Architetti a Watertown

“I am delighted to give my strongest possible endorsement to the architectural work of Shelly Wood Ziegelman. We worked together on four projects in the past six years: my extensive house renovation and, at Harvard University, two office redesigns and space planning for a first floor public space. The results were all spectacular (see below). In all four projects Shelly maintained excellent working relationships with contractors, trades people and involved Harvard personnel. This is a remarkable testament to Shelly's warm respect for everyone she works with which, naturally, is repaid in kind. In summary: I live every aspect of my life in wonderful surroundings that have been created by Shelly Wood Ziegelman. I consider this a great blessing and I am delighted to recommend Shelly to anyone who wishes to be similarly blessed. My association with Shelly began with extensive renovations on my house: extension of internal dining room and bedroom areas to include space previously devoted to exterior porches; conversion of the attic into an entirely new space for office or guest accommodations; creation of a ground floor bathroom; and complete renovation of a second-floor bathroom. Shelly's designs were elegant and beautiful, enhancing and modernizing the spaces while remaining true to the 100-year-old style of the house. The newly created third floor space incorporated light, space and a spectacular view and is now the nicest space in the house. Shelly worked seamlessly with me, matching her suggestions to my taste while concomitantly minimizing cost. She is extremely knowledgeable. For example, she knew specific features to accommodated my elderly mother's physical limitations. Shelly always kept the issue of her time and the costs of her services in clear perspective, up front, so there were no surprises. I next asked Shelly to assist in three projects related to my professional circumstances as Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University. (i) She did a total gut re-design of my office, creating a lovely, light, well-configured space accessorized with the perfect furniture and curtains that provided privacy without blocking light. (ii) When I moved, Shelly designed my new office, in a smaller space and an unforgiving location, again to spectacular effect. Everyone who enters, including my colleagues, says "what a wonderful office". Essential features were somehow included in a light, open space. (iii) My move also placed me on a wide, empty airport-like corridor. I asked Shelly to help create a friendly space, which she did. In all three projects, Shelly maintained an excellent working relationship with involved Harvard personnel (including architect John Hollister), exhibiting all of her unique professional skills in full force. Nancy Kleckner Herschel Smith Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology Harvard University”

“Joe Fournier did some great architectual design work on two large projects we did. A large remodel on one property and an almost complete rebuild on a second property. Joe acted as GC on the second job and did a wonderful job keeping things moving, helping us get good decisions made in a timely fashion and working closely with all the trades to ensure the work was coordinated and of high quality. The transformations to our properties were hugely successful and Joe was instrumental in helping us get to a place where the homes work so much better for our lifestyle. Highly recommend Joe's work (and already have several times).”

“We worked with Foley Fiore Architects on a custom home in a suburb west of Boston. As the general contractor's site supervisor I worked very closely with them and can attest that their approach is collaborative, solutions oriented and client driven. Their staff is highly professional and pays tremendous attention to detail and client service. We look forward to working with them again.”

“Glen is absolutely wonderful. I can't wait to hire him for my next project. He has such great new ideas”

“Nick is currently helping me design a 'tiny home' in Southern California. In the past months he has drafted several designs that are typically more and more amazing as we work through it. He listens to your requests and has an extremely amazing artistic talent to think outside box and design something that is truly unique.”

“Lee2Design was the perfect fit for our needs. Justin and Kathrin listed to our goals and needs, took the time to really understand what we wanted, and expertly helped shape a realistic plan that kept one eye on the budget and the other on helping us realize our design dreams. Their combination of architectural knowledge and experience was critical to solving several complicated challenges in our space - especially in dealing with the difficult triangular footprint of much of our house - solutions we never would have come up with on our own. And in terms of design, they managed to find products and suggest colors and textures that perfectly suited our taste, rather than merely replicating TV show taste, and at the same time provided expert advice on how to expand our design horizons without pressuring us into doing anything for their egos rather than our lifestyle. Justin and Kathrin were extremely easy to work with - we always looked forward to our meetings, and they made the entire process as painless as possible. We couldn't be happier with the results!”

“Greg Rapp is not only an excellent architect, but an extremely thoughtful and gracious person. He is a great listener, and paid close attention to the (sometimes idiosyncratic) wishes of my husband and me; he also was able to explain and clarify his decisions and design concepts in ways that we were able to understand. He worked well and easily with our GC, and was a great liaison with Timberpeg. He worked efficiently and kept the process moving in a timely way. Greg was always able to come up with creative solutions to design problems that we could not figure out. He was patient, good-humored, and easy to be with. We could not recommend him more highly. Unfortunately, the wonderful, unique, personalized house that Greg designed for us between June and December 2011 was never built - shortly before the day of ground-breaking, my husband had a stroke. All plans were suspended, and a few weeks later we cancelled the project which was a huge disappointment to everyone.”

“Paul Rovinell and I first worked on a project together over 10 years ago. Paul hired me to design a kitchen. He has since hired my firm to collaborate on many more kitchens throughout New England. I always admired his restrained aesthetic and his efforstless falir for modern spaces. When it came time for me to transfrom my UGLY 1960 time capsule Paul graciously accepted the challenge. We had so much fun designing it! He listened and delivered. My husband and I were THRILLED with the result. Paul is an architectural force. So orignianl and creative - I cannot say enough - Paul is a true talent.”

“My wife and i had a small house in newton, mass. We had at the time three young boys and not enough room for all so we started looking aroind and we found Allen Taylor he came over and started working away on plans for new addition we met with builder and all went perfect never met someone that went out of his way to make shure things were done to specs so we had him draw plans for a garage city approved it and agin everyone involved in building it said they were inrest by him”

““You can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse” - Maybe not, but Doug Okun and Associates did succeed in turning what was once attic space in a Victorian house into a third floor modern suite. Indeed, by moving walls, and re-configuring space, he managed to create two bedrooms, a bathroom, a sizable closet and a gracefully curving staircase from the second floor. What had been dark, even claustrophobic, rooms became the bedroom level of a two story condo unit in a very desirable location in Somerville, Massachusetts. Doug worked closely with his contractor to see us through an at times arduous permitting process. In every respect he was indispensible.”