San Francisco directory · Ranked by permits issued

San Francisco architects: residential and commercial

1,543 architects and designers are named on San Francisco building permits filed since 2018, from home remodels to offices and restaurants. We rank them by how many permits the city issued, and show what kind of work they do and how long their permits took.

Updated October 20, 2026 · Nobody pays to be listed or ranked

Listed: 1,543
Filed in the last 2 years: 1,019
Mostly commercial work: 487

Where is the project?

Pick a neighborhood to see who works there most. Bars count the architects and designers for whom it is a top neighborhood.

All 41 neighborhoods in the list filter

Sheet: A-100
Drawing: Architects in San Francisco
Source: SF DBI building permits since 2018
Date: Oct 2026
Scale: Not to scale
Drawn by: Bay Area Architect

1,543 listed, most permits issued first

No. 1

Their permits by project type, drawn as a plan.
682 issued
Revel Architecture & Design

Architect · License C36455 · San Francisco

Issued

682 of 750

All permits issued

91%

Median to issue

5.3 mo

Mostly offices 91% · apartments and multifamily 7% · hotels, clinics, schools and other commercial 1%. Last filed Oct 2026.
Most active in
- Financial District/South Beach
- Mission Bay
- South of Market
- Chinatown
2018 Permits filed per year 2026

Open profile
No. 2

Their permits by project type, drawn as a plan.
628 issued
Xie Associates

Architect · License C32963 · San Francisco

Issued

628 of 719

All permits issued

87%

Median to issue

11.5 mo

Mostly home remodels 60% · apartments and multifamily 18% · ADUs 10%. Last filed Oct 2026.
Most active in
- Sunset/Parkside
- Outer Richmond
- West of Twin Peaks
- Excelsior
2018 Permits filed per year 2026

Open profile
No. 3

Their permits by project type, drawn as a plan.
591 issued
Gensler

Architect · License C38081 · San Francisco

Issued

591 of 643

All permits issued

92%

Median to issue

4.6 mo

Mostly offices 78% · apartments and multifamily 11% · hotels, clinics, schools and other commercial 8%. Last filed Oct 2026.
Most active in
- Financial District/South Beach
- Mission Bay
- South of Market
- Chinatown
2018 Permits filed per year 2026

Open profile

Ranked by building permits issued in San Francisco since 2018 with the firm named on the permit record. The line under each name shows the firm's two largest project types as a share of its permits. Median time covers all of a firm's plan-review permits of every type, and needs 3 or more issued with dates; the blue dimension line under it is drawn to scale, with the longest times running to the full width. Neighborhoods are where it filed the most permits of any type. A listing is not an endorsement, and nobody pays to be ranked. Some firms appear twice when the city recorded them under two names.

How to shortlist

1Pick two or three with issued permits for work like yours, in or near your neighborhood.
2Ask each for the permit numbers of recent projects and look them up on the DBI permit search.
3Check the license before you sign. Profiles with a license number link to the state lookup.
4 Ask how long their recent permits took. Citywide medians with plan review run from 3.9 months (offices) to 22.7 months (new homes).

What the numbers mean

Issued counts permits of every type the city issued with this firm on the record. "Of" is how many were filed.

Median to issue is months from filing to issue across all of a firm's plan-review permits, shown for 504 of 1,543 with 3 or more.

Full method

Source and notes

Source: San Francisco Department of Building Inspection building permits and permit contacts on DataSF. We include new-construction, plan-review and over-the-counter alteration permits filed since 2018, sorted into project types from the building's use and the permit description. Owner-builders and other private individuals are left out, and we never publish project addresses. Is your firm listed wrong? Send a correction.

Common questions

Which architects and designers have the most permits in San Francisco?

On city permit records since 2018, Revel Architecture & Design is named on the most issued building permits among architects and designers (682 issued of 750 filed).

How long does a building permit take in San Francisco?

It depends on the project. For permits that went through plan review since 2018, the median ran from 3.9 months for offices to 22.7 months for new homes. Most small remodels are issued over the counter without full plan review.

How is this list ranked?

By the number of building permits issued in San Francisco since 2018 where the firm or person is named on the permit record in the city's public contacts data. Nobody pays to be listed or ranked. Sponsored placements, when they exist, are labeled and shown apart from the ranking.

Revel Architecture & Design

Xie Associates

Gensler

Common questions