CMD Architecture

Being new to SF, we were so fortunate to find Cassandra on
. My husband and I purchased a 1905 Victorian and needed to remodel a master bathroom and expand some closets. We wanted to maintain much of the elements of our home — doors, transoms, knobs, etc. — a traditional vintage feel with modern amenities. While we interviewed a number of architects, she clearly exuded the most sensitivity of maintaining the «ambiance» of our home and knowledge of how to make the space functional, Cassandra was a gem throughout the process. She was incredibly flexible as most of our meetings had to be late in the work day and often on Fridays. Cassandra offered us 5 plans — all clearly representing our expressed wants. She was creative with her designs and ALWAYS patient as we mulled over her ideas. It was very difficult to decide as virtually all of her plans were «spot on». We never felt rushed and she patiently explained the entire process to us step by step. When changes were requested on the design, Cassandra kindly amended them repeatedly. She offered us invaluable insight, not only of the layout of the space, but of many design elements. Cassandra was more than an architect. When things were heated up between my husband and I in making remodel decisions — she could dispel any discord by cheerfully offering up a wonderful array of solutions. She must’ve been a marriage counselor in a previous life. Bottom line: Cassandra is a warm, approachable, skilled professional through and through.

I worked with Cassandra on two different projects, one investment property and also my own residence. Both are pretty substantial projects. We are very happy with Cassandra’s work; especially for her local knowledge.
There were times that we had differing opinions, but she is always very receptive to my ideas.
We are planning a third project with Cassandra soon.

Several years ago, my husband had the wild and crazy idea to buy a piece of land and build a house from the ground up. Say What? He had a vague idea of what he wanted and we were fortunate that we found Cassandra! She took his ideas and created a masterpiece for us. She helped us navigate the intricate system of getting a hearing with the Planning Commission and new all the rules for building a home along the coast. We have very strict requirements and rules for building in a commercial zone. The plans were very professional and from what I heard from the contractors, there were very minor changes to her drawings.
We personally found Cassandra to be very patient, personable, and available to answer our questions on a timely manner. This house was a huge project and entailed much effort. Cassandra’s fees were fair and reasonable for the scope of the project. This project to build our dream home was a huge challenge with all the details not to mention the financial constraints but we got our home! Thanks to Cassandra for helping us make it happen.

We completed a project with CMD in 2013. The project took most of the year, and was complicated in its earlier stages by some neighbor issues that required responsive handling.
The project involved a rear addition into our backyard, at two levels. Cassandra was recommended by a friend who had been happy with her project, which was the remodel of a lower level apartment. We checked several of Cassandra’s references before selecting her, and find ourselves willing to now be a reference.
Throughout the 1.5 years+ that we worked together I have found her to be responsive, professional and reasonable. She was very helpful in selecting a contractor, when we were finally ready to start the project. The contractor turned out to be exceptional, and we were very pleased with the results. The contractor had worked with CMD on other projects and they had good communication, so that we were able to limit conferences and control expenses.
In several instances her creative ideas were helpful with design decisions. She is committed to the neighborhood and on the neighborhood association Board, and this local commitment shows.

