Casa Architecture

02/11/2026

CAD and dimensioning for construction plans: CAD makes it very tempting to dimension every single aspect of construction plans, but it's important to realize that differences in real buildings and how they are designed occur as well as differences between any as-designed and even field measured and reality also exist - you don't catch every off-perpendicular or crooked aspect of a building and it makes drawing spaces crazy if you did. I ran into what seems to be a crooked demising wall, but if a crew does to lay out the space and you've only given them full dimension lines on either side, they won't wind up in the same space at the far end - they just wont'. So you give them the overall dimension in one place, along with any jogs along the way, then you fully dimension from either end to the "flex space" - spaces where the exact dimension isn't crucial. This funnels any minor disagreements between the dimensions and reality to the place it matters least. I was taught this years ago in Chicago at my first job and it's still true - you want to draw something that can be built and only get tight on the dimensions where you have to - leaving some wiggle room rather than having to adjust the measurements all over the place if the actual field conditions or field measures are off just a bit. "Align" is another good way to handle uncertain measurement areas, or "equal" and this sets what you want in the layout without getting too far into precision that will just delay the layout and build-out. (I do typically do the "equal" as measurements - unless it's the flex space.)

Send a message to learn more

02/08/2026

Work is brisk now - as it should be this time of year - which is nice because the political chaos of last year left a lot of businesses unwilling to look at expanding their business and people unwilling to go out on their own. Now, people seem to have adapted. Landlords are starting to do more with vacant space because they feel more optimistic someone will come along and rent it. Things were SUPER quiet last year.

Send a message to learn more

11/14/2025

Work is slow but steady - about right for this time of year. A lot of people I am working with want to explore other options on their commercial plans, which is super easy when work is slower.

Send a message to learn more

06/12/2025

Back in the 1800s through the mid 1900s, the sidewalk outside a shop or even an office was sometimes set with items for sale or other promotional displays. As the economy changed and population density grew, it became less useful and a greater risk to put up outdoor displays. This matters because some older buildings are still using a rentable area that includes part of the sidewalk outside in front - especially if it's a covered walkway.
This might make sense for a restaurant that will be putting seating out front, but for other businesses that won't use that space, even a gross square footage shouldn't include that area for your use. It's good to have a scaled, dimensioned floor plan and confirmation of the BOMA rentable (gross conditioned) and BOMA usable square footages. These do include half of the demising wall area on either side (if you have them on both sides) and gross conditioned does include the adjacent exterior wall widths, but that's minor compared to the square footage outside in the front of your space.
Over time, the tenant demising shifts and you also want to be sure you're not paying for space that isn't even part of your space. You might still be paying pro-rata of some common elements, but paying for part of the adjacent tenant's storeroom that used to include space for your suite (but no longer does) isn't good. You also want to confirm common areas are still truly shared or common - some may have been fenced in for use of someone else or rented out to others, so they are of no benefit to you and the landlord is already being paid for those areas - if they are not collecting rent on something that is no longer part of your suite or part of the shared area of the building/complex, that's the landlord's problem - not yours.
With changes in how properties are managed, often the old on-site office and on-site maintenance workshop are now rented rather than common area or admin areas. In one case, tenants in one building were still paying a pro-rata share of a maintenance building that had been torn down, another part of the center built in its spot and that addition fully rented out to tenants. But the same numbers had been in the leases for decades.

Send a message to learn more

05/01/2025

There is something to be said for using an equipment supplier for your restaurant build-out. A lot of people want to buy everything on-line, but they don't know what they don't know and they can get burned having to buy a replacement for items that don't have cut-sheets when they will be required. If you can get a fabulous deal from an overseas manufacturer who makes "the same things" for American companies, if that similar item shows up without any cut sheets, it won't pass inspection - ever. Manufacturer and Model Number are used to look up cut-sheets for most equipment, but for an manufacturer who didn't have them made up, there's nothing. For items with only a drain or drain and water supply, if the manufacturer provides the sizes for those connections, where they occur on the item and the dimensions, you might be OK. But for power supply of any kind, you need the cut sheet. The cut sheet will include the indications of the proper testing agencies, the cooling load, the location of connections and the sizes. Clearances are also good. It has to have the all four elevations and the plan view - showing connection locations, dimensions, etc. - suitable to prepare the location before the item is installed. "Look at it, it's already here" isn't going to work for the inspector, because "can you see it in person" isn't a substitute for the cut sheet in the building codes. I've seen people blow as much as $50,000 on equipment that will never be able to be installed in the US, but they've had it delivered - now it's scrap plus maybe some usable parts. The manufacturer or their sellers should have a website with downloadable cut-sheets and those cut-sheets must match the product. You can find a cut sheet for even some pretty old pieces of commercial kitchen equipment, because resellers keep an inventory of that information, and for an older used gas piece where the brand plaque isn't on it, but it has the other identifying marks, you can usually get that accepted. But "made just like" for new equipment isn't the same thing. You need to be able to download the cut-sheets.

