JIM WOODWORTH ARCHITECT

You should know these things before you get involved with him.

He is a mediocre architect & an extremely poor general contractor.

So basically what was originally quoted as a$150k renovation project mushroomed through Jim's clever/devious use of Change Orders to $297,250.   My banker on the construction loan said that he had never seen so many change orders in all of his 20 years of experience.  Of course, by the time, the change orders started to roll up we were already 1/2way into the project.  The only option we had was to go along or try to find another contractor.  The former seemed like the safest, if costly, option.  The devil you know...I guess.

My wife and I brought a bunch of ideas that we had on how the house should be designed and how it should look.  We spent hours going through books and magazines looking for particular aesthetics and design elements that we wanted. Put them into several binders.  Jim never even looked at them.  Didn't consider them at all.  In fact, was downright contemptuous of them - pointing out how they didn't work without even engaging on alternatives.

When we talked about budget my wife & I repeated that we'd like this renovation to be a value proposition - keeping costs low so that we didn't end up "under water" on the final loan.  Jim responded, "ohh. Get as much from your construction loan as possible" with a weird elfish grin like he had just tasted the most wonderful cheesecake and couldn't contain himself.   Of course, this wasn't to protect us, this was so that he could get as much from the project as possible.  You see, I mentioned earlier that his wife is a realtor, so he knew how much we paid for the house, he knew the neighborhood in which the house was located and he calculated (to the penny) with his wife's expertise, how much a renovation would fetch in a reappraisal.  From then on, for Jim, it was simple math in how to squeeze, through a series of Change Orders - 13 to be exact, to continually up the cost of the project and increase his profit.

Jim knew that my wife and i had closed on the house and the gun had gone off to complete the house since my wife & I were living in (&paying for) a separate apartment while the construction was ongoing.  So the clock favored him and his point of view.  

So this is how Jim does general contracting:  Once the design was completed & the demolition was underway, my wife & I repeatedly asked what the plan was? When would we be working with Jim to pick out faucets, lights, doorknobs, etc.  Week after week. Until finally we get a call from Jim: "Let's get together and pick out the shower head, bathtub, mirror, faucets - today!"   Of course, this was because the plumber subcontractor was onsite and finishing up his preparation work  on the master bath and was expecting these products so that they could be installed.  Otherwise, he'd have to come back at extra cost to the project.  So, no, Jim is not a good project manager.  There's an old saying "if you wait til the last minute to do something, then it only takes a minute to complete."  Kinda Jim's modus operandi - cause as far as he's concerned his big accomplishment was the architectural layout.  The rest of the effort was annoying, especially having to cater to a client's taste.  

Regarding his architectural design:  We went through several iterations, not that unusual I am told.  But the truly great aspect of the design came from my wife wanting a 'mud room'.  Jim disdainfully said "St Louis homes don't have mud rooms!"  After much back and forth we finally (remember we're the client here) got Jim to change the design.  Afterwards, the biggest comments from friends and family is what a great notion the mud room is.  Of course, Jim represents it as his design and (I'm sure) shows it to prospects as his idea.

The absolute last straw came when my sister and her family came to visit this past summer (the first summer we were in the house).  St Louis in July, as folks know, can be very hot indeed.  Well, I noticed that the upstairs A/C wasn't generating any cooling whatsoever from the vents.  So i called Jim & he came out and looked at it and said "Well, you need a AC unit upstairs. (because to push cool air from the basement is not a practical solution)"  To which I replied "wait a minute, we didn't get a central air solution?!?".  To which Jim replied, "That wasn't in the plan.  Go back and look at all the change orders.  We had planned to extend the heating/cooling to the house expansion, but we didn't build in upgrades to the current house."  To which i replied, "Hold it.  I told you from the beginning that we expected a complete AC/Heating solution. We spent almost $300,000 on this complete renovation of the house & now you're telling me that cooling our upstairs is an 'extra' expense?  That is completely unacceptable."  To which Jim replied "well, i can recommend some HVAC contractors that you will have to pay for."  He recommended the same subcontractor that did the initial work - (besides the fact that this is ridiculous) why would i hire the exact same team that didn't do what it should've done to begin with - namely ensure that the upstairs cooling solution was satisfactory. So there it is again: Jim didn't factor that into the project budget & so, rather than making the client whole, he basically said 'screw you - you idiot!  didn't you read between the lines on the literally 100's of line items to notice that there wasn't a line item for an air conditioner installation upstairs and without that in St Louis summer you would never get any noticeable AC in an upstairs portion of your house'. Remember folks: he was the general contractor! This was his responsibility to get this detail right.

We've subsequently had an independent contractor assess the HVAC issue in our upstairs rooms.  This contractor evaluated the insulation and the lack of Air Conditioning and noted that there is no insulation in walls of the upstairs bedrooms.  A situation that could result in frozen pipes, if the weather got really cold.  When I confronted Jim about this assessment he said "Why would we put insulation in those walls?  Those were plaster and didn't need to be gutted.  So, there was no reason to do any work other than to paint the walls."  A response I found absolutely infuriating - what General Contractor of good faith doesn't explain the situation and the risks of not addressing the task?  Well, one who doesn't really care about what happens to you when you live in the house.

 Another detail, his team put gutter guards on the addition to the house, but didn't put them on the 'whole', existing house. Its stuff like that which makes you question everything that was done and the propriety of it.  There is a saying "Character is measured by what you do when people aren't looking."  

Another kinda crass move by Jim related to something i heard subsequently from our granite guy.  Out of desperation (since we began to seriously question Jim's intentions) we asked our banker to recommend a granite & countertop contractor.  He did & the team was fantastic. The granite guy was so good in identifying just the right granite (great personal style) and installing our granite (which we are very happy with) that Jim asked him to come and redo his personal home's bedroom 'Gratis'/free in the expectation that Jim would recommend the granite guy in future projects...a real sleazeball tactic.  But now that I know Jim's tactics it is not surprising.

He's disdainful of his clients: At one point

Ballwin requires that a modification to an exterior wall be signed and sealed by a professional architect or engineer. I called Jim, he dropped by later the same day, reviewed my design and drawing, and signed off on it.

We started out with a remodel, and then decided to do an addition. He does good work but is very opiated. I think the price was fair. We had to stand firm in what we wanted. We like the overall result, however it took a while to get there. I would maybe use him again in the future.