Nearby Local Architects in San Francisco

Andre is the kind of person who goes the extra mile for you. He went way above and beyond the call of duty when it came to working with the City, and really spurred us on to victory! Andre is not only a creative and wonderful architect, but he's also a terrific member of our local San Francisco community. Down the street from us there is a large open area where he pitched in and volunteered and drafted a plan for transforming a blighted public open space into a beautiful garden. And thanks to his terrific design, the local neighbors won a grant and actually did the work and now it looks great.

Everyone on the team were very knowledgable about local codes/requirements so inspections were never an issue. The project was completed ahead of schedule (9 weeks) and the project manager was always readily available to keep us posted on progress and answer any questions or concerns we had. Evolve team was professional and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this company for any home improvement project!

We are currently working with Pro.com and have found them to be the best of both worlds; they offer the communication skills, project management, scheduling and budgeting capabilities of a larger outfit while providing the care and attention to detail of a smaller, local builder. We have also found them to be very cost-competitive. Their willingness to provide early estimates based on schematic drawings have helped us and our clients stay within budget through creative cost-saving recommendations. We are very happy with Pro.com’s work and look forward to continuing our relationship with them on many projects to come. Brad Gunkel, Principal Gunkel Architecture

Henry is a pleasure to work with and very knowledgeable about local building codes. Has done many jobs in Palo Alto, Los Altos, Menlo Park & Mountain View. Henry's plans were so well done, we passed the City of Mountain View review & received our building permit with no red lines the first time through! I recommend keeping notes during discussions to ensure that all details are covered. We were pretty set on our design before we hired Henry, so his work was about 7% of total estimated cost of project, including the structural engineering work.

Andris is an independent lighting designer who designs/programs the lighting for all sorts of projects, ranging from architectural, landscape, television, performing arts, concerts, and other cool events. He's received several major honors for his work (check out his website) and also worked for cool clients like BET television, New York Market Week, New York Fashion Week, Boeing, the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, Milwaukee Art Museum, World War I Memorial Museum in Kansas City, and a host of private clients and local music venues in San Francisco.

The website is easy to use, and the online chat is very responsive. We offered about $400 for a design of a second floor balcony on a stucco house in N. California. The competition lasts 1 month with a deadline date. Eight designers signed up, only 5 completed the project. We had 2 designers from Nigeria, 2 USA 1 Albania. The designs were all nice jpeg images of what the house would look like after the designer's balcony was completed. Not all of the designers submitted what I would call plans with complete dimensions.Since the designers are not familiar with local building codes or perhaps even building codes in general, these designs cannot be used to get permits. So the best you can do is take the jpegs to a local designer or architect or engineer to get plans drawn that contractors can bid on, or that can be used for building permits. We liked some of the schemes, but franky we got better ideas looking at Houzz.com photos. This service did not work for us

We hired Golden Sky after meeting with and receiving bids from several well known Licensed, bonded and insured, local contractors. Bill and his crews arrived on time every day and left the site clean and free of debris at end of day. Work progressed rapidly, with well trained, polite workers, (all of whom are employees, so we did not have to deal with sub-contractors or liens on our property). Prices are very competative and the quality of the design and the construction work was exceptional! Job was completed early with no cost overruns! I heartily recommend Golden Sky Construction and Landscaping.3969

Judy visited us several times to ensure she captured what we wanted. Her guys arrived every day thereafter to work, including weekends, until the job was done. They brought in extra help to finish additional aspects of the job that we added after they started. We communicated every day and because we wanted to reduce the overall cost of the project we were involved in buying some parts from our local Home Depot. Judy and her guys worked with us to make sure we were comfortable while they tore our house apart and replaced every single scrap of wiring in the walls. Judy's guys are great. Felix in particular stands out for going above and beyond what we asked him to do. For example, while crawling around in the basement he noticed our central air heating ducts weren't connecting properly with our vents, so he fixed the problem. How awesome is that?

Andre gave us a great deal of time as we conceptualized our project, he provided his services at a reasonable cost, and he brought an exceptionally high level of skill, competence, and creativity to the job. We loved his design sense, and he came up with wonderful, imaginative ideas that we would not have thought of ourselves. He was also flexible and willing to make changes in his original design when our concept differed from his. In other words, he did not have an "attitude" about our addition being "his" project. His overriding concern was that we be satisfied and happy with the end product. We have since recommended Andre to two other families in our neighborhood, and both have been tremendously pleased with the job he did for them (one of which ended up being an award-winning project).