Send a message to learn more

04/29/2025

Separated circulation is the thing now in medical offices that are large enough to make it work. By putting the exam rooms in one area and the non-patient areas in a parallel corridor, doctors and med techs don't have to navigate around patients in the corridors and patients are less likely to get disoriented or lost in the corridors. It also provides an added level of security - sometimes the doors between the areas are pass locked, otherwise there is a "staff only" sign and if non-staff are found in the non-patient corridor, it's an indication that they are not supposed to be there and should be cause for suspicion. For short-appointment, high-number-of-exam-room locations, there is a lot of "to the room" and "away from the room" patient traffic as well. I'm also seeing this in more veterinarian offices where the back area connects directly to the exam rooms, allowing both the staff and the pets to be taken from the exam room or into the exam room without taking them through the halls where they might encounter other pets en route. The pandemic has also decreased the size of waiting areas for medical/vet where they don't allow walk-ins. Arriving long ahead of time or bringing additional family members is discouraged.

Send a message to learn more

06/20/2023

Casa Architecture provides space planning, plan development and architectural permit drawings for commercial construction, commercial additions and commercial build-outs. We are located and licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

06/20/2023

If you want to move to a different office location, rates will be dropping and some nice offers coming in for build-outs, locations within buildings, etc. Also note that if a building is emptying out and you are on month-to-month with your own lease, a sale to someone planning to occupy most of the building might wind up booting you out, so be sure to talk to a tenant agent or otherwise work on where you want to be, how much space you need now, etc. Nicer places might have big rent increases if office space occupancy goes back up at some point, so if the rent isn't set for very long, be sure you will be ready to relocate when and if the rent jumps back up. It can still be worth it in some cases but if your build-out is expensive and/or time consuming, you want to be able to plan your moves well in advance.

06/12/2023

The Paisley Building: I am not referring here to a building created for the Paisley company or some such thing. A paisley building is one designed for one company to occupy the entire thing. The elevator lobbies are often not separated from the floors, which sometimes the dimensions of the core make a strangulation point for circulation around the elevator lobby/vestibule. Worse, the space economy has typically led to the elevator being with one stairwell closer to one end of the floor and the other elevator being at the other end of the floor. This means that there must be a common area corridor between the two elevators in order to complete the exit path for a multi-tenant floor later on. If the building is long and thin, this will become a source of great limitation for layouts using that floor for multiple tenants. If you give one tenant exclusive access to the far stairwell, you've limited both the exit distance and the occupancy of the remainder of the floor AND you will probably need the exit stair by the elevator to be fire-rated, sprinkler or not. If the restrooms were put at the far stairwell, you have to put in a common area corridor over there or leave the overcapacity restrooms and build new ones closer to the elevators, put them in each suite, etc. In designing or purchasing an office building, have feasibility layouts done for various combinations of suite sizes so you know if (and how badly) the initial design has hamstrung the ability to divide the building into multiple tenant floors and suites. It's much easier to use a multi-tenant capable building for a single user than it is to retrofit and rent a single-user-exclusive building as a multi-tenant building. The value of the building will be related to how it can be used not only now but in the future. But in a paisley building, the farther you get from the elevator end, the narrower the tenant options (and income options) will be.

06/10/2023

Being out and about more is nice. Work has been quite busy. Some offices downsizing, restaurants continuing to open, daycares and a lot of medical offices.

12/07/2022

Commercial work continues, mostly business use, medical offices, retail and restaurants. When you take a space used for the same use, if you want to make changes, increase occupancy or spend significant amounts on a remodel, you will cross the threshold into change-of-occupancy, which has higher building code compliance and review thresholds. You will need a drawing of what is there, what you are removing, the use and dimensions of all rooms in the space and the previous and adjacent existing occupancies. Fire compartments will need to be looked into for changes in use - meaning that the landlord will need to confirm existing firewalls or your general contractor will need to get permission to look at adjacent tenant walls. If you are increasing the number of people for your space or changing the occupancy, the zoning department might require an audit of the parking spaces versus the current occupancies in the entire shopping center to be sure that there is adequate parking for all the uses, hours of operation, etc. The key is to gather and provide the right information with the right code exceptions as needed and as applicable.