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.

Joe is an extremely competent architect that we have used many times, including the design of our…read more3,700 sq ft home. Joe is a value and client driven design professional that has great vision. I strongly recommend Joe. Joe delivers his product when he says it will arrive and his services are extremely cost competitive. He is a really good guy too. David Coduto

Joe designed a 1,000+sf addition/remodel of our home in Santa Rosa, and we couldn't be happier…read more It was a complex project. The roof had to be completely realigned, and we had some pretty precise demands with regard to how our kitchen needed to be. The design exceeded our expectations in every way. We now have a beautiful, large living space/kitchen with exposed beams and lots of open space, and a spacious master suite - just what we wanted!

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.

Brent designed our new home and we could not be happier. He did all the engineering and energy…read morecalcs along with designing our perfect home.... Highly recommended

I just used Rick for a second time on a JADU project for my 1900 historical in Santa Rosa…read more He and his team were perfect the first time. Perfect the second time around as well. Thanks a million Rick

In order to get permits approved for some proposed work on our home, we required the services of…read moresomeone who could prepare professional drawings. Our contractor suggested we contact Rick Balduc to get these drawings done. From start to finish, Rick was prompt, efficient and easy to work with. He delivered what he promised in a cost-efficient, timely manner and made the process seamless and smooth. In addition, he worked well with our contractor, communicating in a very professional and transparent manner, which we appreciated. We highly recommend Rick Balduc and his service.

Dog knows remodeling/construction can be an ordeal. Our home was overdue for an update of the…read more1970's kitchen, and, it turned out, remediation of the building's prior wounds, prior neglect, and prior bone-headed mis-repairs. Wilkinson is not cheap. He's also not sloppy, not incompetent, not unreliable, not dimwitted, not lazy, not dishonest, and not going to destroy your house trying to "fix" it. He follows the building code(s); more amazing, he KNOWS the building codes! He takes responsibility when problems occur. He doesn't hide in the little blue temporary restroom just because the inspector is coming by to check the permit(s). It's a shame we can't say these things about every contractor. I've added a pair of photos to show our before/after results.

Wilkinson Design + Construction is a real pleasure to work with, and to watch them work, and even…read moreto pay them. Pav and his team work efficiently and cleanly and they are meticulous in all things. Also on-time and on-budget... and, to a client / owner very-importantly, Pav is really good at paperwork and communication... It is great to be able to do email efficiently with a contractor: that is a significant time-saver for a client -- so many contractors nowadays have websites and Facebook pages but still use the landline-fone for their real communication, or far-worse the cellphone, so that voicemail-tag with them becomes a nightmare -- and some of them text & even tweet, but there you have no record or one difficult to maintain and consult. Pav however does email, & images & attachments & followups & the rest: so that if you yourself have a complicated & busy schedule, Pav can fit-in with you, and you with Pav, and so the normal wait-times on a project get minimized or even eliminated entirely. He is very efficient. And he understands his own paperwork well: another nightmare with contractors is when they don't, when they rely on "the office" and so their invoices & receipts & work orders & change orders & permits & all the rest get tangled-up and delayed, too often -- Pav understands all this, and his paperwork is clear & concise so that you can understand it too. The job is what counts, though: Pav did a major all-over siding inspection & repair for us, on our old wood-frame Noe Valley house which we love -- along the way he gave us a new front steps, and cured some raccoon-damage, and fixed a few other bumps and bruises the place has endured over its 100+ years, and he is helping us now with the design and installation of an elegant / functional "awning" over our back-door. We spec'ed the work to several, originally, and Pav's prices were competitive, right in the middle, and his accreditation was sound and up-to-date. And when change-orders came up he explained everything, suggesting alternatives & discussing, all patiently & in-detail & even in-writing: if a contractor's profession is not your own, "job-site verbal" doesn't work well-- and if you're busy it's always nice to get back to that "writing", on your own time, to be sure you understand what was said -- Pav is good about providing that. So we recommend Wilkinson Design + Construction, very highly. Give him a chance with any job -- he'll tell you if he can't handle it, and find someone else for you who can -- and if he takes yours on he'll finish it, on-time and on-budget.

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

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...!!