Get paid for the feasibility work you used to give away.

Updated May 12, 2026

Why this offering, why now

Cove Architecture launched March 24, 2025 as the first AI-powered full-service architecture firm selling directly to real estate developers. By its own count, the firm has helped developers bring over half a billion square feet to life. Higharc is a separate proof point on the builder side, supporting builders responsible for roughly 40,000 homes a year and about $19B in new-home sales. For a mid-market firm, that means an AI-native practice now pitches developers before the traditional architect gets the call (Business Wire, March 24, 2025; cove.inc/about-us; Higharc Newsroom, March 2026).

AI permit review is in production. Los Angeles, Austin, Seattle, Honolulu, and Lancaster, CA all deployed AI permit-review tools in 2025–2026. The Los Angeles wildfire-rebuild deployment reviews residential plans in as little as one business day on Archistar. Symbium processes some California solar, EV, and electrical permits in 15 minutes, down from weeks. Municipal AI is absorbing the entitlement and code-compliance hours firms used to bill at the start of a project.

The tooling that compresses feasibility from weeks to hours has named mid-market users. TestFit’s client roster includes Ware Malcomb, AC Martin, and CRTKL. One developer ran 70 sites in four months on Forma, cutting time per site roughly in half. The platforms already sit inside the firms. No US mid-market architecture firm publicly markets a fixed-fee feasibility package on top of them.

The Design Contracts Index has declined for 25 consecutive months while the ABI reached 49.8 in March 2026, the closest to neutral since Q1 2023. Backlogs averaged 6.6 months, the highest since December 2023, but the work in those backlogs was won at downturn-era fees (AIA/Deltek ABI, March 2026).

What it is

A productized feasibility offering compresses site yield, parking, zoning compliance, and massing options into a 48-hour fixed-fee deliverable. The firm runs TestFit, Forma, or Archistar against the developer’s site, then adds the work the tools can’t do alone: code interpretation for edge cases, the local entitlement read, and a recommendation on which option to design.

The price is fixed and visible before the developer signs. The output is the analysis a developer needs to commit capital, not a sales artifact for the design contract that follows. If the project moves forward, the design fee is separate. If it doesn’t, the firm got paid for the work that used to be a giveaway.

AI tools quantify. They don’t own the local entitlement relationships or read a planning department’s politics. And when feasibility is the entry-point product instead of a free pitch, the firm gets paid at the start of the deal regardless of who wins the design.

Who buys it

Developer, owner’s rep, or institutional client at the site-acquisition or early-feasibility stage, whose own teams have started using AI feasibility tools to pre-screen sites.

A pitch lost to a firm that answered the feasibility question faster, or a developer arriving with a TestFit or Forma study already done and asking what the architect adds.

What the firm gains

Revenue captured at the start of the project, before any design contract is signed.
A price tag on the local entitlement and code knowledge that AI-native firms can’t replicate quickly.
Positions the firm as the developer’s feasibility partner before any design vendor gets the call.
A repeatable delivery pattern that scales without scaling drafting hours.

Why a mid-market firm can win this

A mid-market firm in a single metro has entitlement relationships, code knowledge, and a planning-department reputation an AI-native firm selling nationally can’t replicate quickly. The 48-hour pattern is buildable on the same tools developers already use. The advantage is what gets layered on top of the software: local interpretation and a jurisdiction-specific risk read.

What it takes to design properly

Which 1–2 tools (TestFit, Forma, Archistar, Maket) form the analysis spine, and where the firm’s interpretation begins.
How the 48-hour window is sized: developer call, site brief, deliverable, and review meeting.
What the developer takes away versus what stays inside the firm as design IP.
Whether the offering converts to a design engagement on a fixed conversion fee or stands alone.

These are the decisions the Workshop helps architecture firms answer for their specific firm. You leave with the offering specified end to end and ready to test with a named client.

The pressure this responds to

Client Direct Tools

Clients use AI visualization tools to “design their own” before hiring, arriving with expectations that compress the architect’s scope.