Kalyx Studio

We had some trepidation about building a house in general (horror stories of couples who divorced as a result, etc) and never expected we'd work with an architect (we figured architects were a luxury for the rich and would be out of reach for us.) However, Leslie is a bit unique as an architect, we believe because of her commitment to permaculture. She continues to be a "student" of permaculture and sustainable construction which we value since this is an area that is rapidly evolving. She believes in designing with due consideration of the building site, its orientation and slope, prevailing winds, sun, rains, etc to produce a highly functional and comfortable structure that uses technology appropriately but not gratuitously (in other words, our technology selection was about its function relative to our specific project and not its cool factor). this resulted in a house that we believe will be efficient, affordable, and enjoyable to live in. From a personal perspective, we found Leslie to be patient, extremely responsive, and of wonderful humor! It has been an absolute delight to work with her. She is highly ethical and very professional and thorough in every aspect of her work. she worked very well using phone, email, DropBox, JoinMe and other online applications that allowed us to easily view and provide feedback on designs. When we did travel to ABQ to meet during the design, she structured our days for maximum effectiveness without completely exhausting us...quite a skill. If I had any criticism of Leslie it is that she tends toward perfectionism. Actually this is probably a desired trait in an architect, but occasionally we had to nudge her to move forward in the process. She was always very receptive and we would encourage anyone working with Leslie to communicate honestly and frequently as she responds very well to this. Regarding her fee, we got a deal and a half that she likely won't be able to replicate. A more typical architectural fee is 10% of the construction budget. at the time we met Leslie, she was transitioning from commercial to residential and didn't have much of a residential portfolio. She has now established herself in the sustainable residential construction community and I would expect her fees to be more typical of the norm going forward.

We were uncertain as to whether or not to use an architect for this project but she worked fairly well with the ideas that we had already put together. She was fairly knowledgeable in green building specifically solar design which was important to our project. However, she was frustrating to work with because she often went out of town and does not answer her phone regularly so the design took much longer than we ever thought it would. Overall it went fairly well although we would have appreciated more input from her regarding design.