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.

About a year and a half ago Angel Iraola of Net Business Consulting and Solutions created my…read morewebsite. After a year he didn't have time to work on it any more so I started to use another Web Developer to continue working on my site. Angel Iraola has since sent the new developer viruses, pop up files and now when we go into our website we come up with this advertisement of Angel's business. He doesn't seem to be able to let go of bothering us and our website. None of us trust him to do any more work on our site and we would never do business with him again. He must not have too much business since he seems to have a lot of time on his hands to keep harassing us on my website. I would never do business with him again or recommend the use of his business to anyone else. Here is the picture of my website with his advertisement on it which shows clearly that he hacked into our system.

I have worked with Angel and hired him to work on several projects for me and he is a hard-working,…read moretotally honest and accountable person. His work is excellent and he meets deadlines, which is so rare in this industry. I would recommend Angel and his company without any heitation, because his work is excpetional.

Beware. Colleen Mahoney, the principal and owner at Mahoney Architects earned my trust in November,…read more2021 by relating to our remodel objectives and budget. I've done two large remodels in the past so am experienced with the process. As far as remodels go, this was considered on the small side and largely consisted of opening up the kitchen to the living & dining room and opening up the space to the outside. We allocated a budget of $230,000 for this project. Colleen said that was reasonable and estimated her architectural services would run 10% of the total budget or $23,000. She assured me that her firm was excellent at managing their services to a budget. Short story is Mahoney Architects completed about 35% of the project for 100% of their estimate. Their invoices reflected rework and unnecessarily working on designs that did not meet project objectives and could have been easily resolved by talking to the client. Perhaps worse, is that Colleen never saw an issue with her invoices. A more detailed account follows. Mahoney Architects started the project on Nov 16, 2021, measuring the house and drafting the As Built Drawings in AutoCad. Because of a bookkeeper error, I did not receive the November invoice until Dec 30. At $5,926, it seemed high but after I asked how much of the project that invoice represented, Colleen emailed that it represented "20 - 25%." That projected total architect fees of $23,704 - $29,630, which is higher than the original estimate, but still in the ball park. On Jan 7, 2022 I received the December invoice for $18,098. I was stunned the two invoices totaled $24,024. There was no communication that their billings were already over the estimate. All that had been completed was As Built Drawings (Site Plan, Floor Plan, Elevations, Cross Section of Floor Plan) and two design sketches that did not meet the project objectives. We still did not have a workable Design nor Construction Documents (Demo Plan, Floor Plan, Electrical/Mechanical Plan, Interior Elevations, Exterior Elevations). After I requested that all work stop until we had a discussion, Colleen took 6 days to write me a formal letter in which she listed everything they did and said it was all appropriate. She never acknowledged that they were over the estimate. She estimated that it would take at least another 100 hours or roughly $19,000 to finish a design and create the construction documents. We met to attempt to come to a reasonable resolution. But Colleen could never answer why the As Built Drawings were so far above the estimate, nor did she acknowledge or recognize why a client would be worried about that. There was no project scope increase and measuring and drawing the existing house is the most predictable part of a remodel project. In the end, I paid her firm $20,426 for the release of the four As Built Drawings. A very expensive lesson for being too trusting on what I was sold.

I have worked with Colleen for the better part of 25 years. She has always been very professional…read moreand has beautiful designs that the client is always happy with. I would recommend her highly to anyone that is interested in new construction, remodel/addition. Walt Kehr

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!

We had Jim do a complete renovation of the Redwood City home we purchased, and we are absolutely…read moredelighted with his design. This is the second home he has designed for our family and in both cases we were 150% satisfied with the entire experience. The first house was ultra modern and I was not sure how he would feel about a traditional home. To say that the design exceeds our expectations is an understatement. He listened very carefully to understand my style and then came up with a very unique design. I have not seen anything like the kitchen he designed anywhere. He is very practical and has been involved in managing the contractor even though we are doing this long distance. He also helped in the selection of finishes eliminating the need for an interior designer in our case. This saved us a lot of money. There were no change orders related to his design. That is huge. His plans are very detailed and he got them through our local planning dept. very swiftly. He is very honest, ethical and has great inter-personal skills. Finally I think his rates are pretty reasonable by Bay Area standards. Whenever I encounter someone this good, I always yelp about it!

We worked with Mark Parry/Idea Studios as the architect for the build-out of our fitness studio F45…read moreTraining San Rafael. Mark has a keen eye for detail, listens intently, thinks outside the box, and brings years of expertise and insights to the table. He always made it clear that his primary objective was to make sure that we ended up with a space that we were thrilled with. Despite having to work within the confines of design elements dictated by the fitness franchise, Mark was able to elevate the design of our studio. Indeed we were thrilled with the ultimate result. Mark brought expert knowledge of ADA regulations and was helpful in navigating the county approval processes. We were particularly happy with the design of the bathrooms and showers, spaces in which we were more free to add personal design elements and let Mark work his magic. We take great pride in showing our fitness studio to potential members, especially the bathrooms. Mark really understood our concept and worked passionately to crystallize and realize our vision!

I sold one of Ron's projects he built in Quietwater which is a gated community in Santa Rosa. It…read morewas very well built with high end finishes. He is an experienced builder that has been in the business for a long time and does quality work.

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.