Overall, we were not impressed by the quality of work provided by GoodFellas. We shortlisted them after interviewing 5 contractors. Their credentials in Angies' list were decent overall (A to B ratings). Now that I witnessed their performance, I am wondering how many people who rated them are genuine customers. We selected them even if they were not the least expensive because we felt that they could do the job. The initial time-frame promised was three weeks from start to finish. We ended up with 3.5 months to complete the job. We will detail below war stories from our experience with this company: 1) GoodFellas: Most of their staff is Southern California. In the beginning, we felt that the company was committed to the project. After the multiplication of issues, we felt that the project manager was on his own without having someone more experienced coaching him and teaching him how to do his job. We also found out that GoodFellas is not experienced in the Bay Area and doesn't have the local expertise or the local talent to get the job done. 2) Workers: We had a foreman named Harold, with a couple of people helping here and there during the different project phases. Haroldwas living in Sacramento and commuting on a daily basis to San Francisco in an old truck prone to mechanical issues. Many times (15 times at least), Harold was stuck in front of our house blocking our driveway because his truck broke down. That happened sometimes at the end of the day, but also happened frequently when he was on his way to get some additional supplies/tools for the project. Harold does not have AAA, but prefers to fix the truck himself. That usually takes him 2-3 hours each time and the cumulative delay negatively impacted our project. Harold was sold to us as someone who will be able to manage everything but the electrical. His knowledge of plumbing was very limited (he is not a licensed plumber). It took him 4 weeks to add a line for the washing machine. In the course of this work, he installed the plumbing over the counter in a visible manner, rather than below it. He was reluctant to change it. When he replaced the sink, the connections were wrongly made and our kitchen leaked water to the next floor neighbor. It took him 6 attempts to get it right. Harold has no idea what is allowed by San Francisco in terms of plumbing codes. I drove him personally to the city (because his truck was not working) to ask clarification questions from the inspector. The inspector told him that his questions are basic about how to do the work, rather than if the work is permitted. I am not sure how Harold was paid by GoodFellas, but he consistently refused to bring a helper especially when it comes to turn the water on/off for the whole house. He asked us to support him. We gladly did it a couple of time, but provided how often the water needed to be turned on/off, we asked him to be independent. That didn't solve the problem. He would wait till 5 minutes before shutting down the water, and comes to us asking for support and specifying that the project might be further delayed if we didn't help him. Harold sometimes brought his brother to support him during the construction work that my wife will supervised every now and then. All input or comments from my wife were not welcome by Harold's brother. I needed to come myself and shout at them in a "manly" manner to get them to listen. Our project became a daily pain. Harold asked me many times to drive him to buy supplies/tools for his work and even asked me to pay for his supplies. When I didn't accompany him, it took him 5 hours on average to buy things from the local hardware store. Harold is very inefficient. Each task takes 2-3 times more time that initially scheduled. For example, when we needed to paint the kitchen, the plan was to do it between 11am and 4pm. Harold on the day showed up at 12.30pm, then he realized he forgot his tools. He left for 2 hours to get some tools then realized yet again that they were the wrong tool. He left again and finally started working at 5pm. At 8pm he finished the first coat and realized that he needed more paint when the stores are closed. So we started again the day afterwards with many hiccups. Overall, the painting took 3 working days (with a week-end in between) while it should have taken him 5 hours (we have a small kitchen and 5 hours was his initial time estimate). During the installation of the appliances, Harold didn't bring a helper again. So he decided to move a large fridge by himself. He scratched the newly installed floor and the newly installed counter-tops. The electrician Erik who supported the electrical work was fantastic. On time, affable and knowledgeable. His work passes inspection the first time each time. We can only recommend Erik for a job well done. 3) Project manager: We were assigned Nathan W. a project manager who sold the project to us in the first place. Nathan is a nice guy but we were not impressed by his work. Once we signed the contract and before we started the project, Nathan asked me many times if I am to write a review of GoodFellas on this forum. I told him that I needed to check to quality of work, but he insisted that it will help him and he assured me that the work will be excellent. I obviously didn't do it. Now I understand why he was insisting on having a review before the work started because he probably knew the quality of their work. Nathan W. was not present on site, and his communication with us and his team created many confusions. For example, we provided him with our plans for the kitchen then he briefed the architect and issued the permit. The dimensions were wrong in the architectural work in regard to a 10 feel opening we planned to complete in the kitchen wall. When I noticed the mistake and brought to his attention, he told me that the city never allows holes larger than 6-feet. It was obviously a lie and I realized it afterwards when I decided that I will take care of issuing all the permits myself even if I paid GoodFellas to do that. Nathan W. was receiving a daily report about the progress from either myself and my wife. We asked him many time to change the foreman, or bring a different person for the plumbing. His answer was always the same. We need to halt the project and resume it when I have resources. It will add a month at least. This communication was effective on us because we accepted to live with a low quality foreman managed by an absent project manager for over three months. Nathan did not know how to work with the city. The coordination with the inspectors was catastrophic (the inspector will come and finds nobody to open the door for example). The permits will have the wrong information. I decided to offload GoodFellas from the relationship with the city and do it myself even if it is part of their responsibility. so I issued additional permits by myself taking days off of work, coordinated the inspectors' visit myself, and made sure to be at home when the inspector comes to explain what needed to be done to Nathan (who was never there when the inspector comes) and Harold (who was present but misunderstood mostly what was asked from him). In the end, my wife and I became the direct managers of Harold and receiving calls from Nathan W. asking us about the progress, rather than him reporting the progress to us. 4) Quality of work: Throughout the project, we were checking the quality of work that GoodFellas was providing us with. To be fair, the electrical work was excellent. Erik knew from the beginning what to do, how to do it, how to write the permit request, how to manage the inspector and how to get the approval in the end while delivering good work. So electrical work was good. Plumbing was a huge mistake and seemed at time more like trial and error. We had to shutdown the water multiple times and our kitchen flooded other units. The painting job was a disaster. We had to do all the touch-ups ourselves on the ceiling and the walls. We still have marks on our walls because they did a bad job in plastering. They left the border between the living room and the kitchen all ragged. We brought another handyman to fix it after they left. The tiles are uneven in some parts of the kitchen. All and all, very disappointed by GoodFellas, by their lack of professionalism and by the quality of their work.