While reading other people’s comments on Unilocal; I have to wonder if we are talking about the same person or if friends and families provided some of these reviews. My experience with Cassandra was at the extreme opposite of all those 5 stars.
In October, I hired Cassandra to create plans of my house and help with schematics for some very straight forward changes. With a limited budget and neighborhood rules, we were fairly limited in what could be achieved. I had actually sent some schematics to Cassandra in an email to show what I was looking for — and was primarily looking for her to put it to scale. Her feedback was that the concept was straight forward and easy, and she agreed that everything was doable. I’ll bypass some changes of heart from my side since Cassandra’s feedback was that it made things even easier.
This job, which would have very reasonably taken 3 to 4 weeks became a 3 months waiting game where I found myself chasing my architect.
After measuring the house (this was done promptly), she was out for several weeks — apparently sick. I’m not sure the last time I remember a small business owner being out for two weeks and unable to send an email, a text message or a phone call to warn its customers but that was only a preview of what was to come next. I believe the plans of the house were actually delivered within 2 to 3 weeks but my interest was really in the schematics of the future plans (apparently, I had to get plans of the house in order to get the schematics). Once I finally saw the schematics, that was highly debatable, but cost me $ 1,200 anyways.
After that payment (which was sent via a single line invoice and no details as to the work that was done), I didn’t hear from Cassandra for 6 weeks. Something always came up, a project was coming back, etc…
I finally sent an email, letting her know that my job was perhaps not the most interesting and if that was the case, we could professionally part ways. I immediately got an answer (we’re now in mid-​december) explaining that she hasn’t started yet but we should talk the next day.
Magically, the very next day, she explains that she has already spent a few hours on the design (and she’ll e ready to show us by late december. I reiterate our requirements one more time: no changes to the kitchen, etc… express some concerns over the time passed and perhaps another meeting is required but she states that she’s fine and wants to try a few things.
On December 27^th, Cassandra presented three very basic designs, one of which was somewhat close to what we were looking for and the rest was clearly outside of the scope of the project. She had spent 3 designs creating a walk-​in closet (in a 1,200 square feet craftsman home, mind you), changed the kitchen (our only requirement was to NOT changed the kitchen) in two designs. Two of the ideas that she had mentioned — and that we responded to favorably — were not in the design.
All in all, it was pretty clear that she had forgotten our requirements (she never took notes), but insured me that I shouldn’t worry about the budget and that she wanted to make sure we were happy. On December 30^th, I had to resend an entire email, with my own schematics, which took me 90 mn to draw.
A day later, I received an invoice (again, one line with no explanation) asking for 90% of the total cost of the proposal.
So here are Cassandra’s traits that I got to experience:
— Extreme tardiness in developing plans.
— Poor communications and project management skills. communications: No summary of points, no timeline established, no list of to-​dos…
— Inconsistency. One minute, we are well below her hours and I shouldn’t worry about the fees, the next, I’m getting a bill for 90% of the overall project. One minute, we’re well below the construction budget, then we’re well above it, then she just doesn’t know.
— Lack of attention to details: Simply did not pay attention to our requirements, did not remember her own statements or ideas. Her schematics had design flaws that she admitted to immediately.
At this stage, we have obviously parted ways and Cassandra has refused to take any responsibilities in this mess. I have not paid for the schematics that were completely off the wall and she has refused to provide the work that I had already paid for.
I would not recommend her to anyone.

Cassandra is hands down the BEST. She helped us design an addition to our downstairs bedroom that includes a bathroom, three closets, a laundry alcove, a utility closet and lots of storage space. She’s personable, honest and responsive.
We’re not done with the project yet, but it’s progressing very nicely. Thanks Cassandra!

We hired Cassandra of CMD Architecture to help us with designing a
new roof deck. Among other things, this required changing some
exterior walls, deciding on the decking, the wind protection and the
radiant heating options, and working closely with both the structural
engineer and the general contractor.
But even more importantly, it required dealing with all the amazingly
bureaucratic paperwork at the building department. At times, things
felt quite quixotic — but that wouldn’t deter Cassandra. And at long
last, we had all the paperwork in order.
And the final results speak for themselves. Previously, we never got
much of a chance to use our roof deck. It was too cold and windy, it
had lots of wasted space, and it literally fell apart in the high
winds that we often get.
What a difference the new design makes. This deck is now more like
an extension of our living room. It is gorgeous and rock solid. We
have been spending a lot of time on it the last few months.
The next time we have saved enough money to attempt a major house
remodeling effort, we will definitely try to hire Cassandra again.
We very much appreciate the personal attention that a smaller business
can give to a project, whereas in a large architecture firm we would
have just been one of many projects.

We worked with Cassandra at CMD Architecture on the recent remodel of our home, which included a complete reworking of existing kitchen and bath, and turning previously undeveloped basement/​garage space into master bedroom and bath, family room, office, and finished laundry room, with new stairway between the two floors. We interviewed a number of architects… besides liking what we saw in her portfolio, we found the reasons we chose to work with Cassandra were borne out by our experience — Cassandra was responsive, professional, and easy to work with. Although we had lived in our house for a number of years and thought we had a good sense of our options and what we wanted, Cassandra presented us with a number of design alternatives we hadn’t previously considered. Cassandra did a great job of honoring the heritage and existing design of the home while also appropriately modernizing the home and making it more functional for us. She also did a great job of balancing her own design sense with what we had in mind, thoughtfully incorporating our feedback and her sense of us and how we live into the final product. Our good feeling about Cassandra was reinforced by feedback from our contractor and the cabinet maker, who both said they found her far easier to work with than typical architects — more responsive and less «fussy», with a good ability to forsee and avoid or minimize design challenges. I would not hesitate to work with Cassandra again or recommend her to someone else for their project.

We’ve been working with Cassandra for a couple months now on a short-​time frame house renovation and she has been responsive, knowledgeable and professional– overall, a pleasure to work with. Although we haven’t started actual construction yet, we are expect that her great work to continue.