Delia Lyons

Review of Architectural Design Guild

We needed to make the decision to either extend ou...

We needed to make the decision to either extend our small house in a neighborhood we liked, or to move to a new house entirely. We didn t want to spend money unnecessarily, or to extend in a way that made no sense in our neighborhood. We had met Barry Greenberg (owner of Architectural Design Guild) through the Maplewood Chamber of Commerce, and being unfamiliar with processes or even approximate costs we asked him for advice. Barry Greenberg told us that we could only get even approximate estimates if we had complete architectural plans and construction drawings to share with contractors. We had difficulties understanding that, but Barry Greenberg introduced a contractor who didn t deny Barry Greenberg s view, and we agreed to have the drawings made. A year and almost ten thousand dollars later we went to contractors with construction drawings in hand and told them we wanted an approximate estimate of costs to guide our decision making. Four contractors, but not the one Barry Greenberg had previously introduced (and who did not give us an estimate or any other input at any stage), asked why we had complete drawings when all we wanted was a ball park estimate. As it turned out, only one contractor offered to be involved in this project and his estimate was for more than double the price of the house, and enough to buy a complete brick house, larger than the proposed extension project, in a more expensive neighborhood. Another contractor gave us an approximate and even higher estimate, but made it clear that he wouldn t be involved because the design made no sense and he did not want us to waste our money. We won t be extending: it makes no sense, but it needn t have cost us a year and almost $10,000 to find that out.

Certainly we were naively trusting and, in retrospect, should have gone to contractors or builders initially. But, what mystifies most is what motivated Barry Greenberg to have us pay for all the unnecessary work to make complete drawings. Barry Greenberg has not accepted responsibility, and calls it a miscommunication. This may be the firm to go to if you want a commercial building designed, but I can t imagine recommending them even for that.