.The very first thing you should know about Dean Geary is this: He is not a licensed general contractor. While the license number he uses to prove his credentials may be valid, please, please take the time to telephone the Contractor's State License Board and speak to someone in person. You will find out that the license number may be registered to the Dean's business. But you will also find out that the CSLB does not recognize Dean as a general contractor, as it belongs to the general contractor who owns it -- who is someone else entirely. As of the date of this review, license number 926901 is owned by Brian Curran dba Brian Curran Electric Company, which was inactivated on November 5, 2012. If, after you have done that, you are still interested in doing business with Dean and Wendy Geary, I offer the below information. You will likely meet Dean at a home show, farmer's market, or other place where a booth can be bought and a sales person can attend. He will have some very large books containing photos of some beautiful kitchens. You may be struck at how earnest he is. Yes, you might think, he does have that salesman-type way of talking. But he seems like he really wants to earn your business, and seems so sincere. So you meet with him and a few other contractors. And because you might actually begin to like him, and are sucked in by the prospect of a quick turnaround time (because who wants to be in construction any longer than you have to), you decide to give Dean your business, and hand over a $1,000 check for your deposit. This is where things start to go wrong. First, what has he told you? if it's anything like what he told me and my husband, and the other clients I have spoken to, it's this: 1. He's fully licensed and bonded; 2. Your job will take 5 weeks -- 6 weeks, "TOPS." If it's any longer than that, he'll pay you $100 per day; 3. He will never raise your price. Once a price is set, it won't change. He won't come back to you for more money; 4. He uses no sub-contractors. He has a cabinet shop and a granite shop in San Jose. The only thing he does not do is HVAC and roofing. Everyone working on the job is "my guys" ; 5. You are his most important job, and he will be personally on-site every day. As you might guess, all of the above are lies. After the first unofficial quote, the written estimate came back 15% more (this was after the "I will not change my price" speech). We actually figured this was okay, because the original estimate provided seemed much too low and was more in line with the other quotes we received. After he brought out the cabinet guy and Brian Curran*, the quote was then raised another $2,000.00. We okayed this, as well, because we did want extensive cabinet work. (**Brian is brought in as the "electrician." But you are never told the license belongs to him. And although I will let Brian speak for himself, it is my personal belief that Brian is a standup guy that was suckered in by Dean like the rest of us. In fact, although I have fired Dean, Brian is doing everything that he can to ensure that the job is completed correctly and to my satisfaction.) Now we're ready to go. Demolition takes place approximately 2 weeks after we hand over our first $15,000 payment. That evening, we receive a call from Wendy, Dean's wife (as of this date, Wendy Geary is listed as CFO / Owner of Bay's Best on LinkedIn). Our kitchen is taken down to the studs. Everything is out. Flooring ripped up, sheet rock torn out. Nothing. It is in that state that we hear that Wendy has made a mistake on our contract and the job is actually $5,800.00 more. To be fair -- she seems genuinely upset. But we did wonder about the timing of all of this. After sleeping on this for a night, we were able to work out a compromise -- bottom line, it would cost us another $1,200.00. In reality, however, they recovered much more than this, because they padded some of the other numbers. So we proceed. I won't go into more, because this review has to end some time. But I will say this -- 1. He instructs his workers to rush to milestones without completing the necessary steps so he can pick up checks per the "contract"; 2. He is never on the job and has no idea what is going on; he will quote you the cost to put in the cheapest materials, and despite stating that any additional cost to upgrade at his cost, he charges a double or triple markup; 3. You find the above out because you find those same boxes at the local Home Depot, because that is where he shops; 4. He makes his workers front the money for materials or demands that you pick them up yourself. 5. He collects money for work up front, but pays his workers for work done in arrears. 5. Firing him was like a bad break up. It was a 45-minute conversation filled with stern words on my part, and promises to change, manipulation and begging to reconsider on his. After you do so, he will threaten to file a lien on your home, even though you have [over]paid him for work that has not been completed. 6. Yes. I have a complaint with the CSLB pending. It is now the middle of the 12th week, right before Thanksgiving, and my extended family just might be going out to celebrate it for the first time ever.