Jessie designed our second, detached unit on our property and we couldn't be happier with how it…read moreturned out. The unit posed its unique challenges with how it was able to be designed and she worked through it in such a creative manner. The design was sound, aesthetically pleasing and of course, up to code. Jessie is a dream to work with as she is so professional, knowledgeable and she listens. She was transparent with us along every step of the way, communicating all aspects of the job. We will absolutely be using her again for any other architectural needs and highly recommend her.

Price gouging fire victims!…read more This review is about Jessie Whitesides, one of the partners at Asquared studios. We are fire victims and we made a huge mistake choosing her services for our home rebuild. We signed a contract with her in early January 2018. The contract clearly stated: the budget, maximum price per square foot, the desired size for the house and the desired features. At the time of signing the contract Jessie Whitesides had no issues with the budget or the features of the house. 10 months and $30,000.00 later she calls a meeting with us and the builder. The builder informs us that the house she designed was 100% over our budget. The builder suggested that we start removing some features of the house in order to get us closer to the original budget. We sit with them for 3 hours to remove the features, and by the end of the 3 hour meeting there was nothing left from the house which Jessie Whitesides designed. We were back to Square One, drawing rectangles on paper to revise the schematic design plans. In her revised plans the garage somehow ends up being the largest room in the house, the house has only a fraction of the features from the signed contract, and the estimate from the builder still comes at $600,000.00 over budget. When we confront her she blames: the economy, Trump tariffs on China, shortage of labor, throws the builder under the bus, and...she blames us for not "absorbing" her "organic design process". She follows up by sending an invoice for the painful 3 hour meeting. Needless to say, we fired her and we are starting from scratch a year later, which is devastating to us. We have already been through enough with losing our home, and she had ZERO accountability or remorse for wasting 10 months of our lives, $30,000.00 of our money and adding a tremendous amount of stress on our family. We recently found a new architect and reached out to the third-party firm to get a digital copy of our geo and septic reports. Turns out, the septic report that Jessie Whitesides requested was never fully completed! What an epic oversight for someone who blames her clients for not "absorbing" the architectural process. I would never recommend her to anyone not only because she couldn't deliver on the contract, but also because she is not a good person. NotGoodSquared.

Excellent Design of a rebuild after the Tubbs fire in Fountain Grove. Reasonable prices and…read morepersonal attention. Excellent.

We had a great experience with Kadello & Larsen. Rick gave us a couple of options for our home…read moreexpansion and granny unit. He helped us through the permit process on the city and county levels, even when they got difficult. He even helped us find a replacement construction company when our first pick backed out. He was always available for changes during construction and worked incredibly well with all. Highly recommend.

We hired Studio 101 Designs to do an extensive remodel that completely transformed our aging ranch…read morehome into a modern, green, energy-efficient home. Studio 101 Designs has a great process, and immediately understood the kind of home we wanted and did a great job moving the project throughout the various phases from early sketches to schematic design to construction administration. Because they have extensive green building experience, they had great advice on materials and product choices. Our project had a number of issues throughout the construction process, but Studio 101 Designs was always able to deal with issues in a reasonable way. We found them to be very responsive throughout the whole process. They were excellent to work with, talented architects, very honest, and thoughtful, and I highly recommend them.

When we purchased our home 3 years ago it needed a ton of work. The potential was there, but the…read morehouse had no flow (each room had a different theme), was not very functional (i.e rooms dominated by over-sized and outdated fireplaces), and desperately needed a major remodel after +30 years since the last update. Scott and James listened to all of our needs and ideas and were able to transform our home into a contemporary gem within a very modest budget for the scope of this project. Hard to explain in words- I'll let the before and after pics of the "San Rafael Remodel" on their website speak for itself. Beyond the quality of their work, Scott and his team know how to manage expectations and are great people to work with. The only bad news about this house is the projects never end. We're looking forward to working with Scott and the Studio 101 team again this spring to design a guest house/office addition

We worked with Steve on our retirement home in Petaluma. From the first meeting with Steve we knew…read morewe had selected the architect that was perfect for us. Before our first meeting he had already visited our house site and had some great ideas. Steve really listened to us regarding our wants/needs for our new home. Beyond designing the house, Steve worked with us on landscape design and paid particular attention to the kitchen and bathrooms. He not only was our architect but also our project manager, working with several different engineers and vendors to get us to the permit process. Once the plans were submitted to the city of Petaluma, Steve handled all interaction with them through to getting our permits. In addition, to all of this - Steve worked hard to help us find the right builder for our project. Building a home from the ground up is not an easy task and our project was complex because the lot is on a slope. Steve had so many good ideas and was always available for questions. If we ever built again, we would definitely use Steve as our architect.

