The first meeting with an architect is a conversation, not a presentation. The quality of that conversation shapes everything that follows — the design, the programme, the budget, and the working relationship. Clients who come prepared get better outcomes for a simple reason: the architect can spend the engagement responding to a real brief rather than establishing parameters that could have been provided at the start.
Bring the block and parcel number. Bring any survey documents. Know the zoning designation — it determines setbacks, height limits, and site coverage before any design work begins. If you haven't purchased the site yet, bring the listing information and any planning history you can find. An architect can tell you quickly whether the site has constraints that affect what you want to build — before you commit to buying it.
Residential construction in Grand Cayman currently runs between CI$300 and CI$500+ per square foot depending on specification. This is before professional fees, engineering, planning fees, or the Infrastructure Fund levy of CI$3.50–$4.50 per square foot that applies to all new permits.
Arriving with a budget that reflects Cayman's real construction costs means the design conversation can start in the right place. A brief with a CI$600K budget for a 3,000 SF house needs to be calibrated at the first meeting — not discovered as a problem six months into design.
Bedrooms, bathrooms, home office, pool, guest suite, accessibility requirements — the more specific the programme, the more specific the design response. "A four-bedroom house with a pool" and "a four-bedroom house with a pool, a home office, a guest suite with separate entrance, and a pool deck that functions as an outdoor dining room" produce different buildings at different costs. Both are valid briefs. Both need to be stated before the first sketch is drawn.
Construction start dates, move-in deadlines, school terms, lease expiry dates — any fixed timeline affects how the project is resourced and sequenced. Knowing the timeline upfront allows the architect to tell you whether it is achievable, and what would need to be in place for it to work. That is a better conversation to have in the first meeting than six months later when the programme has already been set.
Bring your site, your budget, and your brief. We will handle the rest — from first sketch through planning approval and construction.
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