Get matched with top architects in Ashby, MA

"For our home addition/renovation we are very grateful to have found Richard Connolly and his site iCornerstone. Our vision was a Two-story + basement + livable attic space home addition which would provide significant practical square footage to our existing house and integrate seamlessly with it. We interviewed a number of general contractors but we were overall a bit uncomfortable after the interviews due to gaps in transparency regarding how costs were calculated and how timelines were established, resulting in some lack of confidence. We happened upon Richard’s iCornerstone site via Angies. Richard provided an extremely transparent and detailed description of his unique and practical process, which delivered a set of superb designs along with a truly logical, transparent, and honest listing of costs, both materials and labor, at all stages, and how those costs were derived. Richard also delivered transparency on timelines, and he provided recommendations for all the needed tradespeople that he had historically a close working relationship with; alternatively we could have selected tradespeople of our own choosing. Richard and his process gave us the utmost confidence for proceeding. We proceeded with our renovation under Richard’s guidance and his own crew and the entire process went according to plan with excellent communication, rapport, and confidence at all stages from excavation to final finish work. Transparency, confidence-building, dependability, highly knowledgeable, customer-friendly, and results-oriented are all terms we would use to describe Richard and the iCornerstone process. We strongly recommend Richard for anyone contemplating any home renovation or home addition, large or small."

"I found Johnâ s service through a contractor that I didnâ t end up working with. But working with John was a nice experience. I have plans to do some reno work on my townhouse kitchen, and an important part of the job is to widen the entrance between the kitchen and the dining room. Because itâ s a townhouse structure and the management donâ t know where the original blueprint is, and they require an architectural evaluation and drawing for opening the walls. I had to hire a structural engineer/architect to do the job. John came to my house several times. He did not open the wall to probe. He looked at the structures from the basement to the kitchen and did his engineer calculation and gave me the architectural drawings according to how big I wanted to widen the entrance. I donâ t know anything about architect, but his drawing was sent to the City Hall for permit. I did change my thoughts on the all opening a couple of times, and he always responded promptly and kindly, and made changes accordingly. I had expected a much higher price from contractors for hiring an architect, but John was very reasonable, and said for a small adjustment, it wouldnâ t cost so much. I thought everything went well in our communication and the final product and the value of the work. One thing though, when the city building inspector came, he said where we wanted the wall to end was not sitting on a basement column, and that piece of end wall has to be on a column. So this means I had to put back 6 inches of the wall I had originally cut. I was a little bummed about that. I canâ t say if this is something the architect shouldâ ve known (or maybe building code is slightly different every city?), but I wish I could be better prepared or informed about this particular building code. Overall, I thought it was a good experience and I would recommend JFA Design Group."

"?Evolution Drafting has been very difficult to work with. I have been passed from employee to employee, with unreturned calls and missed appointments. I am still waiting on a meeting to review the changes we want, yet I keep getting emails with their own concept of our project instead of a proper Teams or Google meeting. I was even sent an email to schedule a ?revision if needed,? which makes it feel like I am being blamed for not accepting a design we have never discussed in detail. My time is as valuable as theirs, and the lack of clear communication and follow?through has been extremely disappointing.? I understand that things happen in life, but I also know they have a phone, and a simple call, text, or email would prevent me from wasting my time waiting on them. I have already paid, and it appears I will not receive the final product until after Christmas and New Year?s. I am disappointed.? "

"Customer service was optimal and thorough. All of my questions were answered In A clear and easy to understand way. Friendly and had a good understanding of my needs. Great job! "

"Seth is very knowledgeable and helpful. My project was a feasibility study and he did a great job communicating to me, a layperson."

"We used Luna design services on several very large renovation/new construction projects. And, we were pleased with Joe’s professionalism along with his abilities to work around project build constraints. Therefore, we would use Luna design and recommend them to others; hands down!"

"Marc Hershman is a wonderful architect! He was so easy to work with and offered great ideas for how to improve the house spatially so that the flow of the floor plan(on the first floor) became more aesthetic and efficient. Marc worked tirelessly in the extreme heat of the summer to achieve precise measurements of every inch of the house. His detailed plans were drawn beautifully and accurately and explained articulately in our first meeting. We appreciated Marc's follow up visits to ensure that the construction was done properly and according to plan. Marc related to the contractor in a positive and professional manner. Overall, Marc was always professional and prompt. We found his pricing to be extremely reasonable- great value for the dollar! We would definitely work with him again and highly recommend Marc Hershman to anyone in need of high-quality architectural services."

"He was responsive. He took ourselves on the account.He had a very reasonable price."

"Ed was terrific to work with and notably very responsive. In a big complicated project, Ed made himself available on our schedule so my wife and I could make revisions to the design after the kids went to bed. He was also very quick so we could get to full plans in a couple months instead of a much longer process I experienced with other designers. Ed also uses a great 3D software package allowing us to visualize the design from start to finish. Now that our project is built it's amazing how much the real thing looks like the virtual walk-throughs we did. Probably the only real challenge came in that our project had complex structural engineering to do. It all worked out in the end but with communication between designer to engineer to contractor to framers aspects of the work were lost and it took some rework to address. Ed was very responsive as always in working with everyone to figure it out. Ed was also very helpful in keeping the project practical and helping to identify a great contractor who saved us a ton of money. We couldn't have done the full scope of our project without that lead. So many other designers and architects we talked to, even high-end expensive architects, didn't use good 3D CAD software for the design phase. I can't imagine doing a big complicated project without that tool and Ed is expert in its use and it's a huge value-add. You really get to walk through your project and try it out before building it. We're finishing up our project and I haven't found anything yet that seems out of place or the wrong size - it's great! And again, above all Ed is fast and responsive which is a unique quality among almost everyone we've worked with. Recommended!"