I have a simple single family home near Windansea beach. It was built in the early 90's, and has…read morerequired, up to now, very little maintenance. But it needs some work now. I visited Mark Bucon's office, as I walk by nearly every day, thinking as long as I was going to fix the broken things, maybe I could improve some things that are outdated, or that were designed inefficiently to begin with. I made a career in commercial real estate development, and felt confident of my ability to assess the needs of updating my home myself. However, very quickly, evaluating my own home became overwhelming. I knew I needed a second set of eyes. Mark has a real eye for detail. With my permission, and total disclosure of his fees, etc.... he measured up my house, shot grades, all that kind of groundwork that is needed to make smart decisions regarding building changes. Just having that information alone kept me from making expensive mistakes. After that groudwork was done, he, again with my permission and knowledge of his costs, drew up some easy to read concept designs to address all of the broken things, and various ideas to update the look and functionality of the property, and didn't waste time designing things outside my budget. He has tremendous knowledge of the suitability of the materials that will endure in the environment they'll be built in (here a marine environment). He has an excellent eye for what will look and function well, as well as just being practical. He never tried to upsell me, or marry me to any particular product or contractor, or anything like that... just design ideas and options. I was also able to get a handle on the costs for the various options... very helpful in prioritizing what will likely be a multi year project; one thing at a time, as I am working with a small budget for an expensive neighborhood I do not want to leave. Before calling Mark, I did call other architects and contractors prominent in the area, who all left me feeling a little abused. Like they did to my neighbor... just drew up some outlandish plan covering every square inch of their property.. costing millions to build, and charging my neighbor a lot doing so... Neighbor ended up just moving. In addition to being a damn good designer and architect, Mark was just friendly and low, low pressure. He came out to my home several times to dig around himself looking for details on the foundation, the property line markers, stuff in the crawlspace, condition of the roof, etc... Normally, I would have been asked to find that information out on my own and deliver it to him, which is costly and problematic. So now, I have solid ideas, options, information on costs and materials, and time to decide what to do while looking for the funds to renovate. Bottom line, Mark approached this project with a holistic, "multi-generational" view. His best idea, although the most expensive, would allow my family, my grown children, and their families to live at the property after I'm gone (or, even if I am here). Mark lives in the area, and knows the rules as well as anyone I've spoken with. It's nice to know I can house my whole family if times get rough (I didn't think that would be possible before). And, probably the most important point, if you are still reading this novella, Mark won the trust of my highly skeptical wife, who generally distrusts anyone proclaiming to be able to help with renovation of the house... That is her purview, and she is protective as hell... it's one reason maintenance is deferred... She would just chase away the people I would hire to fix even the simplest thing. When the time comes for actual drawings, I will absolutely stick with Mark. He knows the staff at the City.. he knows the rules, he is a good advocate, and has given me a lot of peace of mind that I won't screw this project up, like I have seen in so many other renovation projects. I highly recommend Mark Bucon, well above the other local arrogant professionals who really do just want to draw up a random set of plans for an overbuilt project, charge you $30k, and not even bothering to ask what you really want, which in my case, is to live here comfortably and affordably for decades to come.... everyone else wanted to look at what I can do to improve the property and sell it for a big profit... they didn't understand that is not what I am seeking.. Mark did. Thank you Mark Bucon!

Mark was fantastic at giving me some initial information and assistance as I am looking at doing a…read moreCustom Home. I have not started the project yet, but Mark invested the time to provide assistance and his expertise as he met with me and my General Contractor. Very professional.

I've been working with Matt since 2022 on multiple residential improvement projects, and he has…read morebeen excellent throughout the entire process. From the very first project, I felt confident in his work -- especially when the City reviewer commented on how clean and well-prepared the plans were. Matt is knowledgeable, responsive, and generous with his time. He takes the time to explain the process, answer questions, and help work through challenges as they come up. We had a few construction changes along the way, and I really appreciated his guidance in developing practical solutions that kept things moving forward. With inspections and permitting becoming more demanding, it has been extremely helpful to have someone like Matt involved. He is a great communicator, easy to work with, and clearly takes pride in the quality of his work. I would highly recommend him to anyone needing drafting or residential design support.

This company are complete rock stars at the design and permitting process. They are a great value…read moreand have so much knowledge on the permitting process. We have been involved in a complex mixed use redevelopment and Balance Dynamic has been with us for the 18 months it's taken for various permits. Their dedication and flexibility have been lifesavers. Nothing phases them and they know exactly how to work through the city's permitting system. Designs are top notch, communication is great, and they are extremely professional.

