This place is a homeowners best friend. Great referrals and a super supportive staff…read more I have worked with the entire team here for years and am always impressed by the things they can accomplish. They do an amazing job at helping contractors navigate the ins and outs of doing business in Marin County and beyond. Lots of great workshops and presentations that you can attend.

If you need well maintained, gorgeous rental of a conference room or large communty room, Marin…read moreBuilders Association is THE place. MBA is made up of expert and conscientious trades people and the building reflects it. Parking ample and it's minutes off of Highway 101 in San Rafael. Karen Reynolds, LAc, MS, RN

Tom just helped me with a large renovation, including adding traditional stairs, which was very…read morecomplex. I would highly recommend Tom.

From 2010 though 2012 I retained Mr. Meece to do the structural engineering for two projects…read more Job #1 was a complex foundation replacement for a 100 year old Victorian home which was in danger of sliding down a steep hillside. Mr. Meece designed a complete replacement for the entire foundation (from property line to property line) as well as a new retailing wall, new driveway and new drainage system. Job #2 was a interior renovation project (new hallways, new garage, new bedroom and new bathroom). The designs which Mr. Meece created were efficiently approved by the building department and we successfully built everything. All special inspections were also approved successfully. During construction there were the inevitable bumps along the road which required some design modifications but Mr. Meece was able to quickly to respond to the necessary challenges. Furthermore as the construction work proceeded everyone involved (myself, the builders and even my neighbors) were impressed with the cleverness and elegance of Mr. Meece's design. His design was truly was an effective way to resolve the structural issues. I would recommend Meece Engineering.

Bill designed a complete renovation of our 1914 home and his designs were impeccable. Throughout…read morethe process, Bill was readily available, conscious of our budget, and involved with the contractor to ensure the design plans were being properly followed. He is kind, cares deeply about his work, and has a great attention to detail. I would to hire Bill again.

We worked with Bill Engelhardt on a new house design in an environmentally sensitive area in San…read moreRafael. Bill is a thoughtful and detail-oriented architect. These qualities were very helpful in the long and contentious approval process we had to deal with over nearly 2 years. We always found him very responsive and a pleasure to work with. While we ultimately decided not to proceed with the project for various reasons, we have no doubt that he would have applied the same attention to detail during the construction process. We are happy to recommend him.

We love Solvatech!!! Martin and Susan are so helpful and knowledgeable!…read moreSusan designed a fabulous website for our company that we are thrilled with! They are efficient and affordable!!! You won't be sorry!!!

We hired Solvatech to update our website and assist in implementing a social media strategy. We…read morewere most impressed with the time and effort Susan undertook to understand our business- something previous suppliers had not done. As a result, her recommended approach was very close to what we had envisioned. The development process was also much faster than we expected- Susan turns things around so quickly and if she doesn't have an answer to something she gets it- and fast! We really enjoyed working with Susan and will continue to do so as our website evolves.

Association Reserves SF produces the highest quality and most easy-to-use reserve studies. Other…read morecompanies included pages and pages of data that is difficult to interpret. This is not the case with ARSF. Their studies include a clear and simple funding plan, component evaluations with pictures, and overall solid recommendations. Also, their component cost analysis is based on actual regional aggregate information. As a community manager, my clients and I rely on their work for developing long and short-term budgeting plans. Derek and his team do a great job.

Association Reserves was hired to produce reserve studies for my homeowners association. They…read moreproduces reports compliant with the law, looking out to the next 30 years of replacement and maintenance costs. However, the company seems to rely on anecdote and hearsay when it comes to estimating the lifetime of the biggest ticket items. Concrete they list as unknown, and don't count it in. Siding they count as 45 years, same as the asphalt shingles on the roof, and oddly and mysteriously, all the siding no matter whether it is fiberboard, metal, or fake brick. When pressed on how they came up with 45 years, the response was nonsense. Anecdotes and hearsay. Maybe it'll be 30 years. Maybe 90. Probably somewhere in between, but that's not how the reserve study reads. It says ALL the siding will need to be replaced 31 years from now, no more, no less. And because of that, the association needs to triple our reserve assessments just in case. Getting this answer, and getting an update to the reserve study stating that all the lifetimes over 30 years are estimates took over a dozen email. It took escalating this issue to the CEO of this national corporation. This company produces the vast majority of reserve studies in the country. Their President in my region touted that he wrote the statutes that require these studies to be updated each year. My suggestion is to ignore the statues. Get a study done once. Get it updated every 7-10 years, or when a big storm or earthquake may have shortened the lifetime of some major items. And while I'd say try another vendor, I've seen a few other reserve studies by others and they are just as useless when it comes to long-term planning.

