Architects in Newton, MA

“I am delighted to give my strongest possible endorsement to the architectural work of Shelly Wood Ziegelman. We worked together on four projects in the past six years: my extensive house renovation and, at Harvard University, two office redesigns and space planning for a first floor public space. The results were all spectacular (see below). In all four projects Shelly maintained excellent working relationships with contractors, trades people and involved Harvard personnel. This is a remarkable testament to Shelly's warm respect for everyone she works with which, naturally, is repaid in kind. In summary: I live every aspect of my life in wonderful surroundings that have been created by Shelly Wood Ziegelman. I consider this a great blessing and I am delighted to recommend Shelly to anyone who wishes to be similarly blessed. My association with Shelly began with extensive renovations on my house: extension of internal dining room and bedroom areas to include space previously devoted to exterior porches; conversion of the attic into an entirely new space for office or guest accommodations; creation of a ground floor bathroom; and complete renovation of a second-floor bathroom. Shelly's designs were elegant and beautiful, enhancing and modernizing the spaces while remaining true to the 100-year-old style of the house. The newly created third floor space incorporated light, space and a spectacular view and is now the nicest space in the house. Shelly worked seamlessly with me, matching her suggestions to my taste while concomitantly minimizing cost. She is extremely knowledgeable. For example, she knew specific features to accommodated my elderly mother's physical limitations. Shelly always kept the issue of her time and the costs of her services in clear perspective, up front, so there were no surprises. I next asked Shelly to assist in three projects related to my professional circumstances as Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University. (i) She did a total gut re-design of my office, creating a lovely, light, well-configured space accessorized with the perfect furniture and curtains that provided privacy without blocking light. (ii) When I moved, Shelly designed my new office, in a smaller space and an unforgiving location, again to spectacular effect. Everyone who enters, including my colleagues, says "what a wonderful office". Essential features were somehow included in a light, open space. (iii) My move also placed me on a wide, empty airport-like corridor. I asked Shelly to help create a friendly space, which she did. In all three projects, Shelly maintained an excellent working relationship with involved Harvard personnel (including architect John Hollister), exhibiting all of her unique professional skills in full force. Nancy Kleckner Herschel Smith Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology Harvard University”

“Joe Fournier did some great architectual design work on two large projects we did. A large remodel on one property and an almost complete rebuild on a second property. Joe acted as GC on the second job and did a wonderful job keeping things moving, helping us get good decisions made in a timely fashion and working closely with all the trades to ensure the work was coordinated and of high quality. The transformations to our properties were hugely successful and Joe was instrumental in helping us get to a place where the homes work so much better for our lifestyle. Highly recommend Joe's work (and already have several times).”

“We worked with Foley Fiore Architects on a custom home in a suburb west of Boston. As the general contractor's site supervisor I worked very closely with them and can attest that their approach is collaborative, solutions oriented and client driven. Their staff is highly professional and pays tremendous attention to detail and client service. We look forward to working with them again.”

“We have worked with Carl Solander on several projects (large and small) on our 3 family in Brooklyn, NY. He helped us with a full basement reno, 2 bathrooms, and outdoor deck work. We were extremely impressed with his comprehensive knowledge of materials. His designs are modern and beautiful and a pleasure to live in. And lastly, he is awesome to work with- great listener, great work ethic. We have recommended him to several friends who have all been very happy. We are about to use him again on our biggest job yet and are so excited to see the results.”

“Glen is absolutely wonderful. I can't wait to hire him for my next project. He has such great new ideas”

“Pros 1. Excellent client service - readily accessible. Even now - 5 years after he worked with us, we are able to ask him for input on some of his work. 2. Extremely trustworthy and reliable - this is critical for us. He's on OUR side. 3. Great ideas and high degree of flexibility. He was able to see spaces and options that we could not conceive of ourselves (and we feel we are quite design-savvy) 4. Very reasonably priced. We had approached companies and they had pricing based on the value of the potential project (and then tried to upsell designs in order to get to a desired compensation). I.S. Hernandez asked us what we wanted to do, and then designed several options - all based on time. 5. He comes with recommendations of contractors to work with. They are good, but you don't have to choose them. We chose someone different without any issues. Areas you will need to work on: There are a fantastic number of ideas and his creativity is superb. He will give the pros and cons and give a mild opinion. You will have to be decisive and go with what you like.”

“Nick is currently helping me design a 'tiny home' in Southern California. In the past months he has drafted several designs that are typically more and more amazing as we work through it. He listens to your requests and has an extremely amazing artistic talent to think outside box and design something that is truly unique.”

“Collaborating with David Sharff on his projects is a pleasure. His professionalism and his respect for his collegues' contribution give his clients the best possible outcome for their renovaitons. He has taste and style as well as being a perfect gentleman at all times.”

“Diane Lim brought fresh, creative, thoughtful design skills to a tricky remodeling project that involved joining two very different condos in a Back Bay building into one unit. We had worked with her once before on a kitchen remodeling project, which turned out great! She knew our style, which is why we went back to her for this most recent project. Throughout both projects, she was highly professional, knowledgeable, and on-time with her work. With an open and positive outlook, Diane listened to our ideas, and communicated well with our contractor. I have already recommended her to friends, and wholeheartedly recommend her now..”

“My wife and i had a small house in newton, mass. We had at the time three young boys and not enough room for all so we started looking aroind and we found Allen Taylor he came over and started working away on plans for new addition we met with builder and all went perfect never met someone that went out of his way to make shure things were done to specs so we had him draw plans for a garage city approved it and agin everyone involved in building it said they were inrest by him”