Stay away from this business at all costs, just as previous, legitimate reviewers, such as Darius,…read morehave indicated here. I hired Sean Canning at Ten Seventy Architecture to design an ADU for me in the Kensington neighborhood of San Diego. After I paid him approximately $5000 in advance, he failed to produce a viable design, even after I provided him with multiple opportunities. He put a recent SDSU grad, who isn't an architect, in charge of my project as the designer and incorporated none of what I had requested. For example, multiple times I shared my desire for bays of windows and a "tree house quality." Below is a picture of the design that I got for my $5000. Furthermore, by their own admission, what they presented me, for the thousands that I had paid, was filled with technical errors. I therefore cancelled the project, because I had completely lost faith in their abilities and didn't want to continue to throw good money after bad. Now, they're trying to extort more money out of me, threatening me with legal action because I cancelled the project. Be warned!

When I need to pull out the big guns, I call Sean and his team. Sean is an architect whose…read moreexpertise is invaluable to many stages of a projects including preliminary conceptual planning, value engineering, and City review cycles. He has a thorough, meticulous nature which is a critical quality to have in an architect (I learned the hard way). It's a beautiful thing to work with someone who knows a lot of key code by heart and brings clarity to confusion. I recommend Sean highly, but don't need him when I do! ;)

Peter is fantastic! Great work, conscientious and timely. Highly recommend! He's very reasonable in…read morecost and has attention to detail.

They were great to work with! Very responsive in our service requests for a full home remodel,…read moresetting up our initial meetings, were able to lay out the plans for our remodel, provided a timeline that they kept, and the work was high quality. Not to mention they walked us through our options, provided advice, were able to showcase their portfolio of work, which helped us choose them right away, plus were very competitive on pricing. I would highly recommend them for any general contracting or home remodeling in San Diego!

Omar and Katherine are the best! They are so professional, knowledgeable and detail oriented. Their…read morecost and time estimates were right on so there were no surprises. I highly recommend them and would definitely use them again!

AMAZING!!! First let me say this is long past due. Katherine…read moreand Omar are a dream team! They have done two amazing projects for us. In 2015 they built us a $10,000sq ft commercial kitchen and office, and in 2018 a beautiful event venue on Harbor Island with a full kitchen and all the finishing touches. Every step is easy and handled with the upmost professionalism, even their subs are wonderful. They have an extensive knowledge of food service design, construction and all the do's and don'ts when it comes to the permits. You be thrilled if you select this team to design your dream.

Amazing work. Jason designed and installed our custom stair railing, replaced our carpet with tile…read morein two rooms, built a closet under our stairs, built custom cabinets in our tv/entertainment niche and closed off our open loft to make it a private home office. Can't find a better person with this much skill and work ethic. Highly recommend.

We hired Palatine Building to do an extension of our house and the service provided by Jason, the…read moreowner has been outstanding. We were very impressed with his planning and work. Jason is very honest and professional. He always tried to find the best solution at a reasonable price. We strongly recommend him for any construction projects!

T7 Architecture was great to work with! Their architectural style was very compatible with…read moreours--contemporary with lots of clean lines and natural materials. We always enjoyed our meetings with them. They got excited about our ideas and inspirational pictures and designed spaces that reflected what we needed and wanted. They are also practical and let us know if something we liked might push the cost of our project up a lot. They have a strong understanding of building codes, and work very well with City staff. They also worked really well with our contractor, who appreciated that their plans were implementable. We found T7's services to be a great value and are very happy with how our addition turned out!

T7 was amazing to work with! Andrew Crocker and his team worked with us to make our house exactly…read morehow we envisioned. They are very responsive and helped throughout the project when we had questions. Highly recommended!

Sillman Wright provides high quality work in an efficient and timely manner. Their employees are…read moretrue professionals. I have worked with their team on multiple projects over the past couple years and would gladly do so again. You will not be disappointed!

Sillman Wright is a great architectural firm. Don't pay attention to negative reviews from…read morenon-customers. I have had Larry Sillman design many projects for me and they have been fantastic. Schools, churches, office buildings, residential projects, etc. have all been top quality. I would recommend them highly to anyone that needs a great architect that listens and does not compromise in their artistic expression. These facilities are aesthetically gorgeous, within budget and function intuitively for the end-users.