FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Answers to the questions we hear most often from homeowners, owners' representatives, contractors, and clients considering a project with Tierney Conner. We provide architecture, interior design, and landscape design as a single integrated practice from our Oakland office.

If you'd rather pick up the phone or email us, we always welcome a conversation.

About Tierney Conner Firm

  • Tierney Conner is a full-service design studio based in Oakland, California, integrating architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture under one roof. Founded in 2004 by principals Anne Tierney, Erin Conner, and J. Conner, the studio brings a combined 50-plus years of professional experience to every project. The team's shared passion for modern architecture, material craft, and California living shapes a distinctive indoor-outdoor design philosophy. Whether the project is a custom home, a multi-family building, or a commercial space, Tierney Conner approaches each one as an opportunity to create spaces that feel effortless, function beautifully, and reflect the people who inhabit them.

  • Tierney Conner is headquartered at 363 17th Street in Oakland, CA 94612. The studio works throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, with completed projects in Oakland Hills, Orinda, Albany, Rockridge, Piedmont, Marin, Lafayette, and along the Northern California waterfront. The studio's deep familiarity with Bay Area neighborhoods, local planning departments, and regional permit processes is a practical advantage for clients navigating renovation or new construction in the area. Prospective clients are welcome to visit the studio to view current work in progress. To schedule a visit or discuss a project, reach out through the contact page.

  • Tierney Conner is led by three partners: Anne Tierney, Erin Conner, and J. Jarrell Conner, who founded the Oakland firm in 2004. All three work on every project the firm takes on, with one partner serving as the client's primary point of contact. That structure is deliberate: each project gets three sets of experienced eyes rather than depending on a single principal's availability or perspective. The partners stay directly involved through design, permitting, and construction rather than handing projects off after the proposal stage. The three met by chance, found their paths had nearly crossed many times, and founded the firm around a shared commitment to modern architecture, plants, and the tenets of California living.

  • Most firms specialize in one discipline: architecture, interiors, or landscape. Tierney Conner integrates all three, which means the design decisions that shape your home's exterior, floor plan, interior finishes, and garden are made by a unified team working from a shared vision. This eliminates the coordination gaps that arise when separate consultants work in silos. The result is a more cohesive built environment and a smoother project experience for clients. The studio's manifesto also sets a clear design standard: spaces grounded in form, volume, scale, and proportion, enriched by rich materials, natural light, and intentional detailing that ages gracefully over time.

  • Tierney Conner is known for modern residential architecture with a strong indoor-outdoor character suited to the Northern California climate. The firm's stated design principles emphasize spaces that function and flow, grounded in form, volume, scale, proportion, and alignment, with rich material expression, abundant natural light, and small artistic details used for significant effect. The firm's work has been recognized by Sunset Magazine, which named a Tierney Conner kitchen among its Best Hidden Kitchens.

  • Tierney Conner's portfolio is organized into residential and commercial work, both available on the studio's website. The residential portfolio includes projects such as the Oakland Hills Residence, Orinda Residence, Marin Renovation, Piedmont Residence, and Lafayette Renovation, among others. The commercial portfolio features projects including UC Berkeley IST Offices, Berkeley Bowl, Temescal Station, Ambassador Housing, L-7 Housing, and Here's How Bar. Browsing the portfolio before an initial conversation is a useful way to get a feel for the studio's aesthetic range and to identify projects that resemble your own in scope or character.

  • Yes. Tierney Conner works regularly with clients who require that their home, their identity, and the project itself stay out of public view, and structures those engagements accordingly from the first meeting rather than applying privacy at the end.

    Published projects are identified by city or neighborhood rather than street address, and never by client name. No image or project detail is published, submitted for press, or posted to social media without the owner's permission, and permission for one use is not treated as permission for another. Where a client requires it, Tierney Conner limits which views are photographed, withholds images that reveal identifying site features, and removes location metadata from image files. Some completed projects are never published at all.

    The same discretion applies to how a project runs. Tierney Conner works comfortably through owners' representatives, project managers, family offices, and attorneys when a client prefers to work with advisors, and under non-disclosure agreements when required. Privacy requirements are communicated to contractors and consultants at introduction, so the expectation holds across the full project team rather than resting with the design firm alone.

    Clients for whom discretion matters should raise it in the first conversation. Documenting a project privately from the start is far simpler than limiting exposure after the fact.

