Austin has a lot of talented designers but Element 5 is a favorite of ours for lots of reasons…read more Nick and his team are true professionals. Our collaborations on specs and customs always produce amazing results. Architecture is form and function and Element 5 nails both. They are multi-faceted, excelling at infill and suburban/rural design-build, modern and craftsman. Element 5 does a great job of keeping up with rapidly changing trends, building code, and green building/building science. Their expertise, passion, and thoughtful design always makes for great projects that serve our homeowners well. Element 5 always does a good job listening to and incorporating their client's feedback. They aim to understand how the client really lives in their home and their lifestyle.

My wife and I worked with Nick Mehl at Element 5 on the design of our new 4BR / 3BA house. Nick was…read moregreat to work with, very thoughtful and full of great ideas, like using the space under our stairs to make the pantry space in our kitchen as large as possible. He also paid very close attention to detail, like how the window trim should be framed and communicated his vision clearly with our builder. This house construction project was the largest personal expense I've ever incurred and so many things could have gone wrong at multiple points along the way. None of them did, and I give Nick & Element 5 much of the credit for our success.

CB has been an absolute life saver. The permitting process in City of Austin is extremely a…read morenightmare, and its 100 times worse when the permit is for a grease trap for a daycare kitchen. CB got my plan approved less than 2 months after I had struggled for over a year and half. He is also a gentleman and goes out of his way to guide me step by step after I had permit on hand, checking on the project periodically to make sure all the construction / installation went smoothly. The grease trap just passed City of Austin final inspection! I can't wait for the day we start serving hot & healthy food to our little friends! Thank you, CB, for your wonderful work!

CB Ellis is the only permit expediter you should ever work with. Full stop…read more The City of Austin's Dept of Development Services is a mess of sub-departments run by people who all have different answers, interpretations of code, etc. Unless you're a large company and/or rich, the permit process can completely wipe you out, financially and emotionally. For our small business, what should have been a simple series of small hoops to jump through became a full-on nightmare, with us being sent on a wild goose chase of emailing, calling, video conferencing with people in permitting. We were given completely different answers at every turn, and none of the other permit expediting services we contacted responded to our pleas for help. Except for CB. He knows the ins and outs of permitting in Austin, he's personable and honest, he's not here to rip anyone off, and he makes you feel like he's on your team during a very stressful process where it seems like everyone else's job is to make your life hard. I'm just echoing what all the other reviews here say, but it's all true. CB Ellis is a magician.

I am neck deep in a hugh addition/ remodel project on a home in the Crestview neighborhood. I chose…read moreRichard Hughes as my architect, and he has been incredible! First of all, he is such a nice man and so easy to work with! His ideas on how to open up, modernize, and improve the functionality of this modest 1950s home have been amazing! As the project progressed, Richard personally stopped by several times to see how things were going, and even met with the engineer there to help us determine what would need to be done in order to vault all the ceilings, which had not in our original plans. Richard has been very generous with his time on the phone, emails and texts as the project expanded! He was so patient with my numerous changes! He also hooked me up with a great engineer and a permit expediting service. I am so exicted and thrilled at how this house is being totally transformed! I plan on hiring Richard to do plans for a new construction project I am planning for 2020 as well. I would not even consider working with anyone else!

I've worked with Richard twice in the last 10 or more years and I would definitely hire him again…read more He's kind, professional and talented--a combo you rarely see. Richard first redesigned my horrible kitchen original to my 1954 ranch home. It was a complete gut job. His design turned out to be beautiful, elegant and functional. While it was a major remodel, it still fits with the style and integrity of the home which was very important to me. Clean, modern, and timeless. Recently, he designed an addition to the same home-a master suite. It's still under construction, but the exterior has mostly been finished, windows installed and dried in. It totally fits with the rest of the house. And walking around in the space all framed in, I can tell it will be an extremely functional and livable room. Finishes will be clean and modern, but still fitting with the overall feel of the home. I'm excited to see it finally finished in the next couple of months hopefully. If there were such a thing as 6 stars, he would get them all. He has my highest recommendation.

Hubby and I wanted to add on to our house as it is less than a mile from the new apple building and…read morewe thought it was a great investment. We were referred to a different architect initially and when I described my vision she asked "Do you expect this to be a free service?" Yikes. no ma'am, but I did expect it to be a fun and exciting process. So I started looking. And looking. Annnnd looking. When I came across Chris and Gina's web site, I knew I had found 'my' people. Fun, whimsical, one-of-a-kind, not mass production. When we spoke, we were disheartened that they advised us the cost to add on far exceeded the value added at resale. Wow! What a stark and wonderful contrast to the other folks. If we ever do need an architect, there is no one else I would consider.

Some Assembly Required is awesome! Nearly 8 years ago they designed an amazing addition and…read morereconfiguration of my 1950 cottage style home, I absolutely love everything about the transformation. Bonus: working with Chris and Gina is the best! If you're considering making changes to your house, or looking at purchasing a house that might be great with a little (or a lot) of a tweak, Chris and Gina will be an invaluable asset and worth every penny. They made the process fun, and the house is a perfect fit for my needs, even as those needs have changed over time.