OXB Studio is an excellent up-and-coming architectural firm. I am a general contractor and met Ted…read moreand Chad collaborating on a project in the East Bay in 2011. They came up with a smart design that transformed the home while working within the existing building envelope. Ted was sensitive to the clients' tastes and desires while still encouraging them to trust his experience and direction. Ted was flexible and responsive to our requests for information and was open to nuts-and-bolts input from me as the contractor, which I appreciated. In the end, the final result was a beautiful remodel, though my lasting memories of the work was the fun time we all had working together. I also think that Ted and Chad charged the clients at a very fair rate. In fact, there were a few times Ted helped us work out some added items even though he told me he wasn't going to charge for the time. It was clear to me that he wanted to see the project turn out as well as possible. I highly recommend OXB Studio to homeowners seeking a skilled architect who is creative, responsive and a joy to work with.

My interiors firm, Northbrook Design, worked with OXB Studio on a large residential project in the…read morewine country. The principals, Ted and Chad, are great collaborators and together we were a great design team for our client. OXB Studio introduced many thoughtful ideas - their expertise in balancing function with aesthetics was tremendously helpful. Ted and Chad are professional, approachable and listen carefully. Their attention to detail was impressive and the end result was a beautiful home and happy clients. We appreciate that they value interior design as a practice. I would not hesitate to work with OXB Studio again.

If I could give this architecture firm a negative I would. Beware doing business with Jay and…read moreGeorgina and their staff. He was hired by our restaurant to draw the plan for an outside canopy and he assured us the plans would be accepted by the city in a couple of months. This was early February 2016 and to-date, he has been unable to successfully work with the city to approve the plans. He was charging me thousands of dollars every month and sometimes every week and he was making no progress with the city. In fact, it didn't make sense why he was charging so much to just have a meeting with the city to discuss the plans. He replied with emails explaining what he did but it was always repetitive work. He would make excuses as to why the city was having problems with the material he had suggested we use for the canopy. To give you some background on his lack of detail and how he managed to take money for no work, our restaurant canopy was originally made of cloth. However, we hired him to design a canopy made of glass and wood. He said he would ask the city what materials the city would approve. 6 months later and 10k plus in fees, he comes back over email and says the city wants to go back to the original cloth canopy, which is what we wanted to change. This is ridiculous. He charged us for nothing and was unsuccessful in what we agreed. He lacks thorough knowledge in architecture. I'm surprised he is a licensed contractor. For example, he billed us for doing research on non-flammable material which is something that he should know as someone licensed and with experience. In fact, I could have done the research myself and saved the money using Google. As far as having a budget, he never provided one. How can a licensed architect with supposed experience not draw up a budget? Also, he lacks good communication with his clients. We would call him and leave him voicemails and he would not call back. To make matters worse, Jay and Georgina Dicarlo have retaliated against my wife by posting negative reviews on her private personal business social media accounts unrelated to this agreement. They alleged non-payment as a reason to act so childish. This shows how unprofessional and spiteful Jay, Georgina, and his staff are. Overall, please stay away from them and never do business with them or recommend to your friends or family members you care about. You have so many more options out there to choose from so don't let what happened to us happen to you. It's a lot of money and stress and you work hard for your money so please stay away from him and his staff.

Jay has always been very friendly and warm while maintaining professionalism in my experiences. He…read moreis extremely talented and I would trust him with any of my architectural needs.

Heather (and Megan) do an amazing job. They put together complete plans that are rock solid,…read morethey're super responsive and they are a great value. They have great advice and sense of what will look right and work best. I have developed a lot of properties and they are one of the very best groups I have ever worked with.

Great experience working with both Heather and Megan on a major remodel. Wonderful to have an…read moreintegrated team on our side who gave us exactly what we asked for, plus all their help, suggestions and gentle nudges in the right direction on everything from interior design to structural reinforcement of existing structure. Will work with them again on future projects.