David Crosby Architects

I hired David because I needed a generalist, (much as one would go to an internist before going to specialists,) to get his recommendations on how to prevent flooding in the finished basement of our newer-built house (probably built in 2001, but which had a retained partial original wall from the late 1800's.) I had been getting estimates from other companies (Permaseal, etc.), but they all had and quot;skin in the game,and quot; each with something to sell, and luckily one of my friends suggested that I consult with an architect first. I It was a great idea because David had lots of terrific ideas, which I am now in the process of implementing, and I have no doubt that he was correct in his assumptions. I plan on using David again in the autumn to draw up a staged plan on how to add some charm to our characterless facade of a house. He's smart, experienced, funny and resourceful. I cannot wait to work with him again, and would right this minute, except I don't have the money now.

Both projects went smoothly. David was a dream to work with. We started with the garage, because our original garage was destroyed by a giant tree. We were in a rush to get that done before winter, but we needed to figure out generally what we were going to do to the house so that the garage could be built to match the new house design. David worked quickly to make sure that could get done on time and it did. David identified early on that we would need a zoning variance in order to change the roof of the house as we wanted. He navigated that perfectly and we got it! David paid attention to every detail and was a great listener through the entire combined project, which spanned about 13 months. He made countless site visits to the house during the project that he did not charge us for. He was always responsive. One night I came home from work and I didn't think the new soffit that had been constructed that day looked quite right. I texted him a picture. He didn't like what he saw and came over that night to see it up close. The contractor had made a modification to the plans to solve for a problem without consulting me or David. The contractor's solution conflicted with the design we were going for. David came up with other options and called the contractor that night. By 7 am the next morning the contractor was working to redo the soffit a better way. There were several times when David had to make sure things stayed true to plan, not because we had a bad contractor, but because a project like ours just really needed someone to stay on top of the details. David worked really well with our contractor and all of the subs. He is a great communicator and always remains calm. We would definitely use David again and highly recommend him.

After we decided to hire David Crosby based on many great recommendations from local Chicago contractors, we had very friendly and fruitful conversations about the renovation and design process. Mr. Crosby made a couple of visits to our house for measurements and to get some basic ideas for the renovation. He showed great knowledge of the workings of the existing plumbing stack, electrical wiring, and HVAC mechanics. But we really were so impressed with the architectural plans themselves. He worked very quickly and had the plans ready in less than a week. They showed an exquisite attention to detail, an appreciation of the preexisting designs of the house, and a poetic reflection of our ideas based on our previous conversations. The plans were easily communicated to the contractors and we couldn't be more happy with the result. David Crosby is an excellent architect and a wonderful and friendly person to work with. We give him our highest recommendation!

He was actually great. He really knew what he was talkng about and had a lot of good ideas.

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He is great, easy to work with, and very professional. I definitely would recommend him!

I was very pleased and will be ordering the siding this week. He sent me some helpful links to find garage doors and flower boxes. There were so many decisions to make. David's help was invaluable!

David's ability to both identify our needs and work with the style of our 1886 home was critical in making this project a success. He listened carefully to exactly what we needed and wanted and was able to pull it all together into viable plan. David accompanied us to obtain the needed variance and was very consicous of obtaining the needed permits and inspections. His knowledge of the City of Chicago building codes helped enormously. He was very attentive to detail, especially the structural integrity, of the entire project, and frequently called the contractor's attention to overlooked details. He reviewed every payout request and accompanied it with a spreadsheet detailing what the payment covered. As an advocate for us with the general contractor, everything went very smoothly. The addition is seamless--difficult to tell where it stops or starts. We would not hesitate to recommend him to any of our friends or family and without a doubt would use him again.

David worked with us over what turned out to be over a year to get our comparatively small project completed. From the start, we loved David's classic, clean, modern style and his obvious keen eye for good design. This was our first experience with any rehab project so we relied on David heavily. He proved to be an excellent guide. He was at the same time professional, knowledgeable, flexible, attentive to detail, readily accessible, prompt, thorough and patient. Early in the project it became apparent that we would need two zoning variances from our village. David helped to guide through this process by making initial contact with village officials and directing our efforts. When it came time to find a contractor, David brought us together with someone he d worked with on numerous occasions in the past. This relationship worked out to our advantage as David repeatedly acted as both our advocate and catalyst in communications with the builder. He did not hesitate to stand up for us when things did not go exactly as planned. His implemented designs turned out to be absolutely beautiful. We are tremendously pleased. As others have said, neighbors, friends and complete strangers alike have poured out compliments over the results. We already have future plans for and additional project that we plan to use David for without hesitation.

. Our hundred year old house posed quite a few challenges to renovate. Right from the start, David understood that we didn't want to create a monstrous house that stuck out like a sore thumb. We wanted a beautiful house that still fit in with what the neighborhood looks like. He delivered and then some. The phenomenal detail of his blueprints -- often specifying make and manufacture of materials -- actually scared away a few of the contractors who were going to bid on the project. His weekly on-site reviews of progress really kept things going at a fast clip, and prevented many small problems from becoming big ones. He's first and foremost your advocate with the contractor, and that has been invaluable. In the final reckoning he even found a $5000 mistake to our advantage! Couldn't ask for more.

David is professional and easy to work with; he works quickly, meets deadlines and showed a good feel for working with the style of our 125-year old home. He has good taste and makes good suggestions. We felt we could depend on him to deliver what he promised. The plans he drew up for us showed that he listened well to our requests and preferences, and also provided his own ideas. David also submitted a construction bid to be the general contractor for the project, although he made it clear that if we chose another general contractor, he would be happy to oversee the job as architect. We have decided not to pursue the renovation work at this time for reasons unrelated to David, but if we decide to move ahead in the future, we will definitely recontact him and we recommend him to other potential clients.

We had a great experience. He was able to provide ideas and answer all of our questions. He had a very timely response and he was very professional. We were happy with the plan he came up with.

We have been absolutely bowled over by David's professionalism and flexibility. Even though we ended up scaling down the project (a decision that had nothing to do with David), he never scaled down the level of service for us. He was always punctual to our appointments and responsive to our questions. Our house will be 100 years old next year and David really had a great sense of how to add on to the house while maintaining the integrity of the original house. He is a very talented architect.

David was professional easy to work with. He was very patient and listened to all of our ideas and concerns. He did wonderful work, and we would definitely recommend him.

Overall this was a great experience for us. David was a consummate professional that exceeded all of our expectations. It seemed that David was just as invested in the project as we were.

We had a very positive experience working with David Crosby. His design was beautiful, functional, and seamless to our original home. The new addition is personalized to our lifestyle, and has created significant increased value to our home. In particular, David demonstrated good attention to detail, and his strength was his quality of design while being sensitive to our budget. We highly recommend his firm to others.