Planning
Services
Designing Dynamic Campuses for Education, Life Science, and Workplace
Before a project becomes a building, it begins as a question.
What is possible here? How should we grow? What will this cost? How long will it take? What should happen first? How do we align people, place, budget, and vision?
At OLSON LEWIS + Architects, our planning services help clients see the path ahead. We work across the firm's five markets—education, residential, hospitality, life sciences, and animal care—helping clients clarify goals, evaluate options, and shape thoughtful plans for the future.
Our planning work runs from early feasibility studies and test fits to campus master plans, lab planning, site planning, and long-range visioning. We bring design insight, technical knowledge, and a collaborative process to the earliest and most consequential decisions a project requires.
Beautiful Places begin with thoughtful planning.
A Clearer Path Forward
Planning is where vision becomes strategy.
Our role is to help clients understand both the opportunity and the reality of a project. We study existing conditions, listen to stakeholders, evaluate space needs, identify constraints, weigh cost and timeline considerations, and organize priorities into a clear, actionable path.
Sometimes the outcome is a master plan. Sometimes it is a feasibility study, a test fit, a phased implementation plan, or a roadmap for future projects. In every case, the goal is to help clients make informed decisions before committing to design and construction.
Planning lets ideas be tested early, when choices are still flexible and the value of good guidance is greatest.
What we do
Master Planning
Long-range frameworks for campuses, organizations, properties, and phased growth.
Feasibility Studies
Early analysis to determine what is possible before committing to a project.
Test Fits
Space planning studies that help clients evaluate layout, fit, flow, and potential.
Lab Planning
Specialized planning for research, technical, and life sciences environments.
Site Planning
Strategic organization of buildings, access, landscape, circulation, and future expansion.
Visioning and Stakeholder Engagement
Collaborative workshops that align people around shared goals and priorities.
Cost and Timeline Planning
Early guidance on scope, probable cost, phasing, schedule, and implementation.
Implementation Planning
A practical roadmap for moving from study to design, approvals, construction, and completion.
Featured Projects
Across every market, our work is guided by the same principles: authentic design, Genuine Excellence,and relationships built on trust.
Our Immersion and Charrette Process
The most useful plans are built through shared understanding.
Our Immersion and Charrette process brings key voices together early, with focused time for listening, discovery, exploration, and alignment. It is an efficient, collaborative way to uncover priorities, test ideas, build consensus, and move from broad vision to practical direction.
During Immersion, we learn deeply. We study the place, the people, the program, the challenges, and the aspirations behind the project.
During the Charrette, ideas become visible. Through workshops, sketches, diagrams, conversations, and design studies, we explore possibilities in real time and help stakeholders see how different choices may shape the future.
Clients leave with both a plan and the shared clarity to act on it.
Master Planning
Master planning helps clients look beyond a single project.
For campuses, estates, commercial properties, animal care facilities, and other organizations planning for growth, a master plan creates a long-range framework for change. It helps identify what should happen now, what can happen later, and how each decision can support the larger vision.
A strong master plan considers buildings, landscapes, circulation, infrastructure, operations, budget, phasing, and the experience of the people who use the place every day.
At OLSON LEWIS, we help clients plan for the future while staying grounded in practical next steps.
Feasibility Studies
A feasibility study answers one of the first and most important questions a project asks: Can this work?
Before a client invests in full design, we evaluate the potential of a property, building, program, or idea. We study existing conditions, zoning, code, site constraints, spatial needs, construction implications, and preliminary cost and schedule factors.
Feasibility work is especially valuable when clients are considering a property purchase, renovation, expansion, change of use, or long-term investment.
The result is a clearer understanding of opportunity, risk, and direction.
FAQs
Let's Plan What Comes Next
Whether you are exploring a property, planning for growth, evaluating a renovation, organizing a campus, studying a lab, or imagining the next chapter of an existing building, OLSON LEWIS + Architects can help you understand the possibilities and define a clear path forward.
Beautiful Places begin with thoughtful planning. Crafting genuine excellence in every detail. Authentic design, for spaces that feel true to you.
