Do I Need an Architect? Checker

How this is calculated

• California (B&P 5537, 5538, 6737.1, as summarised in the California Architects Board Consumer's Guide): unlicensed persons may design single-family wood-frame dwellings of not more than two stories and a basement, wood-frame multiple dwellings of up to four units to the same height, garages and appurtenant structures, agricultural buildings, and nonstructural or nonseismic interior alterations and additions, fixtures and cabinetwork. They may not design any component that changes or affects the safety of any building, including structural or seismic components.
• Texas (Tex. Occ. Code 1051.606): the architecture chapter does not apply to a person who does not represent themselves as an architect and prepares plans for a privately owned single-family or dual-family dwelling and associated buildings, multifamily of up to two stories and 16 units per building, or commercial of up to two stories or 20,000 sq ft. Alterations to an existing building are exempt unless they involve a substantial structural or exitway change. Unlicensed designers may not use the title architect or architectural designer.
• Florida (Fla. Stat. 481.229 (2025)): no architect licence is needed to make plans for or supervise the erection, enlargement or alteration of any one-family or two-family residence building, townhouse or domestic outbuilding regardless of cost, or any other building costing less than $25,000, except schools and public-use buildings. A general contractor may offer design-build only if the architectural services are rendered by a licensed architect.
• Illinois (225 ILCS 305/3): architect involvement is not required for a detached single-family residence on a single lot, a two-family wood-frame residence on a single lot of not more than two stories and a basement, or interior design services for buildings which do not involve life safety or structural changes. Where a local ordinance requires an architect, the Act applies.
• New York (Education Law 7307(5)): residence buildings of 1,500 sq ft gross area or less, excluding garages, carports, porches, cellars, uninhabitable basements or attics, are excluded, as are alterations costing $10,000 or less in New York City or $20,000 or less elsewhere that do not involve changes affecting structural safety or public safety.
• Another state: only the five states above were checked against statute text. No 50-state table from an authoritative source was found, so the tool gives a general answer and marks the statute as not checked.
• Code flags use the 2021 International Residential Code, Chapter 3: habitable rooms at least 70 sq ft and 7 ft in any horizontal dimension (R304.1, R304.2); 7 ft ceilings in habitable space and basements with exceptions for beams and ducts, sloped ceilings at least 5 ft over the required floor area and 7 ft over half of it, and 6 ft 8 in in bathrooms, toilet rooms and laundry rooms (R305.1); an emergency escape and rescue opening in basements, habitable attics and every sleeping room, except basements used only for mechanical equipment up to 200 sq ft (R310.1). Local amendments vary.
• A state exemption does not remove the need for engineered structural design where the building official requires it. No source quantified how often building departments require engineered drawings for typical remodels.
• Not checked anywhere in this tool: local ordinances requiring stamped drawings, condo and co-op board rules, zoning and ADU-specific rules, additions or new units inside larger apartment buildings, attached houses in Illinois, and how Florida's $25,000 threshold applies to work inside a single unit.
• The tool does not ask the cost of the work, so New York's $10,000 and $20,000 alteration thresholds and Florida's $25,000 threshold are reported as conditions rather than resolved.
• Size bands are the ones homeowners think in. New York's 1,500 sq ft threshold sits inside the 500 to 2,000 band, so that band returns a conditional answer there.

Sources

• California Architects Board, Consumer's Guide (B&P 5537, 5538, 6737.1)
• Texas Occupations Code 1051.606
• Florida Statutes 481.229 (2025)
• 225 ILCS 305/3, Illinois Architecture Practice Act
• New York Education Law 7307
• ICC, 2021 International Residential Code, Chapter 3 (R304, R305, R310)

This is a planning estimate, not professional advice. Read the full disclaimer.