Driven by recurring requests from custom homebuilders and small developers, Spokane Valley-based Whipple Consulting Engineers Inc. has expanded its offerings in an effort to keep costs manageable for smaller projects.

Whipple now offers include in-house architectural design services aimed to complement its existing suite of civil and structural engineering, landscape architecture, and other offerings.

Architect Zac Castro joined the company in September, enabling the business to provide clients with smaller projects an option for in-house floor plans and elevation designs, says Todd Whipple, president of Whipple Consulting Engineers.

“We think we get enough requests from our custom house builders, our small architectural guys, and our small developers, that we could offer the service and keep an architect busy,” says Whipple.

Castro brings eight years of experience designing small- and large-scale residential, commercial, medical, and other projects in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. He is the only dedicated building architect on the company’s nine-person design staff.

"I'm excited to take on this new endeavor," says Castro. "What I like about working here is that I have a lot of horsepower behind me. Working for just an architect before, it's just a lot of design, but having a lot of support here across different engineering disciplines is a dream for me."

Castro’s design services are tailored for clients whose project scope doesn't justify hiring a full-scale architecture firm, Whipple says.

“People who want to develop might not completely understand the process and don’t completely understand the costs involved, so we thought that by adding an architect, we have an ability to bring some costs in line that would be better for our smaller clients,” he says.

Bringing an architect on board has been a company goal since 2012, though efforts only came to fruition this year, explains Whipple.

“I don't know if it was luck, but Zac was available at the right time, wanting to do something different, and it came together,” he says. “We were able to hire him and start down this road doing small architectural work for people, and small infill projects, and go from there.”

The new in-house offering isn't meant to replace external partners on large-scale developments, Whipple notes; instead, it gives clients a flexible option for smaller projects — such as housing units on modest lots — that require a different level of design support.

“The plan is to have Zac supplement our work, help our clients be successful, and fill voids where sometimes larger architectural firms have a difficult time filling a void on a small project,” he says. “Not that they can't do it. It's just sometimes, for some of the clients that we work with, it becomes cost prohibitive, and we think we can fill that that void.”