Image delivery is the build
Modern formats, one correctly sized file per breakpoint, lazy loading below the fold and a CDN. A practice site is mostly photographs, so this is where the budget earns rather than an optimisation done at the end.
New York
Architecture websites in New York the work has to load before it can speak.
An architecture site is a portfolio carrying very large images. Most of them are beautiful on a laptop and unusable on a phone in a lift.
Overview
What an architecture site has to do
Architecture website design in New York costs $6,000 to $35,000. The engineering problem is specific: the work is communicated through large photography, plans and drawings, and delivering those quickly on a phone is most of the build. The editorial problem is equally specific: credits, collaborators and photographer attribution have to be handled correctly.
Drawings need their own treatment
Plans, sections and axonometrics are not photographs. They need zoom, they need to remain legible at small sizes, and they are frequently the thing a peer or a client actually wants to study.
Credits, properly
Photographer, collaborators, consultants, contractor and client where permitted. Architecture is a field where attribution is taken seriously, and getting it wrong on your own site is noticed by exactly the people you want to impress.
Projects as structured records
Type, location, year, status, scale and programme, as data. That is what lets someone filter for the healthcare project or the adaptive reuse, which is how prospective clients actually look at a practice.
Unbuilt and competition work counts
Practices under-publish proposals, competition entries and research. For a young studio it is frequently the most interesting material and the strongest signal about how you think.
People are why practices get hired
Clients hire a team. Real photographs, real backgrounds, who leads what. A studio page with three lines and a stock image is a missed opportunity on the page that gets read before the call.
Pricing
What an architecture site costs
| Project | Range (USD) | Timeline | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small practice or studio | $6,000 to $12,000 | 4 to 8 weeks | Projects, studio, people, contact, image pipeline, editable by your team |
| Established practice | $12,000 to $24,000 | 8 to 14 weeks | Above plus filtering, drawings treatment, press, awards, research or journal |
| Large practice or multi-office | $24,000 to $45,000 | 14 to 24 weeks | Sector structure, careers, multi-office, deeper project records, migration |
| Image delivery setup alone | $2,000 to $6,000 | 1 to 3 weeks | Formats, sizing rules, CDN, upload workflow, measured before and after |
| Care plan | $200 to $1,200 per month | Ongoing | New projects, updates, monitoring, performance |
Adding a project should take your studio twenty minutes. If it takes a developer, the site will be two years out of date within two years.
Choosing
What to ask a supplier for a practice site
| The question | A good answer | Walk away if |
|---|---|---|
| How will you handle our image sizes? | A pipeline, and measured load times | We compress them |
| Can drawings be zoomed and stay legible? | Yes, demonstrated on a real drawing | They will be images like the rest |
| How do we add a project ourselves? | A form your studio fills in, no developer | Send us the assets |
| How are credits structured? | Fields per role, shown consistently | In the description text |
Ask to see a project page they built, opened on a phone on cellular. Architecture sites are where beautiful and unusable most often meet.
What to avoid
Where practice sites fail
| Problem | What it costs |
|---|---|
| Full-resolution images served to phones | The work never renders for half the audience |
| Drawings flattened into small images | Illegible to the people most interested in them |
| Projects as pages rather than records | No filtering by type, sector or scale |
| Credits inconsistent or missing | Noticed by exactly the audience you want |
| No unbuilt or competition work | The most interesting material, unpublished |
| Adding a project requires a developer | A portfolio two years behind the practice |
| Problem | What it costs |
|---|---|
| Full-resolution images served to phones | The work never renders for half the audience |
| Drawings flattened into small images | Illegible to the people most interested in them |
| Projects as pages rather than records | No filtering by type, sector or scale |
| Credits inconsistent or missing | Noticed by exactly the audience you want |
| No unbuilt or competition work | The most interesting material, unpublished |
| Adding a project requires a developer | A portfolio two years behind the practice |
Detail
Common questions
How much does an architecture website cost in New York?
A small practice runs $6,000 to $12,000. An established practice with filtering, drawings and press runs $12,000 to $24,000. Large or multi-office practices run $24,000 to $45,000.
Our images are enormous. Can the site still be fast?
Yes, and it is the main engineering on these projects. Modern formats, one correctly sized file per breakpoint rather than one large file scaled down, lazy loading and a CDN. You get measured load times before and after.
How should drawings be handled?
Differently from photographs. Plans, sections and axonometrics need zoom and need to stay legible small. They are often what a peer or a serious client actually studies, and treating them as ordinary images wastes them.
How do we handle photographer credits?
As structured fields per role rather than as a line in the description, so they appear consistently on every project. Attribution is taken seriously in this field and inconsistency is noticed by the audience you most want to reach.
Should we publish unbuilt work?
Usually yes. Practices systematically under-publish proposals, competitions and research, and for a younger studio that material is frequently the strongest signal about how the practice thinks.
Why should projects be structured data?
Because it lets someone filter for the healthcare work, the adaptive reuse or the projects at a certain scale, which is how prospective clients actually assess a practice. As plain pages you get a list and nothing else.
Can our studio add projects ourselves?
It should take about twenty minutes and no developer. A practice site that needs an agency to publish a project is two years out of date within two years, and that is the most common state we find them in.
Does the people page matter?
More than most practices treat it. Clients hire a team, and the studio page is read before the first call. Real photographs and real backgrounds do more than another rendering does.
Detail
Portfolio that will not load on a phone?
Send us a project page and we will tell you what it weighs and how long it takes on a cellular connection.