I called Steve to talk about a project and we met at his studio. He started drawing design sketches…read moreon the spot with his magic marker! I knew right away that I was going to hire him to provide Architectural and design drawings/plans for my tenant improvement project in Petaluma. He was very professional and listened to my needs. I love the designs and the plans passed through the City planning and building dept. smoothly, which can sometimes be a hassle but Steve gracefully navigated the red tape. I highly recommend Steve Charlip Architecture!

Plans were so good for a bathroom addition at my daughter's house they were approved with no…read morealterations within 10 minutes by Santa Rosa's planning department. We're going to have Ivan come up with a bathroom addition for our house next.

Ivan has been our architect on two major projects now and we feel so fortunate to have been…read moreintroduced to him!! He is first of all a man of integrity, talent and intelligence and second of all has a way of listening, probing and really 'getting' what you're looking for..and sometimes he anticipated or offered ideas that really furthered our thinking! He also brings years and years of all kinds of experiences, styles and a full range of budgetary understanding to his work. We had a fairly complex structural job done on completely remodeling our kitchen/family room and bath and within a couple of rounds of drafts he nailed it and then moved on to the final drawings. Ivan also worked beautifully with the contractor and structural engineer and made the whole thing work so well that we returned for a second project of remodeling our master bedroom. Ivan is the consummate professional and man of integrity and masterful ideas and follow-through!! He is an A+++ architect in our book and YES, we're now thinking of yet another project...!!

My very favorite architect and I've worked with many. Extremely experienced, talented, and a…read moremarvelous addition to any project team.

When the Tubbs fire destroyed our Fountaingrove home in October 2017, our decision to rebuild…read morenecessitated finding an architect who could help us define the vision for our new home, design within our budget and work collaboratively with us and with our contractor. After researching and interviewing several local architects, we met with Joel Baumgardner of Sebastopol on a friend's recommendation. We feel fortunate to have found such a consummate professional. Joel gave us everything we could have hoped for from an architect and more, especially during that very stressful time. Extremely responsive, budget and quality conscious, he worked closely with us over several months to translate our dream into detailed plans that complied with all of the new city, county and state regulations. He also helped us qualify for energy efficiency rebates that defrayed our rebuild costs and forged an excellent working relationship with our contractor. When issues arose, Joel outlined our design options and played devil's advocate as we considered them, always having an opinion but never forcing his choices on us. We are sad to hear about the problems with their architects that other folks rebuilding their homes have had to cope with in addition to the stress brought on by the fires and their aftermath. Joel earned our trust, designed us a beautiful home and was a pleasure to work with. He has earned our gratitude and our highest recommendation.

Even though they weren't able to help us with our project, Becca responded promptly and went above…read moreand beyond by giving us referrals to other local companies. I appreciate it Noah Young Law Group

Thrive renovated our 1975 contractor's spec house, taking advantage of all the property's pluses…read moreand eliminating the minuses. After living here 18 months, I still marvel at the high level of comfort, functionality, and beauty that Thrive achieved. Quality subcontractors, piles of practical knowledge, and genuine human beings.

The team is knowledgeable, helpful, efficient, and super responsive. They completely renovated our…read morehouse and built a new ADU. They contracted with subcontractors and helped me pick out all the finishes early on, so there were absolutely no delays or unexpected increased costs due to many potential interruptors this year, such as supply chain issues, material cost increases, and worker shortages. They understood my wants and needs and then, well, they just made it happen. And when I changed my mind, they smiled and accommodated. From permitting to the punch list, I could not have found a better company to work with.

I chose Builders' Studio after interviewing several firms to scope out and design an addition and…read morepartial renovation for our very old farm house in Sonoma County. I am so glad we landed on them -- and Thrive, their sister company who handles the construction. They were incredible-- professional, knowledgeable, trustworthy and simply a pleasure to work with. We originally hoped for an addition and their proposal was so perfect for our property. They respected our vision, our property and land, and the history of Freestone and Sonoma. Unfortunately it ended up not working after we did the various tests (not their fault, just how the land and septic issues worked out). They helped us figure out what was possible and then set to work making it happen. Greg and Amanda were such a pleasure to work with--creative, attentive, and personable--not to mention talented! And when we moved over to the building stage, it was seamless with Thrive. I have done two other renovations in other parts of the country and couldn't believe how organized and on-time they were. Greg was involved every step of the way and even face-timed us with updates since we had to cancel our travel during COVID. I would work with them again in a second and highly, highly recommend them.