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J Fenske Architecture

4.2(
6
)

Architects

About us

jfenske architecture designs custom residential and commercial structures.

Business highlights

27 years of trusted experience

Services we offer

Design documents and drawings, models, renderings; Construction documents, specifications; construction administration

Services we don't offer

We are not a construction company.

Amenities

Accepted payment methods

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Reviews

4.26 Reviews
Write a review
Number of StarsImage of DistributionNumber of Ratings
5
67%
4
17%
3
0%
2
0%
1
17%
Rating CategoryRating out of 5
quality
4.2
value
4.2
professionalism
4.2
responsiveness
4.2
punctuality
4.2
Write a review
Showing 1-6 of 6 reviews
Michael F.
04/2013
5.0
architect
  + -1 more
We are quite happy with Jim Fenske's work particularly his design suggestions, his preparation of technical materials and navigation of difficult rules in a quite restrictive preservation minded city, his practical approach, and his support of our multi-year phased and cost effective projects. Jim is personable, practical, knowledgeable, willing to work at our pace, and well respected by city staff and neighbors. Jim Fenske has completed many home projects in our immediate neighborhood, obtaining repeated business from prior home owners as well as new business from local referrals He has done an excellent job in transitioning our outdated house to a loved and practical home and look forward to a few future projects as time and resources permit. There have been absolutely no problems with completing projects, all work easily passing city inspection and completion of permits.
Description of Work: Multiple home build-out/improvement projects. Jim Fenske's work included multiple project designs, city applications and public review management, construction oversight. Projects included a build out at rear of home well matched with a large trellised rear deck, a full bath, overseeing foundation reinforcement as well as full rewiring and supply side re-plumbing, aged roof repair, complete siding replacement and insulation, and pool solar heating. These projects are ongoing with more planned. Fenske has handled all architectural and engineering aspects of these projects, all permit processes, plus a mix of full construction services on some projects as well as providing direction and assistance on sub contractor and owner performed work.
Rating CategoryRating out of 5
quality
5.0
value
5.0
professionalism
5.0
responsiveness
5.0
punctuality
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$50,000
Ann B.
11/2012
5.0
architect
  + -1 more
We have had a great working relationship with Jim Fenske. He is easy to talk to, he listens to what you want to do (and gently steers you in a different direction if need be). Over the long process of restoring our house, we have come to consider him a friend. One of the real advantages with working with Jim, is that he really understands Craftsman houses, and what things work well, and what things don't. He always gives us options for how to do things..(and will suggest high-end contractors to do the work, or cheaper options if that is what you prefer). We have used a mixture of outside contractors and Jim's own construction crew to do the work. For us, this has worked quite well. We have been very satisfied with our experiences with Jim Fenske Architecture.
Description of Work: Jim Fenske has been assisting us with the complete renovation of our 1907 Craftsman bungalow in South Pasadena since we bought it in late 2004. We have chosen to do the renovation in stages. During the first year, we had the foundation rebuilt in order to bolt the house to the foundation (we are geologists, and it would be really embarrassing if the house fell off the foundation during a major earthquake). During the next year, we gutted most of the house, and restored the original floor plan, replacing nearly all of the windows. The floors, were replaced and the bathrooms were redone, and the porch (which had been boxed into little rooms) was restored. Jim did all of the plans, got the permits, and supervised the work on our house. Last summer, Jim designed a back patio, with a stone staircase, in our backyard. He is currently working on a deck and trellis for us. Next summer, we are planning to have Jim design our new kitchen, which is the last major project remaining for our house.
Rating CategoryRating out of 5
quality
5.0
value
5.0
professionalism
4.0
responsiveness
5.0
punctuality
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$125,000
kelly L.
11/2012
5.0
architect
  + -1 more
We are lcoated in an area where battliing the city is the norm. Luckily, Jim (the owner) was able to smooth thigns over with the "not so nice" neighbors which made the hearing at the City go very smoothly! Our shcedules are very busy and were surprised that he was able to meet us in the evenings and weekends. he was professional, caring and did a great job listening to our visions. Jim catpured our ideas on paper and came up with cost saving ideas we had not thought of. We would of stayed within Jim's projected budget had we note made changes late into the plan. He handled our changes with grace and had a "can do" attitude that we really appreciated as our changes probably caused him a 4 aspirin headache. We have been through 2 heavy rains and everything is great!! His crew was always polite and hardworking. From start to finish we dealth with the owner which was nice. We were extremely happy and would not hesitate to use Jim again on a future project.
Description of Work: We have worked with Fenske Architecture on 2 large remodel projects. Our last project included design, drawings, code research for setbacks, maximum expansion dimensions and budget estimates. We added a master bedroom, new kitchen, 3 new bathrooms, new floors throughout, new roof and redid all antiquated plumbing. Also, new driveway as well and added square footage and roof to garage. He created the plans, submitted to the City of Pasadena planning and following through with minor revisions until the project was completed.
Rating CategoryRating out of 5
quality
5.0
value
5.0
professionalism
5.0
responsiveness
5.0
punctuality
4.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$620,000
Response from J Fenske Architecture
Yay! Go Member, go Member, it's my re-view, my re-view! So hard to ask my clients for reviews. Thank you for being kind and being supportive. I appreciate it. Cheers!
Mindy S.
11/2012
5.0
architect
  + -1 more
All of our projects have come out very well. We have done at least 5 different projects with Jim Fenske on several different properties since 2000. He has exceeded our expectations. He has always given us many different options dependant upon what our budget was for a particular job. He has no problem with you using your own subs but also has a well trained crew that are well versed in all areas. You can also request specific employees that you like to work with. Mr Fenske has always been very present at all of our jobs. I have been able to call him day or night, weekday or weekend and always have gotten a prompt response. If I have had a question at night or on the weekend he has always come over and checked it out for me. He has also always been very fluid with any changes we have made mid project. and has come up with several different options that enable you to save money but still achieve the look and quality you are striving for.WeI will continue to use Jim Fenske Architecture and Construction and am, in fact, starting a kitchen remodel project with him right now. We would highly recommend Jim Fenske for any job, large or small.
