Architecture, engineered from day one

Design that already knows its structure

Most projects lose their first month to the handoff: architect draws, engineer redlines, architect redraws. Torch's architecture practice works the other way. Design and engineering live in the same house, so the structural grid, the mechanical space, and the ceiling heights are in the drawings from the first sketch — not discovered at plan check. You get a design that is beautiful the way a well-run project is beautiful: it permits, it prices, and it builds without a redesign in the middle.

Our architects design light commercial, tenant improvement, multifamily, and adaptive reuse work, with the full engineering bench — structural, MEP, civil, fire protection — under the same roof. All PE stamping is backed by Apex Grid Engineering. One team, one set, one accountable point of contact from concept through certificate of occupancy.

What we design

• Commercial interiors and tenant improvements — office, medical, retail, restaurant
• Multifamily and mixed-use buildings, amenity spaces, and adaptive reuse
• Feasibility and test fits: yield studies, parking counts, and code path before you commit to a lease or a lot
• Permit drawings and construction documents, coordinated with in-house structural and MEP as they're drawn
• Exterior renovations, façade work, and building repositioning
• Construction administration: submittals, RFIs, and field questions answered by the people who drew the set

What you receive

A coordinated set, not a stack of drawings that met in the permit office. Architectural, structural, and MEP sheets are checked against each other before submittal, because the checkers sit twenty feet from the drafters. You receive permit-ready drawings, best price — a design priced against real construction cost as it develops, not a rendering with a surprise attached — and a single team that stays on the job through plan check, corrections, and construction. The set is not finished when it is drawn. It is finished when it clears.

Project types

Office and medical office build-outs, retail and restaurant spaces, multifamily communities and their amenity buildings, boutique hospitality, light industrial offices and showrooms, and the conversion of tired buildings into useful ones. We work across 49 states through the Apex bench, so a rollout or a portfolio project gets the same set of standards in every market.

Common questions

Can Torch handle both the architecture and the engineering on one project?

Yes — that's the point of the practice. One contract covers design and engineering, the disciplines coordinate in-house, and the PE stamping is backed by Apex Grid Engineering. You stop paying for the gaps between consultants, and the permit set goes in coordinated instead of converging at the counter.

Do you work from an existing design or only from scratch?

Both. We take projects from first sketch, and we take design development or permit sets that need a licensed team to finish, coordinate, and carry through plan check. If another architect started your project, we'll review what's there and tell you honestly what carries forward.

How fast can a tenant improvement get to permit?

Most light commercial interiors reach a submittal-ready set in weeks, not months, because the engineering review happens while the design is being drawn. The honest answer depends on scope, existing conditions, and your jurisdiction — send us the address and the program and we'll quote a schedule we can defend.