Architect-Led Design and Build in York

Yes. York is on our regular list along with Selby, Malton, Pocklington and Wetherby. We book the measured survey before design work begins, and site visits during construction are scheduled into the programme rather than arranged at short notice.

City of York Council. It is a unitary authority in its own right and is separate from North Yorkshire Council, with its own local plan and its own design guidance. That is why advice from a project in a neighbouring district does not automatically apply inside the city boundary.

It might well be. The city has extensive conservation area coverage, well beyond the historic centre. If your property falls inside a designation, permitted development rights are reduced and materials, window detailing and roof form come under much closer scrutiny. We check the specific address at the consultation stage.

If the building is listed, yes, and it is a separate approval from planning permission assessed on different grounds. It covers work affecting the special interest of the building, including internal alterations that planning would not touch. Carrying out work to a listed building without consent is a criminal offence.

More often than in most places. On a designated site, an unusual design, or anywhere the heritage impact is arguable, an officer's early view for a modest fee is far cheaper than a refusal and a resubmission. On an ordinary rear extension on an unlisted suburban house it is usually unnecessary.

It depends on the property and the designation. A rear dormer within volume limits can be permitted development on an unlisted house outside a conservation area. Inside a designation, or on a front elevation, it needs an application and it will be judged on proportion, position and material. Design it to sit on the roof rather than sprawl across it.

A householder application is normally determined within eight weeks of validation and a larger one within thirteen. Applications involving heritage assets often attract additional consultation, so build realistic contingency into the programme rather than planning on the minimum.

Yes. Those villages are decided by City of York Council like the rest of the authority area, and several carry conservation area designation. The design questions there tend to be about materials and roof form rather than about floor area.

By treating access, scaffolding, deliveries and neighbour impact as design considerations rather than site problems. On constrained plots, planning the sequence is what keeps a build moving. Since we design and build, that planning happens before anyone is standing on the pavement wondering where to put a skip.

Yes. Retail, offices, restaurants and mixed use projects, including changes of use. Shopfront work in a heritage sensitive street is worth designing carefully, because signage, materials and any change to a historic frontage will be examined closely and are slow to unpick after a refusal.

Yes, and in a city with this much designation that conversation happens more often than elsewhere. We would rather lose the fee at feasibility than take money for an application that was never going to succeed. If a scheme needs reworking, you hear it at the consultation.

Yes. Planning and building regulations are separate approvals testing different things. Planning deals with land use and appearance, building regulations with structure, fire, insulation, drainage and ventilation. We produce the construction information and submit to building control ourselves.