Working with Sunny - studio G+S Architects was a fantastic experience. I like to highlight their…read morecreativity, professionalism, communication and their ability to meet budget/ needs. Looking forward to collaborating with you for my next project .

I interviewed six architects or building designers for conversion of a studio to an accessory…read moredwelling unit. Ed Soos, architect, was tied with one other architect at the top ranking. He made good suggestions during a preliminary tour of the property. I appreciated his kindness and creativity.

Castor Architecture has been a remarkable partner -- they have impeccable taste and judgement. For…read morethose looking for a firm to create a new design project, Danny and his team are outstanding. And for those looking for a firm to partner with for their existing design, they are quite flexible and adaptable. Danny first helped us with an extensive remodel, and is now creating an entirely new additional structure for our home. What's unique about Danny and his team is their range: they excel at a wide variety of styles and approaches. Danny understood our needs, and also paid attention to the topography of the land and how to best place a new structure and pool so that they complement the existing home and surroundings. It's also worth highlighting how practical Castor is: he partners extremely well with contractors and various designers, and navigates City rules and regulations with ease. We trust his guidance and have found him to be a great resource in this area. Danny and his team are a pleasure to work with -- they're able to work with great speed and efficiency, and with reasonable rates. We can't recommend them highly enough. For our projects' needs, we've found them to be the finest architectural firm in the Bay Area.

Daniel Castor of Castor Architecture was the perfect person to guide the remodel of our unique…read morehome, a former church in Mill Valley. Our project included the full remodel of the kitchen/sanctuary space and three bathrooms, a reconfigured entry, and the addition of a new guest bath. He understood our desire to capture the history and character of the space and brought creative ideas, unique solutions and a steady, thoughtful presence to the process. Daniel collaborated beautifully with our contractor, interior and landscape teams, and engineering consultant and managed the permitting process with skill and grace. His design advice and attention to detail and quality were exceptional and his excellent listening and communication skills made the experience efficient and enjoyable. We are delighted with the result and grateful for the magic Daniel brought to the process.

While the Loman McNamara firm is newer, the two Principals - Jill & Rich have decades of commercial…read moreand residential experience, and we were lucky enough to have some time with them. When we bought our first home they offered a great initial consultation with already some ideas that resonated with us. Then they came for a visit where they helped us with measurements and gave us valuable input as they dreamt up possibilities to serve our current and future needs. Together they offer different perspectives which felt like getting 1st and 2nd opinions from one firm which helped us understand the opportunities and feel more confident about our decisions. Once we agreed on the renovation ideas, they quickly turned around with sketches to help us work with contractors to better estimate construction costs and phasing of the project. We're excited to continue working with them!

After several successful collaborations, with Jill Loman near the end of my 40 year career as a…read moregeneral contractor, I couldn't have hit a better note to end on. Pure joy to work with. Intelligent, perceptive, conscientious and grounded. That's Jill Loman.

Tim drew plans for our deck and railings replacement project. He was thorough and fun to meet…read morewith. He filed information to get the building permit, and met with the contractor. He was available if needed when the work was inspected. The inspector told us the work was done "beyond code." Tim's design guaranteed our deck would be safe as well as lovely. His fee was reasonable for someone with so much experience. We are thrilled with the results.

Timothy was great to work with. We remodeled our bathroom to make it wheelchair accessible and…read moreTimothy quickly understood the issues then provided excellent drawings. He also took the lead in securing the building permit which made all the difference! We very enthusiastically recommend Home & Temple Design!

Very knowledgeable. Great ideas. Easy to work with. Creative. Highly recommend!!read more

Professional, thorough, knowledgeable, and precise are just a few of the accolades we have for…read moreMichael Heacock Architects. At first we were unsure whether or not hiring an architect to remodel my husband's parent's home was worth the expense. Now we would never do another remodel without the expertise of this company. This firm understands construction from a contractor's perspective thus making it easier for the contractor to execute the plans. The house is beautiful and highly functional. Best of all Michael Heacock Architects cleverly married the new interior design with aspects of the home's original style and construction. The result is an updated home with memories of the past in tact. We enthusiastically recommend this company.

