Role
Viola Sauer is the principal of Innowave Studio, a US site planning and 3D visualization studio for real estate developers. Her degree is a BDes. She leads the studio's three product lines: preliminary site plans, 3D renderings tied to the plan, and commercial interiors and conversions. She is also the author of the studio's research pages. The About page covers the studio as a whole.
What the studio draws
The core product is the preliminary site plan: a detailed, real first draft of a project, drawn deliberately without the engineering layer.
| Part of the plan | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Layout | Site disposition, buildings, rooms and floor plans, amenities |
| Circulation | Internal roads, drive aisles and parking |
| Program | Pads, sites and units, with yield counts |
| Site data table | Acreage, zoning, density against the cap, setbacks, parking required against provided, unit mix |
The plan leaves out sewer and water pipe design, electrical or utility engineering, and grading and drainage engineering. The studio holds no stamp: the client's engineer of record does that engineering and, with the architect of record, builds the sealed set on the preliminary plan. Before that handoff, developers take the plan to the many cities and counties that accept an unsealed plan at the concept or pre-application stage, to a lender, and to a general contractor to price. The process page sets out each step.
How the research pages are made
The research pages explain how a jurisdiction's rules shape a site plan for one asset, and each one is built the same way.
| Rule | What it means on the page |
|---|---|
| Every figure is traced | Each number comes from a cited document: a statute, a code section, a staff report or an agency page. Nothing is estimated or rounded into a new number. |
| Numbered sources | Sources are numbered in order of first citation, and the citation sits right after the claim it supports. |
| Model projects in real jurisdictions | Case studies are model projects sited in real counties and cities, used to show how local rules shape a site plan. |
| Withheld figures | Where the record is silent, the page leaves the figure out or writes "not stated". Where a source gives a rule and its inputs but not the result, the page shows the rule and the inputs. |
| The split with the engineer of record | Each case study separates what the preliminary plan carries from what the engineer of record adds. |
Pages she authors
Case studies, each a model project:
- RV and outdoor hospitality: RV resort, Bandera County, Texas; RV park, Polk County, Florida; snowbird RV park, Mohave County, Arizona; RV resort with cabins, Sevier County, Tennessee; campground with cabins, Chaffee County, Colorado; glamping resort, Buncombe County, North Carolina; glamping resort, Kane County, Utah.
- Fuel and auto: express car wash, Mansfield, Texas; express car wash, Hillsborough County, Florida; gas station and c-store, Gwinnett County, Georgia; truck stop and travel center, Waller County, Texas.
- Storage and industrial: RV and boat storage, Montgomery County, Texas; self storage, Apex, North Carolina; outdoor storage yard, Pinal County, Arizona; small-bay industrial, Grove City, Ohio.
- Hospitality and waterfront: select-service hotel, Murfreesboro, Tennessee; marina with dry stack, Lee County, Florida.
The case studies index groups every model project by asset.
State and metro pages: Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Montana and metro Atlanta. The service areas index lists every state and metro page.
Guides: how many RV sites fit on an acre, with the full list in the guides index.
Working with the studio
A project starts with a brief: the site address, the program, and any survey or sketch you hold. Send it through the contact page. The FAQ answers the questions developers ask first.