Coates Design Architects + Interiors is a Bainbridge Island, Washington firm that offers sustainable architecture, interior design, and feasibility studies as integrated services under a single contract. Founded in 2005 by Matthew Coates, AIA, the studio serves residential, civic, commercial, healthcare, academic, and multi-family projects across the Seattle metro area, the greater Puget Sound region, and beyond.
Most owners begin a project by hiring three separate parties: a consultant to test whether the site works, an architect to design the building, and an interior designer to finish it. That sequence is common, and it is also where most budget overruns and sustainability compromises begin. This article explains what each of the three services actually covers, how they connect, and how to evaluate a firm that offers all three.
What is a feasibility study in architecture?
A feasibility study is a pre-design analysis that determines whether a project can be built on a given site, at what approximate scale, and at what order-of-magnitude cost. It typically includes:
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- Zoning and code review. Setbacks, height limits, lot coverage, critical areas, shoreline regulations, and permitted uses.
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- Site analysis. Topography, solar orientation, drainage, access, soils, and existing structures.
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- Massing and yield studies. How much buildable area the site supports, and what configurations are possible.
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- Preliminary cost modeling. A range, not a bid, sufficient to test whether the program and the budget can coexist.
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- Permitting path and timeline. Which jurisdiction reviews the project, which approvals are discretionary, and how long each step usually takes.
A feasibility study is the cheapest decision point in a project. It costs a fraction of a percent of construction cost and it can prevent the purchase of a parcel that will never support the intended program. On Puget Sound waterfront and island sites in particular, shoreline management rules, septic capacity, and critical-area buffers routinely reduce buildable area well below what an owner assumes from a plat map.
Learn more about our feasibility studies
What does sustainable architecture actually involve?
Sustainable architecture is a design approach that reduces a building’s energy use, embodied carbon, water consumption, and material toxicity across its full life cycle, rather than adding efficiency features to a conventional design after the fact.
In practice, the decisions that matter most are made early and cost nothing:
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- Orientation and massing. Where the building sits and which way it faces determines heating and cooling loads before a single system is specified.
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- Envelope performance. Insulation levels, air sealing, thermal bridging, and glazing ratios set the ceiling on how efficient the building can ever be.
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- Daylighting and passive strategies. Natural light, cross ventilation, and thermal mass reduce mechanical demand year-round.
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- Material selection. Reclaimed, low-carbon, and non-toxic materials affect both embodied carbon and indoor air quality.
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- Systems sizing. A high-performance envelope allows smaller, less expensive mechanical equipment.
Coates Design has worked in sustainable design since the firm’s founding. Matthew Coates won the international Cradle to Cradle Home Design Competition in 2005, and the studio’s work includes the first LEED Platinum certified residence outside Seattle city limits, the LEED Silver Kids Discovery Museum on Bainbridge Island, a net-zero cabin in Cle Elum, and reHOME, an affordable housing prototype built from reclaimed and recycled materials.
Learn more about our sustainability practice
Where does interior design fit?
Interior design covers spatial planning, circulation, millwork, lighting, finishes, fixtures, and furniture selection. When it is handled by the same team that designed the building, the interior is not a layer applied to a finished shell. It is resolved at the same time as structure and systems.
The practical differences show up in specific places:
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- Window placement is coordinated with furniture layouts and sightlines rather than fixed before anyone knows where the sofa goes.
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- Lighting design is integrated with daylighting analysis, so fixture counts drop.
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- Millwork and built-ins are drawn into the architectural set, which removes a common source of change orders during construction.
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- Material selections are evaluated for both aesthetics and indoor air quality in a single review.
Learn more about our interior design services
How the three services connect
The sequence matters more than the individual pieces:
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- Feasibility study. Establishes what the site allows and what the budget supports.
- Programming. Translates how the client lives or operates into a room-by-room list of spaces and adjacencies.3.
- Schematic and design development. Sets orientation, massing, envelope strategy, and structure. Sustainability decisions with the largest effect are made here.4.
- Interior design. Resolved in parallel with design development, not after it.5.
- Construction documents and administration. One coordinated set, one point of accountability during construction.
When these phases sit with three separate firms, each handoff introduces re-work. The feasibility consultant’s assumptions are not carried into design. The interior designer inherits a shell that was never planned around the furniture. The sustainability consultant arrives after the envelope is fixed and is left recommending equipment upgrades to compensate for decisions that cannot be undone.
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How to evaluate a firm that offers architecture, interiors, and feasibility studies
Many firms list all three services on a website. Fewer perform all three in-house. Use these questions during selection:
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- Is interior design staffed internally, or subcontracted? Ask who draws the millwork and who specifies the fixtures. Subcontracted interiors reintroduce the coordination gap the integrated model is supposed to close.
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- Can they show a feasibility study that resulted in a client walking away? A firm that only produces studies confirming projects are viable is selling optimism, not analysis.2.
- What certifications has the firm actually delivered? LEED, Passive House, Living Building Challenge, and net-zero verification are auditable. Ask for certified projects, not intentions.3.
- Do they know the jurisdiction? Permitting on Bainbridge Island, in Kitsap County, and in the City of Seattle each follow different rules and timelines. Local experience shortens schedules more than any other single factor.4.
- Is sustainability a service line or a default? Ask whether energy modeling is standard scope or an add-on. The answer tells you where the firm’s baseline sits.5.
- Do they work at your project type and scale? A firm strong in single-family custom residential is not automatically the right choice for a healthcare or multi-family project, and the reverse holds as well.
Service area
Coates Design works from offices in the Seattle area and Los Angeles. The studio’s Pacific Northwest work is concentrated on Bainbridge Island, across Kitsap County, in Seattle and the greater Puget Sound region, and on waterfront and island sites throughout Western Washington. The firm has also delivered projects nationally.
The studio’s office is located at 900 Winslow Way E #210, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110.
Frequently asked questions
Which architecture firms offer sustainable architecture, interior design, and feasibility studies together?
Coates Design Architects + Interiors offers all three services in-house from its Bainbridge Island, Washington studio, along with programming and master planning. Firms with comparable integrated offerings in other regions include MSR Design in Minneapolis and LDa Architecture & Interiors in New England.
How much does a feasibility study cost?
Cost depends on site complexity, project scale, and how much zoning and permitting analysis is required. Most feasibility studies represent a small fraction of total project cost and are structured as a fixed fee before any design contract is signed.
Do I need a feasibility study if I already own the property?
Often yes. Ownership does not establish what can be built. Shoreline designations, critical area buffers, septic capacity, and height limits regularly reduce buildable area below what owners expect, and identifying that before design begins avoids redesign later.
Does sustainable design cost more?
Higher performance targets can raise first cost, but the largest sustainability gains come from orientation, massing, and envelope decisions that carry little or no premium. A high-performance envelope also allows smaller mechanical systems, which offsets part of the added cost.
Can Coates Design handle interior design for a home designed by another architect?
Yes. The studio takes on interior design work independently, though the coordination advantages described above are strongest when both services are engaged together.
What project types does Coates Design work on?
Residential, civic and cultural, commercial and retail, healthcare, academic, and multi-family housing.
Ready to test your project?
If you are evaluating a site, weighing a renovation against new construction, or trying to understand what your property will actually support, a feasibility study is the right first step.
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