What's in it for you

Clients delivered, design resolved, your fee captured.

A resolved design partner — never a competitor. Sunlit Studio works through the builder to you: you keep the stamp, the authorship, and the architect-of-record fee, while the design intent arrives already resolved. And the clients come to you.

Per $1M referred build
$30K–$50K
your site adaptation + construction-document fee, captured
Free to join. Revenue share only on builds we refer to you.
Per $1.5M referred build
$40K–$65K
your site adaptation + construction-document fee, captured
Client arrives pre-qualified, with the design intent resolved.
Per $2.5M referred build
$55K–$90K
your site adaptation + construction-document fee, captured
You begin at adaptation — not at a blank sheet.

Illustrative estimates. Captured-fee figures reflect typical adaptation + CD scope when design intent is licensed and resolved upstream (a reduced scope versus full blank-sheet design). Revenue share applies only to builds Sunlit Studio refers to your firm. Actual figures vary by project, market, and scope.

B2A — Architect Partnership Program · NJ · NY · CT

Your client arrives
with the design
resolved.

Sunlit Studio licenses governed architectural design intent to builders across the $800K–$5M custom home market. When your client holds a Sunlit Studio license, your engagement begins at site adaptation — not at a blank sheet.

Apply for Partnership How It Works
B2C
For Homeowners
Homeowners license a Sunlit Studio design to bring to their builder. The design is resolved before ground breaks.
License a Home
B2B
For Builders
Production builders license templates directly. Full design intent package, material specifications, and presentation boards.
Builder Partnership
B2A
For Architects
Preferred architects of record receive design intent packages directly and are listed as Sunlit Studio's recommended AOR in their territory.
You Are Here
The Design Intent Layer

Where Sunlit Studio sits
in your project.

Sunlit Studio is not a competitor to your practice. We are the design intent layer that sits between the builder's decision to build and your engagement as architect of record.

A fully resolved Sunlit home — The Stonecroft
A Sunlit home arrives resolved — proportion, material hierarchy, and elevation intent already locked. Your firm adapts it to site.
The Three-Party Model
Design Author
Sunlit Studio
Governing design intent
→
License Holder
Builder
Owns the license
→
Architect of Record
Your Firm
Site adaptation + CDs
The builder licenses a Sunlit Studio home — a governed design with locked proportions, material hierarchy, and elevation intent. You receive the complete design intent package as your starting point. Your scope is adaptation and construction documents — not blank-sheet design. The result: faster permitting, lower design risk, and a client who already trusts the outcome.
What This Means for Your Practice

Four reasons architects
prefer licensed builds.

01
No blank-sheet phase
Design intent is resolved before you engage. Skip schematic exploration, client taste negotiation, and early-phase revision cycles. Your first submission is closer to permit-ready.
02
Lower design liability
You are the architect of record — not the design author. Sunlit Studio owns the governing design intent. Your liability is scoped to site adaptation and code compliance, not the architecture.
03
Faster fee realization
Adaptation-only engagements close faster and bill more efficiently than full custom design. You deliver more homes per year with less front-end risk on each one.
$35K–$60K
Estimated adaptation fee vs. $160K–$540K full custom
04
A repeatable workstream
Once you've adapted one Sunlit Studio home, subsequent builds from the same template are faster still. Builders who license multiple homes create a reliable, streamlined pipeline for your firm.
The Referral Network

Two channels that feed your practice.

Partner architects don't chase this work — it arrives. Sunlit Studio generates demand on both sides of the market and routes it to the preferred architect of record in each territory.

01
Homeowner-routed
When a homeowner licenses a Sunlit Studio design and needs an architect of record, we route them directly to the preferred architect in their territory — a pre-qualified client arriving with the design already resolved.
02
Builder-brought
When a program builder licenses a home, the design intent package is delivered to you as their preferred AOR — the engagement comes to you before the build begins, with the standards already set.
Free to join. No retainer, no cost on your existing work. Revenue share only on builds we refer to you. Non-exclusive. You practice exactly as you do today.
The Cost Comparison

What your client saves.
What you capture.

On a $2M–$3M build in NJ/NY/CT, the numbers speak clearly. Sunlit Studio's design intent license replaces blank-sheet design fees with a fraction of the cost — and your builder client captures the difference as margin.

