Thom and Dan designed a gorgeous porch for our 1892 farmhouse. It completely changed the look of…read moreour home to add timeless beauty to a rather boring facade. Thom listened to what we wanted and incorporated design elements according to our preferences (even when he had a different initial idea). We highly recommend this architectural firm.

We worked with Greene & Proppe for a whole house renovation project that included: finishing the…read moreattic, adding an HVAC system, restoring and adding doors and trim work, remodeling the kitchen, painting, and finishing the basement. We ended up terminating our contract with Greene and Proppe halfway through the project. Here are the pros and cons: Pros: - Responded in a timely manner - Nice - Nice office and location was convenient - Creative designs for kitchen that incorporated our aesthetic ideas Cons: - They designed a kitchen with 9" square cabinets. The blind corners were non-functional, as well as many other aspects of the cabinet designs - Knowing the timeline and scope of our project, they casually mentioned to us 2 months before our anticipated completion date that our custom kitchen we had created with them could not be built by their cabinet makers, who were 3 months out from taking any new projects. They wished us luck on finding another custom cabinet maker ourselves so late in the game. This was the first that they ever discussed this with us. Our custom kitchen plans we created were useless and we spend thousands upon thousands of dollars creating them with the architects. - There are no actual measurements on our plans. When we want to look at our plans to get a better idea of our space, and ask ourselves questions like "how big is this room and what furniture can fit in it?" there are no actual measurements on any of the plans. - The basement bathroom vanity was designed to be a size that was unconventionally long and difficult to find. The plumbing was designed to be all the way on the left of the vanity instead of in the vented of the vanity, like most vanities are. We had to pay the plumber extra money to redo the plumbing for the vanity because of the architect's design. There is nowhere convenient on the wall to put a toilet paper holder or to hang any towel bars. - The office in the basement is much bigger than the bedroom. We didn't say we wanted this and would have assumed the bedroom would be a bit bigger than an office room, as they typically are. It will be difficult to even fit a queen sized bed with two nightstands in the room. - The light switches in the basement are in such awkward spaces that you literally have to wrap your hand around an entire wall corner to turn on a light as you enter a room. It's an annoyance every time we have to turn on the lights. - We strongly expressed that we did not want any spray foam for insulation in our home. Their response was to use soy based spray foam. When we said we did not want that either, they did not provide any further suggestions or recommendations. Overall, we feel that we paid far too much for the services that we received (or didn't receive). I'm writing this review because I thought it would be helpful for someone considering to work with the company to know about these details before signing on with them - I wish that we had this kind of information beforehand.

always Ready to help. Does great work, a lot of attention to…read moredetail. Will use again for sure.

At the suggestion of my cousin, I contacted CH Architects Ltd. to construct our dream home. We were…read moreimpressed after meeting their highly talented and experienced team. They were highly polite with us and designed the perfect home layout for our place after considering our family's requests and needs. The construction process was smooth and completed within the estimated time. We are satisfied with their trustworthy team and efficient operations and will advise everyone to hire these experts for their home design and construction requirements......

We can't recommend Elise and Goi highly enough based on the work they did on our house. We…read morepurchased a major fixer upper that needed work everywhere: insulation, HVAC, flooring, bathroom, kitchen, to name just some of the issues. We worked closely with Elise and Goi at every step, including: - doing a deep dive on design for multiple floors and a deck; - creating a schedule for various large projects, taking into account the birth of our son in the middle of things; - vetting, selecting, and overseeing multiple contractors; - communicating with various city inspectors, zoning officials, and the alderman's office to ensure compliance with city codes; and - findings and working with a wholesaler for kitchen and bathroom design. Elise and Goi were the consummate professionals. They were well prepared for all our meetings and effectively married our sometimes-competing design sensibilities. Any questions we had were promptly answered. Any concerns we had was adequately heard and responded to. Importantly, they helped us understand the best places to splurge vs save. When we started the home purchase process, we had no idea that we'd ultimately work with an architect. Looking back on everything, we are fortunate and thankful beyond words for all the tremendous work Elise and Goi did. Regardless of your budget and design sensibilities, please consider working with Elise and Goi.

We really enjoyed working with Elise and Goi. We purchased a 100+ year old home which had not been…read morerenovated in ~30 years or so. We engaged Elise and Goi as we were purchasing our home to work through the 203K loan process. The house needed electrical, plumbing, a new bathroom, a full kitchen reno. We worked over several months with Elise and Goi to design changes which allow us to creatively use the space, add on a unique deck, pick finishes, etc. In addition, they helped manage the permit process and work with our challenging contractor. They were incredibly organized -- clear agendas for each of our meetings, multiple options based on our tastes (which they ascertained via a Pinterest board we shared with them). They were prompt to respond to any questions or concerns. We would not hesitate to work with them again.

If you're looking for an amazing experience and outcome, use Richard Thomas! He is incredibly…read moretalented, smart, professional and beyond wonderful to work with. The outcome of our commercial project exceeded our expectations, so we then used him for a very large residential home project on our own personal home. You will get nothing short of a solid quality job each and every time with an honest professional and a lot of integrity who delivers beyond outstanding results. Thank you, Richard!