Description of Work: I am shocked at the previous review and could not disagree more with their assesment of Fenske Architecture & Construction!!! We have used Jim Fenske multiple times for multiple properties starting in 2000, both residential and business. Mr Fenske has done everything from larger remodels and additions to smaller maintenance jobs for us. He has done, architecture, plumbing, electrical, roofing, tiling, major renovations, additions, complete bathrooms, lighting, outdoor decks, painting, carpeting, wood flooring, etc... for us. He has always given us very specific estimates and has come in at budget. As he is both an architect and a contractor, he can lead your project through from beginning to end.
Rating CategoryRating out of 5
quality
5.0
value
5.0
professionalism
5.0
responsiveness
5.0
punctuality
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$50,000
Response from J Fenske Architecture
Super! You're the best! I'm still blushing from all the praise. Here's to the new kitchen turning out like you imagined it would!
susan B.
08/2011
1.0
architect
  + -1 more
Overall the whole thing was a mess. According to our neighbors he was hardly ever present. They said the workers would sit out front for a few hours at a time. We worked and several times when we came by they said they were taking a 10 minute break. He hired a person that started a fire on our property. I questioned the kid as to why he had done it and he said, and quot; I was bored.and quot; I told the owner I did not want him back he said, and quot;Of course not.and quot; He came back. Another one of his workers stabbed a fellow worker and I said under no circumstances did I want this guy anywhere near my home. He brought him back. This owner lacks any kind of awareness. Comes across very bright and charming. Wolf in sheeps clothing. By the way we were friends for 10 years. His other friend of 30 years is no longer talking to him. He did such horrible work on her home and stole from her as well. UPDATED OCTOBER 29, 2012: see above
Description of Work: This has been a nightmare working with the owner of this company. Initially said the job would take 6 months yet took 3 years and twice the cost quoted us. Workers were not supervised Architech/Contractor never available. Supervision was nil. This company is dishonest. Charged us for things not done. The work is still not complete. Every single window and door is not plumb. Flooring does not match. Window sills crooked some by 1/2 an inch. Cement he poured has huge cracks and causes leaks. Roof of garage is buckling. The list goes on and on. I will post pictures of his work. I know of 3 other people he has done horrible work for. He has also had fellow contractors sued because of HIS work. Do not use this man. UPDATED OCTOBER 29, 2012: Jim Fenske, lied to us and cheated us. We are only one of several people I knowthat have been disatisfied with his work and work ethic. A project that started with drawings in 2007 has not been completed yet, at this late date of 2013. We complained to CSLB and won a judgment against him. After having another contractor come to "fix" Fenske's mess after our complaint was filed with the CSLB, we found even more things that were terribly done, and potentially dangerous. For instance the wrong kind of pipe was used for the gas line for our fireplace. The garage roof is missing a layer and the backing to the tarp paper that was used was never removed...the list goes on and on.According to neighbors his workers were sitting around many hours a day waiting for direction that never came. He left his huge truck for weeks at a time while he tried to get it fixed. An experience so bad I had to go on medication just to get through it. Not to mention the thousands of dollars that were in excess of his original estimate. Also he said it would take 6 months...
Rating CategoryRating out of 5
quality
1.0
value
1.0
professionalism
1.0
responsiveness
1.0
punctuality
1.0
$500,000
Response from J Fenske Architecture
All of my work comes from referral. I don't advertise. One client tells a potential client that they had a good experience and so on. I work mostly in one small town. There's not much wiggle room for mistakes. This unhappy person is an example of the one in a million people that businesses dread working with: someone unable to handle unforeseen problems in any productive fashion. Please notice that she is writing about CONSTRUCTION work. My ARCHITECTURE company, my design work, is not mentioned once. As the architect I designed and drew up a 1200 s.f. addition for the owner (not the person who wrote this negative review).The building is on a hillside lot and the soil is so bad it required a soils and geotechnical review. The original 1200 s.f. house should have been condemned since it was built as an un-reinforced masonry structure, concrete blocks just stacked on each other with no concrete or steel inside. I ran into many hurdles during this remodel. The city took a year to review the drawings and when the design was finished the bids were DOUBLE what the owner wanted to spend which, in my view, was an unreasonable amount. The three people I introduced them to, all very capable local contractors, gave them bids that seemed appropriate to me and I said so. The owner was constantly looking to make things cheaper and to bring the price down even if it meant losing some of the quality I'd designed into the project. During the first months of the project the owner died and I was left to deal with the person who wrote this nasty review. She'd never built or designed anything before and here we were looking at a hillside house sitting on horrible soil with Haiti quality existing construction. The soils engineer insisted that the entire lot, from side property line to side property line be excavated down until he said "stop" which turned out to be eight feet! At this point my client, facing a significant increase in an already strained budget asked how to maintain the original budget and I suggested they go to a "time and materials" method of paying for construction work so they could find their own (mostly) used materials, or bid out work to people they felt were cheaper. They did all their own cabinetry, painting, tile work, drywall finishing, some flooring, some outside excavation for potential water intrusion, fences, etc..She was hell bent on doing it on the cheap. As the architect, I assisted this client in selecting the soils engineer and coordinating with him to the satisfaction of the city requirements, an extra I did for free. I made sure the existing building was reinforced with concrete and steel so it wouldn't collapse in an earthquake by coordinating with a structural engineer and got the appropriate permits from the city all of which I did for free. Instead of my own kitchen design the owner gave the design to a cabinet builder who then designed something the owner didn't want (once she saw it built) because they got the range size wrong which meant the cabinets didn't fit. The electrician on the site couldn't keep up with the changes and so by the end there was a wire sticking out of the wall where the under cabinet lighting should have been but there was no longer any cabinet in that spot because she had designed it out! All of this was done under her supervision. There were endless small mistakes that were a function of meddling, mis-communication and above all, a very difficult project. Every second of this project was dripping in this emotional, panic stricken, unhappy angst which colored every decision and ultimately made for a bad project. I have many happy architectural clients who can tell you about my work. They will gladly give you an ACCURATE depiction of my abilities. I am absolutely positive that the design work I did for this client turned out very nice and I will eventually post pictures of this work on my web site.