Shepphird Associates

After interviewing several architects we chose to work with Shepphird Associates. The scope of the project was on large scale. Complete build cost/budget was close to $1.0 million. I would not enter into any agreement with this much money on the line and the fact that this was my home.

Will and his team were outstanding to work with.  They are the utmost professionals. They were involved in every step of the process. Assisted and or managed the process from permits, lot line adjustments, interviewing contractors and vendors.  Would highly recommend and retain their services again.

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We had hired another engineer to provide expertise and help meeting the city requirements on a large multi-deck construction project.  As the project progressed, we became concerned that this engineer was not competent and was not doing all of the things he was charging us for.  We became so concerned that we hired Mr. Shepphird to audit the work of the original engineer.
Mr. Shepphird was very knowledgeable, competent, and he responded quickly.  He found that the original engineer had net even done the calculations required.  We used the reports from  Shepphird Associates to confront the original engineer with evidence to back up our suspicions that he was not providing careful professional advice and oversight on our project. 
The next time we need an engineer, we will go directly to Mr. Shepphird.  He is not only highly professional and competent.  He is a man of his word and very pleasant to work with. 

It did not go well. Mr. Shepphird advertised his services for jobs both large and small. I related to him that we wanted to accomplish the reconstruction of a front wall with garage in a way that would later not get in the way of adding a second story to the structure so that would be allowed. We went around several times with his proposed contract which struck me as sort of open ended and not product oriented but eventually I agreed to do that. He had estimate that his design services would, maybe, approach $12,000, which was somewhat more than I was comfortable with. But, eventually I agreed to proceed on that basis. After he had billed me for approximately $6,000 and not accomplished any deliverables thus far, it became apparent that we were going to spend a lot more money than I was prepared to spend on a lot of tasks that I thought were not very productive. We had some very terse exchanges. He apparently believes that he needs to proceed as he desires. Most of the money apparently was spent on a survey of the yard and other surrounding properties which I thought was unnecessary and unneeded for the kind of planning that we needed. We eventually parted company after I paid a little less than $3,800, which was completely lost money for me. My advice to others is that he seems to want to work in the way that he wants to; it may or may not be consistent with what their initial perceptions and own needs are. He probably is not prepared to be overly responsive to small jobs that have cost constraints. I'm sure he is a capable and respected professional but he does have a particular mode of working that may not suit everybody's needs. The only product I got was a site sketch and what he did prepare was competent.

The design process was fast and thorough. Matt and Tim explored and documented the structural elements of the house. First doing as-built drawings, then exploring the foundation structure to see if we could remove the soffits and use stacked walls to run HVAC ducts. Then we went to plan check and have a permit-ready set of drawings on the first go-around. No structural changes or recalculations were required which was quite nice. Then Tim assisted us in redesigning the kitchen and master suite. We expanded the closets, and rearranged and reduced the number of doors. Then they prepared the elevation drawings to match our discussions.
We couldn't ask for a better team.
We are now waiting for contractor bids that Will is going to review and compare to help us select the pick of the litter.
While we have not completed the project, Will Shepphird has consistently attended to our questions and concerns is the most personable and professional manner. He has been our advocate throughout the process. His team listens well and prepared preliminary designs for finishes and lighting that nearly nailed it on the first round.
If the building process is as smooth as the design process we will be very very happy.

Will was excellent. Easy going and willing to explain both his assessment of the structure and the observations he relied on to arrive at his conclusions. He took the time to investigate all the particular concerns we had as well as do a general structural assessment. We're very glad we had him come out for an inspection.

Tim Eng (Shepphird Associates) walked us through the entire remodel of our newly-purchased home. He provided invaluable advice, introduced us to excellent contractors and subcontractors, and, most importantly, brought attention to detail and an eye for good design to our remodel project. He took the time to thoroughly understand what kind of home would make us happy and comfortable. His ideas were great. He took our vague opinions and preferences and expressed them as a coherent design and renovation plan. He was there for every detail, like selection of materials and finishes, as well as midstream adjustments to make the end product the best it could be. We were very glad for his efforts.

My experience with Will was WONDERFUL. I live in a mid century cantilevered stilt house that is very structurally complicated. Will took a lot of time to look at the whole structure to understand how everything was working before advising on a cement problem in the carport. He spent over an hour with me and discussed a lot of the long term preservation issues he saw. Will has a refined architectural eye and was attune to our goals of preserving the historic nature of our house. I plan to work with Will in the future as projects on our home continue. I would highly recommend him to anyone.