I've worked with Cari on a deck repair project for a multifamily property in Oakland and have had…read morean excellent experience. Throughout the entire process, she was knowledgeable, responsive, and easy to work with. As a property owner, I appreciated the professionalism, attention to detail, and commitment to keeping the project moving forward. I would not hesitate to work with Cari again and would gladly recommend her to anyone needing architectural services and managing the challenging environment with the city.

Stay away if you respect your finances and don't enjoy lighting money on fire. Cari will not…read morerespect your investment. She quoted us $19k for a project we've paid more than $52,000 for, including for an egregious error on her part that cost us $10,000 and a 6 month delay. Cari originally quoted us $19k a 600sf kitchen/bath/bedroom addition. She let us talk ourselves into a 1200sf 2 story remodel, which we submitted to the city, only to have our neighbors object. Ok, not her fault, but by this point we'd already spent $25k, well over budget for the original project and still no approved plans. We then brought her exactly what we wanted on a napkin, based on the original 600sf footprint. She had designed a custom butterfly roof over the addition. Here is the unforgivable error: Cari's recommended contractor suggested we do some "value engineering" to make a simpler roof. Cari and the cotnractor said we should replace the entire roof (old house and new) with a redesigned new roof, and that this would be cheaper construction than the butterfly roof (trusses vs hand cut beams) and save us money. This was all "value engineering" after all, and they were the experts! Turns out when you remove and change the roof design over a structure, that structure has to be to code, meaning our entire foundation would need to be updated. Something Cari and her team absolutely should know. Instead, we paid Cari and the engineer for new plans and waited 6 MONTHS while they went back and forth with the city, before admiting to their mistake. $10,000 later, we'd scrapped the "value engineering" idea and went back to the butterfly. Did we have struggles that weren't her fault yes. But over a nearly 2 year process working with her I can tell you that a) she was ALWAYS happy to charge us for work rather than talk us out of bad ideas and b) she is not willing to take ownership of for the value engineering catastrophe. So, we have paid for the 1st design we couldn't use, and the 2nd design we literally handed to her on a napkin, and for a design that was never feasable. A total of $52k to this point. Even though she the original plans were with the city and we'd done all the work twice with them now, Cari still found another $4k worth of charges I'm now being forced to pay an under threat of a mechanics lien. Do not make my mistake and STAY AWAY!

We worked with Wagstaff and Eric to design our ADU…read more This was a rebuild of an existing internal space in our main house into an official ADU, so came with significant constraints on size and layout. Eric was great to work with; he was responsive and listened carefully to our ideas. Billing was clear and the final cost came in approximately at or under Wagstaff's estimates, including a number of design iterations. The design process was a partnership and contributions from both sides were crucial to the final product. We provided strong opinions on how the space was to be used and requirements. Eric provided design ideas, and used his good understanding of space, building constraints and opportunities to validate our ideas and turn them into reality (or provide alternatives). My main regret is that we did not use Wagstaff enough! We did our own construction observation, but next time I would ask Wagstaff to take responsibility for that. We're delighted with the result and would use Wagstaff again!

I worked with Eric on a new construction build plan. Overall, I do not recommend this firm…read more 1. We did not align on high level how the flow in the new house should be, and he ended up drawing the detailed plans even if it was not what we wanted. Costed us 10k+ for nothing. 2. Every iteration was more than 5 hours, even if all he did was add a door/bath (no big changes). 3. He optimized for things that made no sense to us. Like he optimized for keeping one of the walls from the current house, even if we said we don't care about the current house (since this is a rebuild). 4. He sent plans to us that were still over the allowed limit 5. He talked to the city to understand the requirements, and understood them wrong. The limit for our lot that he said we need to respect was not correct, even if he talked to the city. 6. He asked us to get an "As built survey" even if we want to rebuild the house fully. Hi another 5k dollars. Overall I do not recommend working with this firm. We paid them way too much money for something that we could not use. Completely useless.

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.