Milano & Associates Architects

I found Lili Milano and Associates Architects through Angie's list and I am so glad to have found her! Anytime there is a construction project, it first starts with a great architect and design. We completely gutted our kitchen and removed 3 load bearing walls for an open concept living area. From start to finish Lili was professional, listened to our ideas and provided great design input. When it was time to approve the plans through the city, Lili arranged to have her engineer there to have any questions answered. Her follow through to the end of the project was truly appreciated. Lili has a wealth of knowledge and also fantastic recommendations for contractors and interior designers. We hired a contractor and interior designer that Lili recommended who have the same high work ethic and professionalism as she does! It now feels good coming home, walking into such a beautiful and peaceful home. I cannot believe it is MY home! I whole heartedly recommend Lili Milano!

Lili was very easy to work with. She was on time for our appointments and most of our communication was via email which made it fast and easy to get things done. She coordinated with the structural engineer and the title 24 person. She made it a very easy project and I would gladly recommend her.

Lili was very professional and a pleasure to work with. My neighborhood is a good one but not a wealthy one. The project was very expensive--the garage was completely demolished and replace and the house reduced to the sub-floor and a few studs. Lili was concerned, because of the location, that I would not be able to get out what I put into it if I had to sell the house after the remodel. She had a real estate friend price the house before and after the remodel--based on the size and configuration of the house I wanted. Then we talked over the pros and cons of remodeling versus moving and the costs involved. I greatly appreciated having a knowledgeable person to work this out with. She did not have to do this and if I had decided to move she would have been out almost all of her fee.
Lili represented me to the city building department in a way that I could not have done on my own. She knew my needs and she knew how to talk to city representatives. She also was good at finding design solutions for me that would fit within the code requirements of the city.
Lili was very helpful, professional and responsive in a huge once-in-a-lifetime project. The result is a very beautiful house that my friends and neighbors love and that is a pleasure for me to live in.

Lili was very organized, responsible, and professional. In addition to staying on top of her own tasks, she even tried to help us negotiate a good deal with a land surveyor. She delivered the drawings in a timely manner and helped us secure a permit for our multi-step remodeling process. This smooth process gave us a good start to our remodeling project.

While polite, architect was and quot;aggressiveand quot; and resistant to our more deliberate approach. We also had an unexpected health-related delay, which resulted in architect terminating agreement, despite our explanation. As a result, we paid for those services rendered, although not near complete. We would not use this architect's services in the future.

We decided to remodel our 3 bedroom 2 bathroom single story home ( about 1350 sq ft) , built in 1954. We needed to remodel the 2 bathrooms and add more living space to the house, taking advantage of a deep underutilized front yard and an old deck and generally improve on the layout of the floor plan. We interviewed several architects some of which were recommended by friends and neighbors. We also interviewed Lili, whom we found through Angie's List.

Lili came to the interview very well prepared based on preliminary information we had given her regarding the project we wanted to undertake. She came to our home with a big portfolio and showed us some of her recent projects which were very close in scope and purpose to what we intended to do. She was also the most reasonably priced and at the end we decided to work with her. She did her job very efficiently, would take minimal time to prepare new drawings and incorporate modifications we discussed but did not pressure us into making quick decisions. Lili and Sandra Estrella, the Structural Engineer she works with, were very precise and complete in preparing the drawings and documents to present to the Planning and Building departments and as a result the project approval process was very smooth. The Building department did have a few comments, but Lili and Sandra addressed them, resubmitted the appropriate documentation and we got our permit soon after.

Lili has a very good sense of space and came up with a floor plan that is practical and at the same time elegant. If you talk extensively to Lili about your wishes and ideas at the early stage of the project, she will be very good at understanding your needs and your style and translate those ideas into several plan options. In addition to working well with the Structural Engineer, she also made good recommendations for Site Survey and Soil Engineers. Lili was also the person who recommended the contractor we are working with, Shawn Bowman. He is also a very responsible and knowledgeable person. The project is now 1/3 completed and we are very pleased with it. Lili's communication style is precise and to the point! She's very professional in her interactions.

We are very happy that we decided to work with Lili!

After an exhaustive search for turn key homes on the market in our price range during 2007/2008, we decided we would need to build a home to our specifications. We interviewed Lili and were immediately impressed with her ideas, knowledge, communication, and of course her lively personality captured us. We purchased a small 2 bedroom house in the Willow Glen area of San Jose. We engaged Lili to draw up plans to convert our 1100sqft house into a beautiful 3000+ sqft home. We met with Lili to discuss our criteria and give her our wish list. After the first draft was sent back to us, we met to discuss the concepts and design and talk thru some changes. Always within a day or two, Lili provided drafts with new ideas implemented. This went on for many cycles until the drawings were perfect. Lili was always willing to work with our ideas. Lili also dealt with the planning and building department of San Jose. Without her help, I don't know that I would have survived that particular process! Lili came by during the construction to see how things were going, and she also came back after the project was complete. She is genuinely interested in our satisfaction. We've been in our new home for 18 months and constantly get compliments on the layout. Lili did an amazing job and I wouldn't hesitate to use her again if/when we build again. She was such a pleasure to work with. We absolutely love our home and it all started with her.

We bought a small home in Palo Alto. We hired Lili to design an addition of aproximately 700 sq feet wich included redesigning the existing 900 sq feet floor plan. Lili quickly picked up the idea we had and improved it! We interviewed 2 architects before Lili and we were impressed with her creativity and knowledge. She was always available and came back with requested changes, some times the same day. Lili made several visits to Palo Alto City Planning Department to get approved the re opening of an existing garage that was converted into a bedroom. Palo Alto has very strict building codes, several changes had to be made to the design in order to get the building permit. Lili was on top of everything the entire time. Last but not least, Lili has a lovely personality we absoltely enjoyed working with her!. We are planning on a future second addition and we will absolutely work with her again. She is talented, professional and her fees were very reasonable.

I think it went well overall. She came and met with us, listened to what we wanted to do, and gave us some good suggestions and options about what could be done with the home. She was very fast and responsive; we would ask her to make small changes to the plan and it would be done within one or two days and we were emailed copies. I my experience, you have to wait one or two weeks to have an architect get back to you. There were several meetings with her because we were constantly making changes, examining it, and going over different options. The process can really drag on but she does it much quicker so that she can have reasonable plans to you in a couple of months. Her costs were very reasonable.