complex site conditions, or when you need the kind of documentation that holds up under strict plan check and post-construction review.