Ricardo Garcia Architects

I hired Ricardo to put together architectural drawings for a full gut rehab of a 3 unit apartment building including full interior demo and installation of all new plumbing, HVAC, electrical, finishes, etc. Throughout the process, Ricardo was very helpful with answering any questions I had; during our conversations I could tell how passionate and knowledgeable he is about his work. As promised, he delivered the final architectural plans and navigated us through the standard plan review process until we were provided with a building permit from the City of Chicago. I would definitely recommend Ricardo and his team and look forward to working with them again on the next project.

Ricardo was great to work with. He’s very friendly and responsive. He does good work and really helped every step of the way. He was priced fairly compared to other Chicago architects, too. I would definitely recommend Ricardo to anyone in Chicago looking to do a home remodel or addition.

Ricardo helped us completely restructure our home to fulfill our dreams, and then get the permits. He created plans to make the basement deeper, recreate an entire side of the house, retructure rooms, beams to reinforce the structure, staircases, extended the addition on the second floor, roofing, siding, decks, plus all of the internal plans for plumbing, electric, HVAC, and a new garage. He went above and beyond what he had promised, as our neighbors caused us every problem you could think of. He is skilled and very professional, with the licence and certifications to back it up. I checked his credentials after finding him on Angie's list. He remains in good communication throughout the whole process. I would recommend him to my closest relatives, and would hire him again in a heartbeat. The price was well worth it for the services given.

I shopped around extensively for an architect, interviewing several candidates and Ricardo stood out from the pack. He was punctual, showing up on time for every meeting and meeting every deadline he set. He listened to our requirements and took everything into account when designing the structure. He provided ideas and thought of details that we hadn't considered and added a lot of value to the design aspect of our project. His team's thoroughness resulted in plans that were comprehensive in scope and thorough in detail making the completion of the construction and the acquisition of permits very smooth. Our project was approved on the first run by the village with no revisions needed. Our village has a reputation for difficulty so this was no small feat. We will definitely be working with Ricardo and his team on our next project and I recommend their services with the highest level of confidence.

I met with 3 architects before I found Ricardo and I'm so glad I continued to shopped around! Ricardo is very knowledgeable and personable. Plus his quote was half of what the other architects were charging. He was very honest and told me that he did have a lot of ongoing projects, so the turn around time wouldn't be the quickest. I appreciated that his honesty because a lot of people in the construction industry will promise you everything just to get the job and then it ends up costing more or taking longer. And in the end, it didn't matter because we made up a ton of time submitting for the building permit as a self certified project. We got our permit in 11 business days! He was also very helpful when I had to bid out the project for a (new) General Contractor because the one I was originally planning to use strung me along for several months and then disappeared/stopped returning my calls. Ricardo made himself available to the contractor I ended up hiring and answered questions that came along during the construction project.

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Ricardo provided a free consultation for questions I had to converting a 2 unit to a third. Ricardo was quickly responsive and provided professional and very detailed answers to my questions. Ricardo is very knowledgeable with city code, zoning and legal requirements. Very professional and passionate in his trade! I recommend Ricardo for any consulting and Architectural needs!

I'm in the planning/budgeting phase of a redo and I called Ricardo to come out to give me an idea of the scope of work I needed done.  He was very responsive to my call.  He came in with his contractor to see the place, ask the right questions, he offered some suggestions and I overall felt comfortable that he knows his stuff.  I would highly recommend his services.  I am still in the planning/budgeting phase but I will most definitely call Ricardo when I am ready to move onto the next phase.

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It went very smoothly.  He was able to assist me whenever any structural issues arose.

Very well, very professional, pleasure to work with!

Unfortunately, we were not able to build the deck.  While Ricardo was very responsive to our requests, and requests from the city department of building, he was just not that familiar with building code when it came to roof decks.  (To be fair, I don't know that the city people were terribly familiar with the code either, and they seemed to be out to get us.)  It was a three month long exercise in frustration.  While Ricardo was responsive and made very thorough plans, it just didn't work out.  I have no doubt he would do well with a more routine home or garage project, and he is very easy to work with.

I?m afraid Mr. Garcia is a victim of Angie?s List success, a
condition in which a high-ranked vendor is overwhelmed with requests for
services and can?t keep up. Mr. Garcia came to our house on April 29 to talk
about the work we wished to do. He explained that he was very busy but would
have time in late summer, which was fine with us. He agreed to return to
discuss the project in greater detail with both my husband and me. I called him
on May 22 to ask about another meeting, and he said he would get back to me; he
did not. Finally, I emailed him on May 27 but have yet to hear from him. I can
understand vendors being too busy to take on another client, but they should at
least be upfront about their schedule and decline work rather than just disappearing.

Ricardo came to the house to do his drawings, and was punctual, professional, and a joy to be around. He was responsive and helpful, dealing with the city and the permits quickly. He did everything we needed and then some!

I received what was requested and when my building required more information he did it.. Ricardo also did the contacting to clarify any outstanding questions and made the necessary decisions for my project.  I am so very thankful.

We decided to move forward with our remodel and utilize Ricardo's architectural services to draw up plans for the basement. We scheduled and appointment for the Labor Day weekend. He called to cancel due informing us it was due to a family emergency and stated he would follow up early the following week. He did not follow up. I decided to check in via text to see if he was still interested in the project and hoped everything was ok on his end. He did not respond. To me that is unprofessional. A response would have been appropriate. Simply let us know you are not interested and we'll move on. I hope everything is ok on his end.

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Ricardo was excellent to work with very quick to respond via email, phone or txt. He was pretty busy but was able to squeeze us in. He was also very good with working the lay out to our specific needs and was able to come up with creative solutions for our space issues.

very well, he went above and beyond to make sure all the questions from the city were answered

They did a great job. He was very thorough and he went through all the steps to get the plans approved by the city. The work was high quality and he explained what he was doing. He brought several designs to give us choices. He had great availability and worked with our schedule as well.

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