Watch Out Sub Contractors! Nea Maya does not pay or…read morenegotiate change orders. As a Plumbing Contractor in the Chicago Land Area, Nea Maya stuck us with over $20,000 in unpaid change orders. This cost was generously adjusted after we took into consideration of his undocumented grievances just so we could get paid, only to still not get paid for requested work performed. Nea Maya has problems with developing a schedule, understanding their own drawings and designs and trade scope of work. When issues and follow ups on change orders were requested for months went unanswered until time of final payment we were presented of back charges and suspect labor that were not backed up by invoices tickets or warnings. Just vague photos. In 20 plus years of being in this business, Nea Maya and Zach Joseph as the worst general contractors to do business with. If zero stars was an option I would choose a zero. 1 star gives them too much credit.

READ!!! IT MAY SAVE YOU A GREAT DEAL…read more If you need peace in your life, avoid Nea Maya business in general. I bought a home worth more than half a million dollars from Nea Maya but it has been the worst experience of my life. They are completely unprofessional. Once you close on the house, they will stop responding to you. They advertise luxury homes but used cheap products. We have been here since September of 2020 and they still have not completed our punch list. They will lie and give excuses about covid but covid is not stopping them from building new units beside our unit. They will tell you some of the items such as countertops that we chose have life time warranty but we noticed a crack in the countertop and notify them and they came back with it is not covered. This is my fault because we did not inspect before moving in. We just trusted Nea Maya blindly and we learned the terrible lesson from trusting this company. We live in phase two but one of the occupants of the phase one hard to get a lawyer involved before they could respond. First winter in the house, the whole house started leaking. I first noticed the leak on the third floor and notified Nea Maya in December but as usual, they did not respond until February when the leaks has gotten to second floor and first floor and the walls and ceiling are already saggy. Even the floors are bumpy. They blame bad weather and I understand but wondered how other houses did not leak even though they are older. Truth came out when a public adjuster came to inspect and showed us the cheap materials that they used to do a terrible job. Please see photos attached. They installed HVAC system wrongly and did not leave room for contractors to correct their terrible and they will argue with you even though instructions are clear from the HVAC manufacturer. After getting an HVAC company to inspect, they were clear when they said the HVAC system that is supposed to last 20 years can barely last for 5 years with the way it was installed. Your HVAC insurance will also not cover the damage because the builder did not follow the installation instructions. Finally, I am putting this out here in an effort to protect another American from going through this but if you think that this is from an angry customer, take some time to go and talk to other occupants of the so called luxury home that they built on Lincoln and Floral ave Skokie, illinois. If you are buying a property that expensive, I think proper investigation will be a wise thing for you to do. Don't make the same mistake that I made. Think about it, there is a reason that they are not a BBB accredited business.

The value added by dSPACE is tremendous. Working with them and having them as your advocate…read morethroughout the construction process is priceless. My wife and I appreciate and respect their design aesthetic, and we get along famously with the team. You spend a lot of time with your architects--make sure you like them as people. They will likely be our first dinner guests at our new house! We chose dSPACE over the other architects we interviewed for many reasons. The biggest factor was their project management service. Throughout our entire project they effectively handled every detail. We thought about hiring a GC without a design architect--that would have been a HUGE mistake. If we had to do it all over, we would absolutely choose dSPACE again. We knew we had a challenging project on our hands. The house we chose to renovate had the right footprint, on the right street, in the right neighborhood. But we wanted to change everything inside! My wife and I are not handy people and had no idea how to get to the vision we had. From our very first conversation with dSPACE, they explored our ideas and found realistic solutions within a couple of percentage points of estimated pricing. dSPACE also challenged us to think about our design goals--in the best way possible--to further develop them while being realistic and within budget. Kevin and his team were passionate about keeping a consistent theme throughout the entire house so that everything would flow. Their ability to tie the house together is something we had not thought of and are very grateful for.

We hired the firm for our condo renovation that included full kitchen gut and bedroom gut rehabs to…read moreaccommodate our growing family and business in a small live/work environment. The team at LATENT DESIGN worked with our tiny budget and created an amazing design that has impressed everyone who has visited since the completion. It is a functional and minimal, yet not sterile, sustainable design solution that allows us to be messy without it looking like we are messy. Plus, somehow, they designed twice as much storage for us and you can't complain about that! What I loved the most about them is they have an embedded social mission and donate 10% of all profits to providing probono design services to nonprofits and community organizations in need. So 10% of our tiny budget went to design a commercial kitchen for a women's shelter. That is how all businesses should pay it forward and we continue to recommend LATENT DESIGN to our colleagues and friends.

I contracted Mr. Baltudis on many occasions simply for the fact that he's done an exceptional job…read moreon each project. A client of mine referred Mr. Baltudis many years ago when he was working on a Jordan Mozer project (Hudson Club)...needless to say; I was looking for someone to manage a small custom build project which was rather challenging. Mr. Baltudis pulled it off...and what impressed me was his complete knowledge not just as a builder but as a well rounded Industrial designer as well. Aside from running into several issues that are standard in the industry (bad weather, schedule conflicts, Code modifications, etc) I've never had any issues with Mr. Baltudis. I have continued to use Mr. Baltudis on many occasions since then; several restaurant, Bar, and some rather unique architectural projects. He was responsible for coordinating and maintaining these large dollar projects and some prototype runs and never came up short on the dollar side...I'm sure I'm not the only one who has benefited from his services.

Danny worked on my kitchen remodel in Felton, CA in 2012. Not only was his workmanship excellent,…read morehe offered helpful and creative design ideas that I never would have thought of...and that ultimately made the space special and beautiful. His prices were more than fair for the quality of work.