MARC S KOLLIAS, ARCHITECT

Great! This review is long overdue. Marc was fair with his price and very meticulous with plans. We hired him after many interviews with other architects in 2014. Always was available as building was in process to address problems that arose with our builders. He also solved the problem of our garage flooding when we had a hard rain. Think of him often because he saved us tons of money and headaches! He went above and beyond the call of duty.

We worked with Mr. Marc Kollias  to finish a 1000 sq. ft.  attic space. 
Mr Kollias was a pleasure to work with from the first meeting and
throughout the entire process. He was always honest with us, organized, 
and very detail oriented.  He was always on time and prompt for
meetings and with returning our many phone calls. He provided some great
ideas on finishing the space.  We  are extremely happy with the plans
he drew up. He listened carefully to what we wanted and continued to
have very creative ideas as the project progressed which added to the
usefulness of the space and the aesthetics  which gave us a great end
result.
    He went above and beyond our expectations. When we had
some issues with the County, he called them directly and work with them
to help us get our issues resolved. He was also very good at working
with our builder. My husband and I are extremely pleased with our new
space and would absolutely use him again and recommend him to anyone for
any project.

Marc did a great job working the roof lines on our addition, we had an awkward porch (that we loved) and he re-conceived the roof line to integrate that into the addition and existing house. Our addition looks like it belongs.
Additionally, we were very concerned about the addition feeling "tacked onto the back of the house"  We have a floor plan that wasn't conducive to a flow towards the back of the house, Marc did a nice job and people are often surprised that the addition was completely new. Marc took our ideas, made suggestions and came up with something that we are delighted to live in.

still in process but going fine

Timely and fair.  Would work with Marc again.

unknown

He was really good. We had a few problems that we were facing at the first floor, he thought and got out a solution in how to make it look more modern or transitional, because we have a house that is a little bit closed up. So he got up and opened up the first floor a little bit more to make it up-to-date. We were extremely pleased with his work.

When Marc initially came by our house to bid the job, he spent an hour with us trying to figure out how we could remove the wall. This was before we even hired him!

The load bearing wall we wanted to remove had 3 hvac cold air returns running through it. Our contractor did not have a clue on how to address the problem. Marc came up with a creative solution that allowed us to execute our dream kitchen / house.

During the construction process, our contractor wanted to cut corners and not follow Marc's design. Marc held his ground and made sure the contractor followed the proper plans. We now have absolutely no concerns about cracked ceilings or the structural integrity of our house.

Marc always returned calls promptly and was very professional. His ideas were key in giving us our dream kitchen!

Marc was fantastic. He met with us 5 or 6 times to review every detail of what we wanted in our new kitchen. He asked a lot of questions about our lifestyle, how we entertain, day to day activities in the kitchen, etc. The end result was a fantastic design for our new addition and basement and very professional blueprints. Mark offered to meet with the prospective contractor we picked and would be available throughout the entire project if we needed him. He was the best!

Marc gets A's for all of the categories which you are requesting. I would hire him for a future job and I would recommend him to a friend.

We contacted Marc in February 2008. Marc was wonderful through this whole ordeal with the city. We had to work with the zoning commission and city council to get the easement vacation to obtain a building permit. Marc worked with the city, the surveryor, our lawyers and the contractor we hired to get everything settled so we could actually begin to build. We received our building permit on December 30, 2008. Because we had to go before the zoning commission in a public hearing we had to let neighbors know what was going on. Marc provided us with artist renderings of the addition and what it would look like once completed. These renderings helped us get through the zoning commission and city council meetings. Since construction started in February 2009, Marc has been by to make sure things are going as planned. Marc Kollias has gone above and beyond the call of duty through this whole process. We highly recommend him and would use him again, if needed.

Marc was always very professional, made various suggestions and pointed out potential problems and issues. We would definitely recommend him and would use him again if the need arises.

He is great. He is redesigning the front of the house for more space and cosmetic appeal. He is very professional. Prefer others would call for their own estimate. But he is very reasonable.

Overall, I was very satisfied with Marc's performance. There was a slight glitch at the beginning where he had to cancel a meeting at the last minute, and his initial turn-around of the concept was a bit slower than we expected, but what we got at the end was an extremely satisfactory product. The thing that really impressed me about Marc was that, before I even paid him a dime, he did some extensive research into the Downers Grove building codes to determine whether or not what we wanted to do was even feasible. He then walked me through what we could and could not do over the phone. After that, Marc came out and sat down with us to review some of the photos we had found on the web and in our neighborhood for porches that we really liked, then produced an initial draft of the new porch look/feel against our existing house. After a couple of iterations, he flushed out that initial drawing with some very low-level and technical plans. Marc also had some great recommendations regarding materials we might want to use and how we should make best use of them. I'm pleased with Marc and his process, delivery and end product.

Marc did an outstanding job converting our split-level into a prairie style home. What a transformation! He thoughtfully incorporated all of our wishes into the plan which gave it our own personal touch. Without his abundant patience and insight, we couldn't have achieved this amazing outcome. Above all, you would never guess this was an addition; the design flow is seamless. We highly recommend Marc to anyone who has a dream of transforming their current home into something not only more functional, but beautiful as well. Vance and Colleen

Marc made an excellent design both matching what we wanted and what best fit the look of our home. Work was complete including area building codes and updated mechanical systems. Trouble free when looking to make revisions to drawings. Very professional and timely.

Very professional, lots of good ideas. Listened well and created a plan to meet my ideas and improved on them all. On his first visit he checked out all the systems (heating, ductwork, plumbing, sewer) to make sure what I thought could be done could be done and then worked the design around the structural limitations. Very responsive and timely to design changes required by local municipality. Very good at communicating options and pros and cons.