Can’t say enough about Stew and his team. He transformed our lovely but challenged home in Mill Valley. Amazing! Professional and top notch. It was a privilege to work with them.
Stewart and Steve have that rare combination of creativity/expertise and practicality. They have a great design sense but are reasonably priced and results oriented. While they were more than happy to offer many interesting and creative suggestions, they ultimately respected our choices and worked to achieve the best possible result based on the goals we articulated. I would highly recommend them to anyone building or remodeling a home in Marin.
Without Stewart’s incredible help I would have never realized my dream. His attention to detail and patience with me was wonderful. The only mistake one can ever know about Stewarts , is that NOT using him would be the issue. He will make your life easier and do what is right. Just come by my place as the proof is in the pudding.
Stewart was phenomenal to work with. I greatly enjoyed working with him on the complete remodel of my home. He is personable, collaborative with all team members involved, and highly responsive to input and dialog about the project. His knowledge of and connections with Marin county regulations and review boards was particularly helpful. I recommend him without any reservations at all.
Stewart and his team were amazing to work with. We had a great experience with them from start to finish and enjoyed the process along the way. We were appreciative of his ability to incorporate our vision ideas, our designers input and his concepts all into our design with everyone working together. We had a couple of building products that we wanted to incorporate into our custom house that he handled with ease. Not an easy task if you ask me! We’d work with Stewart again in a heartbeat.
Stewart Summers is the guy you should hire! He’s easy to talk to. He listens. He’s creative. He’s kind. He’s talented. He develops YOUR ideas and not just his own. He’s very collaborative and has a great team of people working with him. I am speaking from experience. After having worked with FIVE previous architects, this is the ONLY guy I will work with going forward. He’s…..amazing! AND! You should see my house. It belongs in architectural digest!!
Color me: Really happy to have crossed paths with such a splendid human being.
Stewart Summers and Steve Murch are hands down the best architects I have ever worked with. They will do whatever it takes to bring your vision to life. Ours was an addition with a primary ADA remodel including bedroom, bathroom, living area, foyer and an outdoor path that acted as a ramp with a separate entrance to accommodate a wheelchair. The entire addition was an act of love from beginning to end. Stewart and Steve made all the difference!
Stewart and his partner Steve helped my family design and expeditiously secure approval for a major remodel of our old house in San Anselmo. We’re attempting to do a lot of work on a modest budget, by local standards, and from the outset Stewart has been encouraging and insightful, while also being very forthright about how the project could get out of hand and overwhelm our resources. I have my doubts that every Marin architect would be so willing to work with clients in our position. Stewart has been very responsive throughout, from the first blind email I sent to him a year ago up to recent questions I have had well after paying his final invoice. At every step, I have felt like Stewart and Steve are partners there to help as much or as little as I needed, and I recommend them fully.
Stewart immediately and intuitively understood our vision and needs for our recent remodel/expansion. His easygoing demeanor matched with meticulous attention to detail made him both enjoyable and reassuring to work with. We live in Mill Valley, which has strict permitting requirements, and our plans came back from the planning department without need for any architectural changes; clearly a testament to Stewart’s talent and fluency with local building codes. Additionally, once construction began, our contractors were blown away by the accuracy of Stewart’s forethought in planning the project. We recommend him highly!
Stewart is head and shoulders above most architects. He is knowledgeable about ordinances and serves on the Design Review Board for the City of San Rafael. He is THE guy in the know about the things that can make or break a project. He met with my husband and me and gave us critical information, was professional, thorough and prompt.
Stewart is knowledgeable, professional and a pleasure to work with. We were very impressed with Stewart throughout our remodel process, from design to completion by our builder. He was able to work with the officials in town (Corte Madera) to make the process as efficient as possible. He brought great ideas to the table and also worked with us to incorporate our ideas. We have referred him to friends and they have been equally pleased. I highly recommend him.
HIGHLY recommend Stewart to anyone considering a remodel/addition in San Rafael. Because he is on the design review board, he saved us a LOT of headaches and back-tracking since he already knows how to play by the rules. Also, he is creative and was very thoughtful about our family’s needs for an addition. Also, Stewart is conscientious about how much he charges for his services, so we were not ‘nickel-and-dimed’ for anything. We absolutely love our new room… seems like it has been here all along – a natural and seamless addition. He was with us through all of the preliminary stages and was always there for any questions – including after-hours.
I have no complaints. I have used Stewart twice. I have had incredible results each time. The first time was to design my full service salon. The second time was for my own home remodel. My husband and I came up with the basic ideas. Stewart fine tuned them making them work and flow properly. He also brought them up to local city and code requirements. The city planning departments had everything they needed and the contractors were happy with the designs too. On top of everything else, Stewart is Green Certified and specializes in green building. I have recommended Stewart before and will continue to use and recommend him.
Stewart is a fantastic architect. After interviewing five architects and/or designers, we chose him because of his confidence, body of work, and excellent knowledge of town regulations and politics. He was innovative with our design but also willing to listen to our ideas and incorporate our needs into the plan. Importantly, he is also realistic about goals and budget, a welcome trait in this day and age. Stewart is hands on and helped us with aspects of our project we had not foreseen -getting our project accepted by the planning commission, helping with building permits, and setting up our complete lighting plan are just a few examples. My contractor would agree with me when I say, Stewart was a huge asset throughout our entire project. I would certainly use him again and have already recommended him to several friends and neighbors!
Connected, Informed, Realistic, Skilled, Experienced, Creative and Thoughtful; a few words that embody my years of working with Stewart. From residential to commercial, Stewart knows the reality of project cost, time and the equally important political navigation of any project. You might think you can slam-out a flipper or cut corners on TI…but you’re going to burn if you think you’re going to get away with anything in today’s market. Before you start any project, don’t think: just call Stewart. Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. For new construction, elegant design, simple upgrades to full-scale tear down, Stew’s the man; the architect of your dreams.
Stewart is an awesome architect! He took the time to explain the process to us when we had no idea what we were getting into. One huge bonus was that he also took the time to bird-dog the entire permit process through the local red-tape, which isn’t easy, we’ve learned. I would recommend Stewart to anyone whom is looking for a solid, experienced architect. In addition to being an all around stud and, a good guy, he is on the local design review board, and has existing relationships with equally awesome structural engineers and general contractors.
Stewart was brilliant in helping us with our remodel. He took the graph paper drawings that we had made of the “general idea” and created our dream kitchen, living & dining rooms. Every want we had, he found a way to fit it in (we were working within our existing space). We now have more counter space than we ever dreamed of. We love the lighting plan he designed, all the different zones are great, skylight placements are perfect – it has never been so bright in our home! Stewart is very knowledgeable of local codes, listens to all your needs and wants, is a pleasant person to work with, is confident, has great technical skills to get the job done and is a really exceptional architect. Oh, and one thing I will never forget is how incredibly helpful he was in obtaining the building permit. We would recommend Stewart (and have) to anyone planning a remodel, he makes the process fun and we are so happy with the results! –
We came to Stewart with a list of things we hoped to get out of our remodel and the design that came back surpassed our expectations. He helped with very stage of the process. Without him it never would ave happened.