Meet The Design Guy: Bringing Your Vision to Life
Welcome to The Design Guy, where we blend decades of technical expertise with the latest architectural CAD technology to create the home you’ve always imagined. Based in Chesterfield County, just south of Chester, Virginia, we provide residential design services for homeowners planning additions and remodels.
Experience You Can Trust
While many of our clients refer to us as their “residential architect,” our foundation is built on specialized certification and national leadership.
Ken Latham, CPBD, owner of The Design Guy, is a Certified Professional Building Designer with over 20 years of experience in the building industry. Ken’s expertise is recognized at the highest levels:
-
National Leadership: Former National Vice-President of the National Council of Building Designer Certification (NCBDC).
-
Technical Authority: Ken authored the national structural design examination used to certify designers nationwide.
Innovation Meets Convenience
We respect your time and your vision. By leveraging the latest 3D CAD technology, we don’t just show you blueprints—we create immersive videos of your project so you can experience the space before construction begins.
After our initial consultation, we utilize online meetings to keep your project moving forward efficiently, saving you valuable time without sacrificing the personal touch.
Why Choose Us?
We believe that a great design is informed by constant learning. To ensure every detail of your home is considered, we stay at the forefront of the industry:
-
Always Learning: We are members of the Virginia Building and Code Officials Association (VBCOA). This keeps us up to date on current and upcoming building codes.
-
Diverse Expertise: From standard layouts to specialized A.D.A. and Universal Design needs, we customize environments that work for your specific lifestyle.
-
Professional Network: We tap into a deep resource pool of builders and product representatives to ensure your project is feasible, modern, and built to last.
- Contractor-Friendly Precision: We produce highly accurate construction documents that eliminate guesswork, ensuring your home is built exactly as envisioned.
- Permit Efficiency: Our goal is to meet all local codes on the first try, aiming for building permit approval on the first submittal to save you time and stress.
- A Collaborative Team Approach: Unlike most firms that do little to no initial design, you and we, as a team, will produce a conceptual design during our meeting. We have found that this interactive team approach to the design achieves the best results.
Our Philosophy: Your Vision, Our Expertise
At The Design Guy, we believe a home should be more than just a structure—it should be a reflection of who you are. We focus on building a two-way partnership with every client to define, design, and deliver a space uniquely tailored to your lifestyle.
We specialize in residential design for additions and remodeling. Our designs vary in style, size, and construction methods, including ICF Insulated concrete forms, to meet your needs. The Design Guy is uniquely positioned to offer you a wide array of design services to suit your personal needs. As a team, we offer you the most creative and structurally sound design solutions, all at a reasonable price. We are fortunate to have a Certified Professional Building Designer (CPBD) on staff. Since 1990, our designs have been built in many popular neighborhoods. Our drawings have been seen in many Parade of Homes over the past 18 years and have won numerous awards. One home won five awards, including BEST CURB APPEAL, BEST KITCHEN, GOLD AWARD, and REALTOR’S CHOICE AWARD.
One charity we support is:
Hopewell Humane Society is Virginia’s oldest cat-exclusive, no-kill, non-profit organization. Since 1960, we have been dedicated to helping abandoned and unwanted cats. Our mission is to provide a safe haven for the cats in our care until they find their forever homes and to support the community in matters of cat welfare.