Perfectly punctual. Pleasant, professional demeanor and appearance. I explained our needs, gave a tour of the whole home, with an emphasis on the rooms in question. He evaluated them from the interior and exterior, and provided us with several options, including the unvarnished truth. We discussed Los Angeles building codes, cost benefit ratios and other relevant data.

Great. He solved my problem.

I had absolutely no idea how to go about resolving or dealing with our potential problem. A friend of mine recommended Mr. Shepphirds firm because he had worked with him before. (My friend is a contractor) Mr. Shepphird is a professional through and through! He could have taken advantage of the situation and I would never have known. Instead, he set forth contractual terms that encompassed drawing out an entire new set of blue prints complete with "structural changes" for a 3 story apartment complex at a set price BUT also explained that due to the nature of our possible problem, he wanted to propose a second case scenario that would entail ONLY BILLING for hours actually spent on the project IFall that happened was background and a question/answer with the case manager for the City of Los Angeles. Our first meeting until completion of the job was 2 weeks and as it turned out, our "large project" was not necessary due to extenuating circumstances. I can't say enough nice things about Mr. Shepphird and his firm! Our situation could have gone either direction and the fact that he was just fine with finding out the answers regardless of the financial benefit to him was truly refreshing in todays market place. GOD BLESS PEOPLE LIKE MR. SHEPPHIRD! I highly recommend his firm and will absolutely use them again!

Fabulous experience. Will was able to come out the same day I called. He quickly identified the issue with the wall. I would highly recommend him.

I am looking to remove some interior walls make a bigger room to accommodate a kitchen renovation. Will took a look in my attic and examined some architectural plans. He made some suggestions about how I could sisters the the joists to make sure the celling would not sag. He was helpful, friendly and legitimately interested helping me understand the problem. A totally pleasure. He also came the same day I called.

We initially contacted Will by e-mail to see if our project was something they would take on (a lot of structural engineers aren't interested in small residential problems like ours). He assured us that it was, but was upfront about his availability due to being out of town. We contacted him by phone after he returned to town as he requested and he was able to come out that same day. He looked over our ceiling, climbed up into the attic and made some recommendations for our contractor. He also offered to come back once the contractor had the ceiling open to do calculations for the repair work. Once the contractor had the ceiling open, we called to have him come back out but he was at another site. We ended up e-mailing him photos of the open ceiling and he called back and had a long phone consultation with our contractor. He was able to give the contractor a clear enough picture of the scope of work that our contractor was able to gather supplies and set up prep work and they agreed to meet first thing the next morning. Everyone was on time for the meeting of the minds which lasted almost an hour. Will provided drawings, calculations, and instructions as the seriousness of the problem and therefore the scope of the work expanded. Will was consistently personable, professional, and knowledgeable. We felt from the very first meeting that we were in good hands. He was reliable and responsive and managed to prioritize his schedule and use other means of communication (digital photos, phone calls) to remain present to our little project when called away to other things so that our project did not lose time. We sincerely hope to not have this kind of problem again, but if we did we would be sure to call Will.

He was very prompt, came out the same week to look at it. He did recommend some minor repairs. He gave us a report with details about how the repairs should be done. He also recommended companies to do the work. I was happy with his service. He was prompt and answered all our questions timely.

Our home is older, built in the 1930's. We remodeled our kitchen last year and added heavy granite on our raised foundation. I wanted to know if the foundation was still in good shape. I found Will on Angie's list, and he had such glowing reports I had to call him, even though he was in Los Angeles and we are in Southern Orange County. He listened to my concerns, and suggested calling a contractor he occasionally worked with to come and check out our house and, if needed, do the repairs at the same time. Shepphird Associates does not do the actual construction. I left a few messages for the contractor but he was unavailable (turns out his wife was having a baby!). In the meantime I contacted a local structural engineering company that came out and told us our entire foundation needed to be rebuilt at an estimated cost of $20,000 - $40,000. This left us very worried. This particular contractor did not follow up with a formal bid or report. So I called Will back and asked him if he would come out and give us his informal opinion. At this point I felt I did not trust the local structural company's assessment, since they would be the people actually doing the work. Will came out that very afternoon, crawled under the house, and then drew us some rough diagrams of what was under there and what should be strengthened. He said there was no need to worry, and the house had stood the test of time, and we were in basically decent shape. We were able to have a GC come out and do the repairs using the sketches. He was very professional, and a very nice person. I would highly recommend him.