From Concept to Construction: Understanding the Stages of Your Hospitality Design Project

Pre-Design: Setting the Foundation for Success

Every transformative hospitality project begins with thorough groundwork that shapes everything that follows. The pre-design phase establishes clear parameters while exploring the conceptual narrative that will drive your project’s development.

This initial stage includes comprehensive programming to define spatial requirements, operational needs, and project goals. We analyze your site’s opportunities and constraints, whether working with existing buildings or new construction. Most importantly, we develop the conceptual vision and narrative—the story your space will tell and the connections it will foster among guests and staff.

This foundation-setting phase requires active client engagement to articulate goals, operational requirements, and brand vision. The investment in thorough pre-design pays dividends throughout subsequent phases.

Schematic Design: Bringing Concepts into Form

With a clear vision established, schematic design translates concepts into initial spatial arrangements and architectural expression. This phase explores multiple approaches to realize your vision before narrowing to a preferred direction.

Initial space planning establishes the fundamental layout, addressing flow, adjacencies, and operational efficiency. Concept visualization brings the design to life through sketches, renderings, and material studies that illustrate the intended guest experience. Preliminary consideration of building systems ensures the creative vision aligns with technical realities.

Your feedback during schematic design is crucial as we refine the direction that will guide all subsequent development. This phase concludes with alignment on a clear design direction that balances vision, functionality, and feasibility.

Design Development: Refining the Vision

Design development adds depth and specificity to the approved schematic direction. This phase involves detailed resolution of spaces, materials, and systems—transforming broad concepts into precisely defined elements.

Space planning advances to detailed room layouts with furniture placement, equipment specifications, and operational considerations. Material and finish development refines the aesthetic direction, establishing specific palettes that reinforce your brand experience. Systems integration coordinates architectural elements with structural, mechanical, and electrical requirements.

This phase requires timely client decisions on finishes, fixtures, and equipment to maintain project momentum. The outcome is a comprehensively resolved design ready for technical documentation.

Gathering Documentation

Construction documentation translates the refined design into technical drawings and specifications that communicate all requirements to contractors. This highly detailed phase ensures your vision can be accurately priced, permitted, and built.

Technical documentation includes precise drawings and specifications for every element of the project. Regulatory compliance addresses building codes, accessibility requirements, health department regulations, and other jurisdictional approvals. The bidding process uses these documents to select qualified contractors and establish accurate construction costs.

While less visually exciting than earlier phases, thorough documentation prevents costly construction ambiguities and ensures your design intent is clearly communicated to builders.

Construction Administration

Throughout construction, we serve as your advocate to ensure the built result faithfully reflects the design vision. Our involvement during this phase helps navigate the inevitable challenges that arise during building.

The architect’s role includes regular site visits, responding to contractor questions, reviewing submittals and shop drawings, and ensuring quality control. We help navigate field changes when existing conditions or unforeseen circumstances require adjustments. The process culminates in project completion and handoff, with thorough documentation of the finished project.

The Journey from Vision to Reality

The path from concept to construction is a progressive refinement of your vision—each phase building upon previous work while adding new layers of detail and resolution. By understanding this evolution, you can participate more effectively in the process, making informed decisions at each stage.

At Remick Architecture, we guide hospitality clients through this journey with transparency and partnership, ensuring that the completed environment authentically delivers the meaningful experiences and connections envisioned from the start.