Normal shouldn't be the standard; the appropriateness of this approach depends on the design program. I can imagine a program that would make it reasonable but I can't say if it is reasonable for your program.

It's not a right or wrong way to proceed, but I can see where it can be his approach when working with some clients. If you are all over the map when it comes to design issues, I can see why he doesn't want to waste his time even whipping up a rough draft for the upstairs. The upstairs physically rests on the downstairs, and needs to have some things set in stone downstairs in order to be able to design a space that works structurally. Unless you are willing to spend mucho on steel everywhere to have the open spans needed to support the upstairs weight without bearing interior walls, then work with him in the method he's comfortable with to get the downstairs permanent support walls roughed out better based on your input about the design.

The answer is "yes," that is a "normal" way for some architects depending on the design program. In our case, we really did need to get far enough along on the first story before tackling the second or the architect would have been revising two stories at a time. There was a program for upstairs but the layout depended on the downstairs which took us a bit to get just right.

Thanks guys. Since we totally hated the first draft I can see now why he did this! We've got the second draft and the footprint changed quite a bit. Thanks for all the responses.