Daniel designed our custom home in a gated community outside of Austin in the Hill Country. We was…read moreimpressed with his architectural vision from the beginning and after 10 in-person meetings ( 3 in person and 6 via zoom ) we had a fully developed architectural 3D model that we give you from all sides. Daniel was very generous with his time and since we have quite a few impressive views we wanted to capture all of the views perfeand all of the Hill Country ambiance

5 star Architect for a reason!…read more Daniel has an architectural approach that I believe people will find very rare and refreshing these days. He is very giving of his time, knowledge, and is the most collaborative of the 3 Architects we have used on the 2 other custom homes we have built. As an example, even before we signed a contract he made multiple site visits to give us his friendly professional insight about several lots we were considering before we selected the property we ultimately purchased. He was extremely accommodating and friendly throughout the entire process. Collaboration is his priority from the beginning and he made it very convenient through the use of screen share as we designed the home together. We were really impressed with the architectural 3D model that Daniel created. It was amazing that we were able to have a computer-generated 3D model to visualize the complete exterior as well as the outdoor entertaining, outdoor kitchen, and the pool and spa area. We were able to have the majority of our meetings in the evenings after we got off work and we even did a screen share to collaborate on our laptop while we were out of town visiting family. Not only is he extremely knowledgeable about both the architectural and contractual aspects of building, but he seems to have a great instinct for what the client is looking achieve. He also had the desire to study alternatives and create several layouts that might make the most sense for the lifestyle we described. Our custom home is amazing and we would definitely recommend him to our friends. We enjoyed the process of the architectural design of our custom home and even more surprisingly we enjoyed the building process that is often stressful. Instrumental in our smooth building process was Daniel's custom home building budget that he accurately laid out from the beginning giving us many options and associated costs. Daniel's project management and selection of the builder really took confusion out of the process and stress off of our lap. Other critical details that made build successful was his guidance and assistance with the interior design, kitchen, and bath design, and selection of all of our interior finishes and fixtures. Our kitchen and bathrooms really stand out with exceptional design and we are very grateful for that. All in all the 3% that he charged to be a complete steward of our project was an easy decision. We will definitely be using him in the future and so will our friends that are very impressed with our the result as well as our highly detailed and accurate design and building process.

We started working with Dennis updating our first home in New York back in 2003. Since then there…read morehave been a number of projects, including the final renovation of my house in Westchester that wound up selling for 20k more than asking in an all cash deal in December 2011. When it came time to renovate our new home in the Netherlands, a 100-year old four-story house that hadn't been updated in forty years, there was no question that we would ask him to help us. Dennis is easy to work with and quick to suggest creative ideas to atypical problems (like those in the aforementioned, weird 100 year old house). His office is international, fully digitally integrated and we were pleased with the exchange of information that flowed quickly from his office to our desk. I would recommend Dennis to anyone who is looking for a talented, responsive, and affordable architect.

Dennis did a little side project for our house and it has been amazing. We have a weirdly shaped…read morechimney that does not have a damper. We have looked into getting a damper, but it is extremely costly due the its custom nature. Dennis built us a cover that slides into the fireplace and covers the chimney so that air doesn't come in/out and cause us to lose money on HVAC. Dennis did an amazing job and the price was excellent.

After receiving a quote from another draftsman connected to the landscaper we are using, I called…read moreJohn to get his take on the quoted price. He was kind, easy to get in touch with, professional, and offered genuine, industry-informed feedback on the quote. The info he provided was so helpful. I was very impressed with him and his knowledge and definitely recommend his services!!

Chris and John provided excellent quick development of CAD files for a new home addition. We hired…read moreATX Drafting Services to prepare As Builts for an existing home we recently purchased. Their team came out and completed the survey within the estimated time and were professional while on site. The CAD files prepared were to a high quality and we used them to develop the architectural plans for an addition. They are competitively priced, responsive and worked within our schedule. I plan to work with them in future projects!

We worked with local, family-owned CG&S on an exterior renovation - updating our 1940s home to…read moreCraftsman style. Our home had no original details, but did have a lot of the original exterior materials. The team had to meticulously remove our particle board siding in sections and reseal as there were no exterior walls/wrap and our insulation was just under the siding; shim the roof level while regarding interior drywall as we don't have attic space; shim walls to align with varying depths of windows hung by another company; re-run electrical; and then add wood siding, two new decks with detailed craftsman woodwork, a custom front door, and other finishes. Working on our older home was harder than starting fresh and they handled it with care. Handling permitting was also in their remit and we were glad it was. Our architect handled forms for historical buildings/neighborhoods, city arborists, easements, and other zoning debacles. When we were limited by the city's requirements for expanding our porch, our architect adjusted our plans as best she could to still have a beautiful outcome. We also appreciated most of the subcontractors selected for the job. While the budget was hard to talk about up front, we didn't have any change orders due to surprises - unlike our interior reno project. With any long term renovation project it was important to stay in communication, keep notes, and ask questions and most stressful moments were quickly addressed by the team. The CG&S owners still invite us to their annual tamale dinner and treat us like family. We hope to do another project with them some day!

My wife and I highly recommend CG&S for any home renovation project.  We hired them to do a total…read morerenovation to our 20 year old home and both the process and the final product were outstanding.  Very highly qualified, friendly personnel and great communication from day one through the end of the project.  We moved out for nine months so that we could take the house back to a new starting point and then build it back the way that we wanted it. We couldn't be happier with the quality people and the smooth process.  The project was delivered on time and on budget - a rarity in today's crazy world!