He is an absolute scam artist. He will approach you with a smile, and brag about what an amazing architect he is. He will also tell you that he was a candidate for nyc mayor. He promised to get all my violations resolved and drew up plans. The only problem was that the plans he drew up were completely different from what we agreed on. The contractor fees alone were going to kill me because of all the changes he made. He charged me $8,000 and and did not finish the job as per our contract. I had to hire another architect to finish up. Dealing with his office aides was even worse. Please avoid this architect at all costs. He is unreliable, untrustworthy, and most of all a scam artist. I can't believe I was naïve enough to pay this old man in full before his job was completed. If I could give a negative stars, I would. read more

This is the worst architect I have ever had the displeasure of working with, do not use him. He is slow, disorganized, unprofessional and not knowledgeable at all in architecture. His staff is just as bad, and my biggest mistake was hiring him. He doesn't care about his clients and looks for any opportunity to charge you more money. Do not walk away from the man, run. read more

HG Lee is a disaster. He charged us $16,300 to make a mess out of the place. He never once showed up to monitor the job. He only showed up to collect checks. Now he wants $8,300 MORE to release the plans. This guy should not have a license. read more

He Gin Lee is a horrendous architect. The man and his team gave us the run around for two simple violations that were corrected as soon as a new architect was contracted. Mr. Lee recommended us a contractor to fix these violations, who took our money which was meant to pay for permits and labor, but only got a permit and did not even attempt to correct the problem. For months after, He Gin Lee and his staff would answer our phone calls and state he was out of the office or was unavailable at the time of the call. It took going to his office to confront him about the issue for him to finally respond. However, all he did was smirk and make jokes about our situation which was nearly two years old at the time. In the end, He Gin Lee and his staff essentially scammed us out of nearly $4,000 and corrected none of the issues, permits had expired and new building plans were never submitted to the Dept. of Buildings. A new architect was hired shortly thereafter and corrected all the violations in a matter of weeks. He Gin Lee Architecture is a poor model of a business. His newspaper clippings displayed from the early 1990's are no longer relevant and the man's work is poor at best, his work ethic is terrible and his management skills are a joke. I would not recommend him to anyone and would advise others to beware of this business. Your problems will go nowhere and your money will be gone. read more

Such a piece of shit worst architect ever and his his staff is more jerk then him it's been 6months he is trying to get my building plans approved and still nothing...DONT HIRE THEM THEY ARE WORST IN THE MARKET read more

I would have selected 0 stars because that would be the equivalent of the work that He Gin Lee Architect has done. ZERO. NOTHING. I contracted He Gin Lee Architect in March of 2010 to update architectural plans for my home to make it from a single family to a two family home. It seemed like a relatively simple job, but it is now July 2011 and the work is still not done. They have no computer skills. The invoice they wrote out was a photocopy of an old invoice on which they crossed out the old date and address and wrote in a new one. Talk about not being able to use Microsoft Word. I've had months and months of back and forth with their employees, who aren't capable of getting the job done. The one trip they made to the NY Department of Buildings on my behalf, they DIDN'T HAVE THEIR PAPERWORK IN ORDER... MISSING THE DOCUMENTS THAT THEY NEEDED. THEY BROUGHT THE OLD ARCHITECTURAL PLANS WITH THEM -- THEY DID NOT UPDATE THEM AT ALL PER THE SPECIFICATIONS I NEEDED TO MAKE MY HOME A TWO FAMILY. Are they a reliable architect? No. Once he has your money, He Gin Lee will dodge your calls. Try to get a hold of him, and it's damn near impossible. He got me for $4000 and now is ignoring me. So if you're looking for someone that will do absolutely nothing for you, then He Gin Lee Architect will be the right fit. read more

Working with Lee and his associates was an utter disaster. It was a thorough waste of time and money, as I spent the past TWO YEARS waiting to get get approval for construction and a change in zoning from the DOB. I recently ditched my efforts with Lee, as it was evident that neither himself nor his staff was capable or competent enough to do this "easy" job (his words when we first consulted him). Although I saw several negative reviews for Lee, they were written in the past (and his YELP reviews were "hidden".....I wonder why), and against my better judgement, I consulted Lee to work on my case. He is quick to tell you he was architect of the year (a decade ago), that he has built many large churches, and that he is running for mayor, but at the end of the day, none of this matters since he can't get the job done. First of all, communication with Lee is incomprehensible and nonexistent. Not only will you fail to understand most of what he says, but he will tell you 5 different things 5 different times. Lee will not return your calls and to be honest, it is worthless to talk to him about your case because he seems lost half the time. His staff, who seem nice, are incompetent as well. Lee will not handle your case, but rather hand it off to a junior architect at his firm. My case was handled by Kevin, who was absolutely a horror to work with. Kevin will never, ever return your calls and will always have excuses as to why things are not going as planned. To be honest, I don't even think he was sending updated plans to the DOB half the times he claimed he did. I am quite certain he lied to me several times regarding the progress of the plans. He will lazily put things off and cost you months of time working at his snail-like pace. The most aggravating thing was, he told me two years into my plans that we finally got approval...only to tell me a month later that his "calculations were off". He has recycled this excuse a dozen times over the course of the process... I mean this is a person who does MATH for a LIVING....how the hell can he mess up his "calculations" so many times throughout the process? In addition, he even had the audacity to tell me he put everything in decimals...when the plan examiner needs fractions. This shows not only his inexperience, but his absurd lack of any competence regarding his field. Lee does not offer refunds, and his architects will lie and try to appease you until you finally ditch them. Their whole business model seems like a scam, and I will be reporting them to the BBB. I honestly do not know how many plans they get approved a year, but they certainly are not successful at their jobs if my experience is the norm. Several people have warned you so far, dating back at least 6 years ago, so do yourself a favor and look elsewhere for your needs. Lee and his architects simply dragged out my case for two years and still have nothing to show for it. Do yourself a favor and save your time and money by getting qualified professionals to take care of your business. read more

He gin Lee is an absolute pleasure to work with. He and current office members are helpful and prudent that always there for my questions on ongoing designing plans; and also they showed excellent work with dealing and navigating the DOB with various sorts of filings. He has a lot of patience and will go in to detail to explain something so you understand. I loved this Architecture company and i would definitely contact them again for my future business. read more

Awful, ill advises. Lies to your face. Blueprints done incorrectly about 10 times. Stay away