Services and Scope

  • Tierney Conner provides architecture, interior design, and landscape design, along with material and finish selection, permit documentation, and construction observation. The firm takes projects from initial concept through the completion of construction. Furnishing design and purchasing are available as additional services beyond the base scope. Approximately 50 to 60 percent of the firm's residential work consists of additions and remodels to existing homes.

  • Yes, and integration is the foundation of how Tierney Conner works. The three disciplines are developed in parallel from the earliest design stages rather than handed off in sequence to separate consultants. A window's placement is resolved alongside the room it lights and the garden view it frames. Interior material palettes extend to exterior surfaces. Terraces and courtyards are planned as extensions of the living space rather than as leftover exterior area.

  • No. Tierney Conner separates architecture and interiors into parallel scopes in its proposals, each with its own phases and fee estimate, so clients can engage one discipline, two, or all three and see what each costs. Some clients engage the firm for a full integrated scope. Others engage Tierney Conner for interior design only, working from architectural plans drawn by another firm.

  • Hiring one firm removes the coordination burden that otherwise falls to the homeowner. Separate architecture, interior design, and landscape contracts mean three timelines, three sets of assumptions about where each scope ends, and gaps between them that nobody owns. Cost overruns and delays commonly appear in those gaps, because a decision made in one scope creates a consequence in another. Tierney Conner holds all three under one team, one timeline, and one budget conversation.

  • Yes, and material selection is integrated into the design process rather than added at the end. Tierney Conner's selections cover flooring, tile, counters, cabinetry, hardware, paint colors, stairs, railings, and plumbing and lighting fixtures. One round of revisions per selection is included in the standard scope. Because material decisions are made alongside spatial and architectural decisions, the selections reinforce the design concept rather than being applied to a finished plan.

  • Yes, as an additional service. Tierney Conner scopes furnishing design per room, beginning with a site visit and an initial presentation of concepts and preliminary layouts. Two to three options are developed for each furniture piece, and the process concludes with a final presentation confirming selections, complete furniture layouts, and a summary budget for the proposed pieces. Purchasing is a separate phase covering purchase orders, delivery logistics, and supervised placement. Receiving, storage, delivery, and moving fees are coordinated separately.

  • Tierney Conner designs whole-house renovations, additions, primary suite expansions, kitchen renovations that open to main living spaces, bathroom and powder room remodels, staircase and interior circulation redesign, millwork and fireplace features, improved connections between the house and rear yard, integrated landscape design, and custom new construction. Additions and remodels of existing homes make up the majority of the firm's residential work.

  • Yes. Tierney Conner designs accessory dwelling units, guest houses, pool houses, and garage and attic conversions as part of its residential practice. An accessory structure presents the same design problems as a larger building at smaller scale, and benefits from integrated design because it must sit correctly against both the primary residence and the surrounding landscape.

  • Yes. Tierney Conner's commercial portfolio includes office interiors, food and beverage spaces, retail environments, and multi-family housing, including UC Berkeley IST Offices, Berkeley Bowl, Temescal Station, Here's How Bar, Ambassador Housing, and L-7 Housing. Commercial projects are typically contracted on a fixed fee basis rather than time and materials, because commercial scope is defined more tightly at the outset than residential scope.

  • Tierney Conner documents green building code compliance in every permit set and coordinates Title-24 energy compliance calculations into its construction documents. Beyond code requirements, the firm's approach to sustainability is primarily architectural: building orientation and daylight, indoor-outdoor design that reduces demand on mechanical systems, durable material selection intended to age well, and landscape design suited to the Northern California climate rather than working against it.

  • Yes, and it is among the most common requests Tierney Conner addresses in Bay Area renovations. The firm's approach is grounded in form, volume, scale, proportion, and alignment, which are the tools that make smaller spaces feel larger. Opening a floor plan, redesigning a staircase, improving natural light, connecting interior spaces to the rear yard, and selecting materials that create visual continuity can significantly change how a home functions without increasing its footprint.

  • Yes. Tierney Conner regularly takes on interior design for projects where architectural plans were drawn by another firm, and reviews and investigates alternate layouts for those plans as part of its first phase. The firm will also suggest refinements to existing plans for elements such as the primary suite, bathrooms, kitchen, and exterior openings. Revisions requiring Building or Planning Department approval are documented by the original architect of record.

