KRUGER ARCHITECTURE

The entire process went great with Christoph. I had an idea what I wanted, but not really. Christoph was able to take what little info I gave him and create exactly what I had envisioned. Unfortunately my landlord sold the property and I wasn't able to do the actual remodel. Kruger Architecture came in on time and on budget. I am hoping the opportunity arises to where I use them again.

Our project with Christoph went exceptionally well.  He designed the the perfect plans for our 2nd story addition, and worked hard to listen to our requests and feedback.  He was then able to incorporate them in ways that exceeded our expectations.  He knew and planned for all of the details we needed for our complete re-do of the main bath and kitchen.  When we were thinking aesthetics, Christoph was considering the function and flow of the space and where furniture would be placed.  When we realized we needed a storage closet, Christoph was able to envision the best place for it in our layout.  Christoph was always on time (usually there before us), quick to respond to questions, and followed through with all expectations that were laid out.  He was technically very proficient and knows how to navigate all of the city's requirements and bureaucracies.  He also worked well with our contractor to ensure a smooth build process.  
We will be doing more work on our house in the future and will definitely be using Christoph again!

Christoph was wonderful. He was very professional, thorough, responsive, and, above all, patient. He made sure he understood our requests and worked together with us to incorporate our wishes and still work within our realities. I recommend him without hesitation.

Working with Christoph has been great!  He found away to cost effectively achieve our lofty goals by blending the older, existing parts of our home with the new additions.  He listened to our goals and improved upon ideas of how to get there.  He didn't force any design concepts our way that we didn't like.  He added tremendous value with his good sense of style, proportions and scale, while ensuring the smallest details were covered without losing sight of the big picture.

Christoph was very helpful.  He took our ideas seriously and incorporated them into his final plan but also was very creative in improving them, including finding a way to add a third bedroom in what we had assume would just be an unused crawl space.

Christoph came for that first meeting and listenend, sketched and offered a few ideas of his own that allowed us to modernize our 1951 home yet keep with our desire to maintain a mid century modern style. As we worked through the master planning phase, Christoph helped us with offering ideas from best practice, his own experience, and ideas of his own that evolved from our conversations. We have appreciated the calm, thorough and efficient approach that Christoph brought to our project. We now have a clear vision and understanding of the complexities and challenges of bringing that full master plan to life. Although we have some site challenges, we still have a design that is completely possible, completely aligned with our goals and vision first shared when we met to review the project for the first time and we have a design partner that listens and inspires us to even better thinking. We are so looking forward to seeing our phase one of this vision completed in early December.

My wife and I contracted Christoph Kruger based on his competitive value and his extensive experience in the complex realm of home remodeling, after interviewing three others.  We found Christoph to be a thorough, thoughtful, and approachable collaborator in our efforts to design a remodel and addition to our home.  He is a good listener, and seems to have a keen personal appreciation for the importance of keeping the scope of work in his designs aligned with the project budget and functional needs of the homeowner.  He does not bring professional ego or his own architectural ambitions to the project as designers sometimes do.  As such, he was able to provide pragmatic architectural plans for our remodel/addition, with close attention to both cost considerations and smart resource allocation, which was centrally important to us.  Christoph does keep a very busy schedule and workload.  Because of this, we recommend that folks working with Christoph be clear about expectations and agree to a schedule that gives both the architect and the client enough time to move through each stage of project development, construction planning, and implementation.   Christoph is one of the more experienced and most practically focused design professionals in Seattle for doing residential projects, and provides a personal, small-business dedication to his projects.  He is an excellent choice for a family looking to expand, modernize, or improve the design of their home.

The remodel exceeded my expectations.  The floor plan is functional and beautiful.  Several people have commented that it doesn't look like a remodel.  The size of the house is still small, but the open floor plan and abundance of windows makes it feel spacious.

The entire process was wonderful. We wanted to remodel our mid-century home so that the bathroom and bedroom spaces were more comfortable and at the same time resected the integrity of the original design. Our experience in working with Christoph Kruger was very positive the end result is a beautiful remodel that integrates with our existing home and functions well with how we live. Mr. Kruger listened and responded to our needs and also was great at problem solving to come up with a wonderful design solution. He is a very talented architect and at the same time a good listener and communicator. We would use him again and highly recommend he and his firm.