(This person has no web site to post pictures as she states; just another of many fabrications.) The 1922 existing structure sits thirty feet from the street in a very unpretentious way, a concrete block and steel window Spanish style home with a little portico at the entry and a two piece tile roof done in the historical fashion, not "s" tile, the way tract housing is done. A very cute and simple house. To this I was asked to double the square footage. This meant burying a short garage at the very back of the property which required excavation right at the property line and a long, below grade concrete driveway. The addition extended out the back from a tiny kitchen which opened up to a voluminous ten foot high family room. The 6x12 beams of this twenty foot wide twenty four foot deep great room are bounded on one side by French doors that look into the back yard and up the hill side slope which extends a couple hundred feet. On the other side is a large fireplace and on the driveway side a beautiful, recycled arched door with sidelights. All of these items, the French doors, the firebox, the arched door and all of the framing for the addition, were recycled. This is a colossal effort for any designer: source a product that fits a custom situation such that it is also less expensive to build. Most people not familiar with this industry believe that if the product is used or recycled it should be cheaper to buy and install. This is generally not the case if you include the effort to source it and find the kind of labor required to install it as specified. Add to this a client who wanted control of the finishes and had such high expectations while holding such an unreasonable budget in mind then you have what amounts to this kind of review. During construction it did not help to have the rain blast away at the unfinished project. Although "dried in", in other words sufficiently protected, the final exterior concrete work, which would ultimately have shunted the water from the hill to the street in front, was not in place yet. As a result, the owner felt it necessary to hire a subcontractor who made his own design proclamations which my client decided to follow at extreme expense. This was typical of the project: 1.Architect recommends one method and gets permits for this work, 2.Owner decides to do it their way and asks several other people their opinion, selects most expensive alternative and 3.blames architect for cost over runs and shoddy construction methods. Here's another example of project problems because of this persons interference. As the architect, I write the specifications for the quality of the material installation i.e. stucco should be sand finish or steel troweled finish. Since the project had such a low budget and since the addition was at the rear of the site, the stucco finish was specified to be "sand finish". This is not smooth, not lumpy, just flat but with sand bits on the surface. When the final coat went on the owner complained about the finish not being what she wanted. I explained what I've just written above which is when the threats about lawsuits and Angie's list harassment came out. This person, her mother in law, her husband and a lawyer then started emailing and phoning me, threatening me to do the project the way they wanted, or else. I caved in and had another finish coat put on the addition in a smooth finish at my expense. Most architects would just quit and go to court allowing their insurance to pay to fight these people off but I wanted to finish it. To further illustrate her lack of understanding about this process and what it meant to her budget she hired a tile installer and tried to supervise. This was just too hard for her. I helped source the tile, drove miles with this person to look at deals for seconds and find sales or even Habitat for Humanity materials. A perfect lesson in "no good deed goes unpunished" for sure, although this person would not call what my wife and I did for her a good deed. In addition to all of the hand wringing over whether or not I, as the architect, was doing right by her, there was the subtext of trying to make this addition "green". I found used windows, doors, fireboxes, tile, fixtures, cabinets, faucets, tubs, shower heads, sinks, ovens, pipe, chandeliers, etc. It wasn't just interior design work, it was finding design appropriate finishes that could be used in her restricted budget and then have them installed in a custom way that looked better than whatever magazine this person happened to be worshiping at the moment. I'd call this beyond the call of duty. In addition, I had all of the framing, the huge exposed beams, all of the studs and joists posts, and flooring custom milled from recycled products and approved by the city engineer at no additional cost. Who does all that and stays within budget? The cost over runs were a function of 1. the huge amount of excavation that was not in the original bid, 2.the effort to bring the existing concrete block house up to today's codes with new steel and concrete, also not in the budget 3. the misunderstanding about the quality level that the original budget dictated and the change in finishes made by the owner. The entire project was tainted by the death of the owner, the death of another project participant living in this house, the low level of understanding about construction by this person and finally the willingness to blame others for problems that were a part of this particular and unusual project. I get all of my work by referral and I live in a very small community where I do 90% of my work. This project represents an aberration due primarily to the inability of this person to understand the complex and unforeseen problems. Talk to my other clients, visit my website, walk through some of my projects and please call if you want more information about what you read here.
MIKAN S.
07/2008
4.0
architect
  + -1 more
He gave me an estimate. It was a good experience. He thinks outside the box. He is very hands on. He listens to your ideas. He was very helpful. His price was competitive.
Description of Work: He came to my house and he gave me architectural designs for my home.
Rating CategoryRating out of 5
quality
4.0
value
4.0
professionalism
5.0
responsiveness
4.0
punctuality
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$7,500