Process, Phases, and Timelines

  • Tierney Conner divides architecture projects into four phases: Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Documents, and Construction Observation. Schematic design explores what the site and program allow. Design development advances materials and building systems and aligns scope with budget. Construction documents convert those decisions into permittable, buildable drawings. Construction observation supports the build. Interiors-only projects run three phases: Concept and Design Development, Construction Documents, and Construction Observation.

  • Schematic design is the phase in which Tierney Conner explores the programmatic and spatial possibilities of a project. It includes at least one site visit to understand the property's context, existing conditions, and potential. Working from as-built drawings, the team develops several schematic layouts or strategies. The phase is iterative: the final schematic is created in response to client feedback on the initial options. Preliminary Planning, Zoning, and code research and a rough budget determination are completed in this phase so regulatory constraints shape the design early.

  • Design development is the phase in which Tierney Conner advances schematic ideas into a preliminary set of plans addressing aesthetics, materials, and building systems. Conversations begin with at least one builder and with consultants such as a structural engineer. The purpose of the phase is scope and budget alignment, resolving the design and its cost against each other before documentation begins, and advancing the drawings sufficiently for a Planning submittal.

  • Construction documents is the phase in which Tierney Conner converts design intent into buildable and permittable drawings. It is less iterative and more productive than earlier phases, focused on detailing and specifying final decisions on materials and critical construction elements. The phase produces the Building Department permit submittal set and the base drawings required for construction. Tierney Conner meets with the selected contractor during this phase to review cost implications and critical areas of detailing.

  • Construction observation is the phase in which Tierney Conner remains on the project during the build, assisting the owner, contractor, and inspectors in constructing the project as designed. It typically includes review of window and door orders, cabinet shop drawings, and other subconsultant submittals, and the development of additional detail in response to field conditions. The phase is highly responsive and includes regular site meetings.

  • For a typical Bay Area residential addition and remodel, Tierney Conner estimates approximately four months for design, four to six months for permitting depending on jurisdiction, and five to seven months for construction. Most projects therefore run roughly twelve to eighteen months from first meeting to completion. Permitting is the most variable component, since review timelines differ significantly between Bay Area jurisdictions. Interiors-scope construction is typically estimated at six to seven months.

  • A completed Tierney Conner architecture drawing set typically includes a cover sheet with project information and code compliance diagrams, green building code compliance information, general specifications, existing floor plans showing demolition, proposed site plan, floor plans and roof plans, existing and proposed exterior elevations and building sections, a reflected ceiling plan showing lighting layout, interior elevations with millwork and cabinetry, schedules for doors, windows, plumbing and lighting fixtures, material selections for built-in finishes, construction and finish details, digitally submitted permit applications, and coordination of consultant drawings including Title-24 and structural engineering.

  • Yes. Tierney Conner prepares and digitally submits Planning and Building Permit applications as part of the construction documents phase, and responds to Building Department comments as necessary to secure approvals. Preliminary Planning, Zoning, and code research begins during schematic design, well before submittal, so that jurisdictional requirements inform the design rather than interrupt it. Permit fees themselves are paid by the owner and are separate from design fees.

  • Most Tierney Conner architecture projects require a licensed surveyor, a structural engineer, and a Title-24 energy consultant. Tierney Conner coordinates their drawings and calculations into the permit set, but consultants contract with the owner directly and their fees are not included in the design fee. Interiors-only projects typically do not require additional consultants. Every proposal states this explicitly so clients can budget accordingly from the outset.

  • Tierney Conner typically asks clients to provide a survey from a licensed surveyor of the property and floor plans in CAD format. If as-built drawings do not exist, Tierney Conner can produce them as a separate service. Providing these at the outset allows the schematic design phase to focus on design rather than on documenting existing conditions.

  • Yes. Tierney Conner works in CAD and SketchUp and produces visual studies throughout the design process, typically before clients think to request them. Early concept work often begins as hand sketching on an iPad. The firm's view is that most clients cannot read a floor plan and picture the finished room, so visual material is provided early rather than held until a formal presentation.

  • Yes, in defined ways. Tierney Conner uses AI tools to generate rapid visual studies from its own CAD and SketchUp models, allowing clients to evaluate look and feel or test variations such as alternate tile patterns early in the process. The firm also uses AI analytically, for example comparing multiple contractor bids to identify what each has omitted, with results verified by the team. Tierney Conner does not present AI-generated imagery as final design work, since scale and detail are frequently inaccurate. AI can generate options. It cannot originate a design.

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