After our consultation with Christoph of Kruger Architecture we knew we had the architect that would make our lower-level usable and livable!   We have split-level home and our lower level (basement) was unusable.  We wanted a family room with space for an office and play area.  We also wanted to expand our laundry room and add a mudroom. We were very impressed with the thoroughness of Christoph's questions to help us hone in on exactly what we wanted.  He explained things well and in a way we could easily understand.   He listened to our needs and wants (sometimes having to listen to my husband and I go back and forth) and was able to translate them into exactly what we needed.  He gave us a timeline for his work and met all of his deliverable dates.  He was responsive to our questions via email, phone and in-person and followed up to see how things were going, which was much appreciated!  His designs were fantastic (exceeded our expectations) and we are very happy with the work.  I highly recommend Kruger Architecture and would hire them again for a future remodel. 

Kruger is an architect that worked for me and he did a fine job.  The builder wasn't good, but the architect was fine.  He was very good and attentive.  I would refer him to others.  In fact, I have already referred him.  His price was average for an architect.  His work was just fine and he did a good job.  He was responsive, punctual and professional.

I found a creative problem solving architect in Christoph Kruger to help me with the remodel & addition. He listened & provided great options & solutions. He was able to redesign the kitchen so it had a much more functional layout & flowed better with the rest of the house. The basement was designed with maximum efficiency of spaces. I feel like the expertise I received from Christoph at Kruger paid for itself through smart design & a smooth overall process. I would use Christoph again & highly recommend him to others.

I found them through Angie’s List. They were outstanding to work with. They were reasonably priced. They were cost competitive and also provided really beautiful design work, so I would definitely use them again.

It was indeed a pleasure to work with Christoph Kruger. In addition to being personable and knowledgeable, he was prompt to meetings, was always prepared, and kept our effort on task. We told him we wanted to maintain the original style of the house and he listened to us. We found him to be thorough and think that he did an excellent job working with the city to get the permits.

We wanted to modernize the house but preserve the original concept and feel.  Christoph’s design provided exactly what we were looking for.  He presented several great ideas and ultimately the perfect open and contemporary design.   The removal of the wall between the kitchen and living/dining rooms required structural re-design.  Christoph provided the needed engineering through a subcontracted structural engineer, completely removing that from our worries.   Christoph was extremely responsive to our  schedule.  Permits were issued for the two phase project with nearly no comment or revision required by the City.  This is unusual in our City, and in our opinion is testament to the accuracy and completeness of Christoph’s work.   We were also impressed with Christoph’s responsiveness and problem solving ability during construction.  He has provided same day resolution of all contractor questions and issues resulting in little or no delay to the project.   We are not planning on doing this again anytime soon, but wouldn’t hesitate to call Kruger Architecture if we did.

10/1/11: Since I last wrote this review, Mr Kruger contacted me to discuss my below review.  I greatly appreciated his responsiveness and professionalism of handling the matter and taking the time to consider my thoughts and feelings.  Because of this, I would recommend his business to others.
9/1/11: We had a long discussion (2+hrs) regarding the roof design.  I have a 12/12 roof adjacent to a 4/12 roof and I wanted to tie the 2 together so the curb side appeal would be more pleasant.  I also requested that he add roofs to the front of the 2 story house.  We knew it would be challenging and he would have to be creative.  He left and returned several days later with 2 options.  1 option "conceptual" that we originally discussed requiring a no cost-limit ($$$$) and complete tear down/rebuild of both roofs, joining the 2 roofs as 1,  or option 2 - do nothing.  He charged 4.5 hrs. He was suppose to come up with new ideas and return with some drawings.  He didn't even have any drawings but the 1 "conceptual" sketch with trees and plants.   I expressed my un-satisfaction and then we spent another 2 hrs discussing other ideas that I had to create. I had enough and he billed me for the full 6.5 hrs.   I did not feel that the value was worth the effort.   I do not think that he put the effort using his archectitural experience or artistic creativeness to develop a reasonable design.  Very disappointing!!

Christoph provided wonderful results - we highly recommend him! We needed a master bedroom suite addition designed for one of our elderly parents that was moving into our house and we also wanted to add office space. After speaking with several architects we chose Christoph, owner & principal of Kruger Architecture. He listening carefully to our goals, made some great suggestions and was outstanding to work with overall. His creative input provided a couple options that were attractive and functional, and he saw an opportunity to provide a wonderful deck partly built into the new roof. Christoph?s thoughtful design resulted in an addition that was very nicely integrated into the existing character of our house and connected really well to the outdoor patio and garden area. He incorporated universal design (accessibility) for easy access and use by our elderly parent. He made occasional site visits during construction which helped identify a couple significant oversights made by our contractor. Christoph?s design was on-time and on-budget and we are very happy with the results ? we would certainly use him again.

