HARVEST ARCHITECTURE

Harvest Architecture was recommended to me by a very good firm that was too big to take my smaller job. Lisa Henderson was recommended for her "good craftsmanship and respect for old buildings." I looked at Lisa's portfolio online and have no doubt her work would have been fine, had I ever seen it. My house was measured in the first month, then nothing. Emails to Lisa went unanswered. After nearly four months of monthly bills, I ended our contract. To be clear: Nearly four months went by, during which time I was billed monthly and paid promptly. For the money, there were no sketches, we had no idea meetings, I did not receive responses to emails to the architect. The project manager did pick up the phone, but mostly did not know the status of my project, or when things would start. After my house was measured, there was a big blank of time where nothing, evidently, happened, although I was billed every month. I was left puzzled by the whole, empty experience and feeling like the most unpopular girl in the room. There is a hole in my bank account and I no longer look forward to remodeling my house. At the very least, in my opinion, Harvest Architecture's business practices, including communication protocols, need work. And her contract - which comes from her professional organization and does not include a place for your deliverable dates - needs lots of work in order to meet the needs of the client, not just the firm.

It went very well. Alhambra is notorious for being a difficult city to do construction. Harvest handled everything with great professionalism. I'm sure their work with the city accounted for a smooth permitting process.

A+ for Lisa Henderson and her staff at Harvest Architecture! My husband and I had talked about remodeling our kitchen for a couple years prior, but never pulled the trigger, mostly because we couldn't find an architect who seemed to be a good fit. I happened across Lisa's website, which immediately impressed me. Meeting her in person confirmed that we had found the right person for the job. Lisa quickly understood our goals for the project, and clued in just as quickly to our aesthetic sensibilities and functional needs. During the course of the project, she never lost sight of the big picture, and helped us make decisions using our overarching goal as a guide. When it came to the details, I found Lisa (and her staff) to be meticulous. It is clear that she has extremely high standards of excellence and expects the same from those on her team. To that end, she has built relationships with contractors and others in the industry who share the same standards and expectations. As a mother of two young children, with a full time job, and no additional time (or experience) for quality control over a remodel, I found this trait to be invaluable. As is common with any significant remodel of an old house, we experienced a few hiccups. In those instances, Lisa showed an adeptness for creative problem-solving. Equally as important was her attitude and commitment. She was unwaveringly responsive and always held herself accountable as a partner in the project. Also worth mentioning is the fact that we had very strict budgetary constraints on the project. The firm's fees are very reasonable, particularly in light of the quality of its work. What's more, Lisa was sensitive to this issue from start to end. She was very smart about how she spent her time. I was especially grateful for her willingness to let us know when certain tasks didn't warrant accrual of her fees, and how those tasks could be done more cost effectively. Overall, our experience with Lisa and her staff at Harvest Architecture was excellent. Simply put, they are REALLY good at what they do, and they are good people. I feel very fortunate to have found Harvest. After a relatively painless process, we now have a gorgeous kitchen that has dramatically improved our quality of life and day-to-day living, and a talented architect who I've come to consider a friend. I would undoubtedly use Harvest Architecture again.

Provider had too large of a backlog of work at the time to take on more clients. Offered references to other professionals as possible alternatives (who also turned out to be too busy).

Lisa is an excellent architect. She is very intuitive to the historical home restoration. She has excellent experience. She shows an extremely high quality of work and high ethic. She is very responsive to the client's needs. She is very imaginative in solving space related problems. She is very family oriented; she has basically became a member of our family at this point in the project. They have a very small team and do nothing but historic home restorations.