    Contact information

    111 Peterson Ave., South Pasadena, CA 91030

    Service hours

    Monday:
    8:00 AM - 6:00 PM
    Tuesday:
    8:00 AM - 6:00 PM

    Licensing

    Insured
    Eco-friendly Accreditations

    LEED Accredited Professional
    No
    Energy Star Partner
    No
    EPA Lead-Safe Certified
    No
    Use Green Products or Work Practices
    Yes
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    FAQ

    J Fenske Architecture is currently rated 4.2 overall out of 5.

    Monday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM

    Tuesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM

    J Fenske Architecture accepts the following forms of payment: American Express,Check,Discover,MasterCard,PayPal,Visa
    No, J Fenske Architecture does not offer free project estimates.
    Yes, J Fenske Architecture offers eco-friendly accreditations.
    No, J Fenske Architecture does not offer a senior discount.
    No, J Fenske Architecture does not offer emergency services.
    No, J Fenske Architecture does not offer warranties.
    J Fenske Architecture offers the following services: Design documents and drawings, models, renderings; Construction documents, specifications; construction administration
    We are not a construction company.

    Contact information

    111 Peterson Ave., South Pasadena, CA 91030

    Service hours

    Monday:
    8:00 AM - 6:00 PM
    Tuesday:
    8:00 AM - 6:00 PM