Comments: Christoph did a great job and was very helpful! He was easy to work with and listened carefully to what I wanted to do with the addition & remodel. We were on a very tight schedule to have the work completed prior to our move in date, but he was able to provide the permit drawings within a very short amount of time so we could stay on schedule. He also coordinated with the City so that the building permit process went quickly with no delays or issues. Throughout the process he showed professionalism, tact and creativity. Christoph was great to work with; he responded quickly to calls and emails and worked efficiently to produce design and permit drawings. We received more than our money?s worth using Kruger Architecture. I definitely recommend using Christoph and I would hire him again.

Comprehensive design/ renovation from start to finish! Christoph walked us through every step of the way in our project and was responsive to our needs from the beginning. We started with a general design and together we developed our ideal space. Christoph was willing to help us with any part of the design process down to the minor finishes. We valued Christoph?s experience, attention to detail, and flexibility and will definitely use Kruger architecture for future projects.

Thoughtful, creative, professional, thorough?architect Christoph Kruger has been the touchstone of our ongoing remodeling project. We started our voyage in home improvement?a lift of our 100-year-old-home and addition of 1,000 square feet of living space?not knowing anything about home remodeling and working with Christoph has been a first-class education. We had a tall list of things we wanted in the new space?living space, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and we wanted to squeeze out as much storage space as we could while dealing with some challenging issues. He always came back with thoughtful, creative solutions and took the time to listen to all our requests, explain the process and answer all our questions, and was always extremely polite and professional. In addition, Christoph always looked out for our best interests and was very conscientious to make sure we were following all the codes and ordinances. He was punctual and always delivered plans and information by promised deadlines. Best of all, we liked his design solutions and aesthetic. Christoph also shared our desire to make this addition to our home blend in seamlessly to our existing home to look as if it had been there all along. And he was a fantastic guy to work with.

Kruger Architecture rocks! My wife and I were searching for an architect to provide concepts and draft design blueprints for a new en suite master bath for our home on the hillside in Anchorage, Alaska. Other professionals in town suggested that the space we wanted to convert was untenable. Kruger Architecture proved otherwise. Christoph Kruger took time out of his vacation visiting his parents in town to inspect, photograph, and fully measure our 3 floor home thereby giving him the ability to work on our project from his studio in Seattle. He was fast, creative, and provided us with several options for our dream bath in a part of our home that was wasted space. The plan we selected was easily followed by our builder and now we enjoy our en suite master bath every day! Christoph Kruger/Kruger Architecture rocks!

Christoph (the architect) was very easy to work with. From the beginning he explained his costs as an approximate % of the total cost so that we would be able to estimate what his total cost would be. He worked well with our contractor and was able to help smooth several pumps in the road between us and the contractor. Very professional in dealing with all parties. He listened during the design phase to the "wish lists" of both of us and was able to come up with a great design we are very happy with.

Kruger Architecture did an excellent job overall. Christoph, the architect, operates his own company in North Seattle's Broadview area. Without any direct references, we selected him from Seattle's AIA professional list, based mainly on location near our house. He proved to be consistently polite, professional, punctual and detail-oriented. His hourly rate at the time we hired him in Mar. '07 was $85/hr. A relatively good deal compared to typical rates of $100-120 / hr (or up to $200 / hr for a principal architect). The retainer deposit was $1500 up front, which was refunded to us at the end of the project. Christoph was able to input the dwg files of the initial concept plans we drew and input them into Autocad. He developed our concepts into full permit plan sets with the necessary detail and elevation views. Christoph obtained permits and did several site visits during construction. He was very thorough and detailed. There were some challenges with head room clearances in the basement and stairs (potential code issues), which he was able to work through with the Seattle permit office. The house has typical small house challenges, and Christoph helped maximize the use of space and the light. Kitchen design and electrical plans / layouts were done separately by us. Structural design details which required engineering approval were subbed out from Christoph to an associated engineering firm (approx. $1500 total cost). Our contractors enjoyed working with Christoph on trim detail issues during site visits, saying he exhibited a cooperative and flexible manner which they found refreshing. The timeline ran several months longer than expected initially, but due in part to the work being during spring and summer when architects and the permit office are busiest. Suggest strongly to engage an architect in fall/winter rather than spring/summer. Cost ran a little higher than we initially expected. Total billed hours were 209. Some added built-ins accounted for some of it. We still stayed under the typical 10% budget guidance for architecture fees, which is considered normal. Christoph was able to work in a more traditional / craftman style for our project to keep it in the era of the neighborhood (1920s-40s). But his portfolio indicated he also has a strong interest in modern work. We did not include many green concepts in our project, but noted that Christoph also has "green" construction experience from prior projects involving solar and rainwater collection.