Traditional Custom Path
Full custom architect — schematic through CDs
$160K–$540K
Client revision cycles (avg. 3–6 rounds)
Included
Schematic design timeline
4–8 months
With Sunlit Studio License
Sunlit Studio design intent license
$12K–$52K
Architect adaptation + CDs (your fee)
$35K–$60K
Time to permit-ready submission
Faster
The Design Intent Package

What arrives in your inbox
on day one.

Everything included in a Sunlit license — elevations, floor plans, room renders, a material board, and building sections
A complete Design Intent Package — elevations, plans, room renders, material board, and building sections — resolved before you adapt a single sheet.
01
Proportion Standards
GA-01 axial alignment rules, governing geometry, and elevation intent — the architectural DNA that holds the home together across any site condition.
02
Material Specification
Complete exterior palette — facade, roof, stone, trim, glazing, metals, and entry door with sourcing tier and approved substitution paths.
03
Site Adaptation Notes
Governing rules for lot orientation, setback compliance, and how the design hierarchy holds across varied site conditions.
04
Gate Audit Certificate
Every Sunlit Studio home passes a Gate 2 audit before release — geometry, proportion, and exterior hierarchy are locked. You receive confirmation that what you're adapting has already been reviewed.
05
Presentation Boards
Hero renders, material palette strip, and floor plan reference — print-ready for your client presentation before your first engagement.
06
Governing Standards Ref
Reference sheet linking all active governance documents — CS-EXT-01, EDS-01, GA-01 — so your team knows exactly what is locked and what is adaptable.
07
Gate Audit Certificate
GA-CERT-01 confirms all three gates passed — governing geometry, exterior material, and interior standard — anchored to the Fannie Mae UAD Q1–Q2 quality rating. Issued with every license.
08
Municipal Zoning Summary
Site-specific zoning research for the build address — setbacks, height limits, lot coverage, waterfront conditions, Planning Board requirements, and FEMA flood zone flag. Prepared by Sunlit Studio. Delivered with your design intent package at no additional cost.
The Partnership

Non-exclusive. No retainer.
Just a better workflow.

—
Preferred AOR Listing
Be listed as a preferred architect of record on Sunlit Studio builder materials in your territory. Builders actively licensing in your market are introduced to your firm.
—
Direct Package Delivery
Receive Sunlit Studio design intent packages directly when a builder in your market licenses a home — before the builder engagement begins.
—
Early Series Access
Partner architects receive early access to new series before public release — giving your firm time to familiarize before builders arrive asking for adaptation.
—
No Exclusivity Required
Partnership is non-exclusive. You continue practicing as you always have. Sunlit Studio is one governed workstream in your broader practice — not a constraint on it.
—
No Retainer
There is no fee to join the Architect Partnership Program. Your value to Sunlit Studio is execution quality and market presence. We earn together on every licensed build.
Apply for Partnership
We are building a network of preferred architects in NJ, NY, and CT.
Partnership is by application. We work with a small number of firms per territory — architects who understand governed design, move efficiently from intent to permit, and build lasting relationships with the production builders in their market.
Apply — [email protected]
Elan Kling — Founder & Creative Director, Sunlit Studio
About the Founder

Elan Kling

Founder & Creative Director · Sunlit Studio

Sunlit Studio was founded on a single conviction — that luxury residential design should be governed, not improvised. With a background spanning luxury real estate, high-end fashion, and sales technology, Elan built the Sunlit Studio Design OS as a rule-based architecture for producing homes of genuine distinction.

Every governance standard in the Sunlit Studio system — from GA-01 proportion authority to the three-gate audit framework — was authored to protect one thing: the integrity of the home from design intent to completed build. The Architect Partnership Program is an extension of that conviction. When architects receive a governed design intent package, everyone downstream builds better.

[email protected] Oceanport, NJ · For His Glory
The Standard

Every Sunlit Studio design is audited against two independent industry standards — the NAHB Residential Construction Performance Guidelines (6th edition) and the Fannie Mae Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) Q1–Q2 Quality Rating Standard.

Independent benchmarks referenced for quality and appraisal alignment. Sunlit Studio is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by NAHB or Fannie Mae.

Architect Partnership Program

The design is resolved.
The upside is yours.

Schedule a 20-minute call. We'll walk through the design intent package, the adaptation scope, and what partnership looks like in your market.

Apply for Partnership Find a Builder

Or reach us at [email protected]