John D Schlesinger, AIA

We have used John Schlesinger on multiple occasions over the past 20 years for various improvements and remodels on our home in the Berkeley hills. Simply put, John is a top-​quality, consummate design professional, and I wouldn’t trust work on my house to anyone else.
John’s technical skills as an architect are without question superb, but what I really appreciate most about John are his customer focus and listening skills. Both are really exceptional.
A case in point is our most recent remodel — a $ 300,000 project in which we completely rebuilt about ²⁄₃ of our home’s interior. John took the time to really understand how my partner and I lived and what we wanted in our «new» spaces. He then developed a number of design concepts for our review to show different approaches. Once we settled on the core concepts, John went to work producing all the drawings, engineering specs, and permit documents we needed to get our project approved by the city. The work took about six months to complete. Over that time, John was our advocate with our contractor, making sure he followed the plans, built according to specs, addressed our questions about costs, and in a few cases when the unforeseen developments necessitated design changes, he was there on the spot to work with the contractor to come up with alternatives.
The best indicator of how a project turns out is the reaction that the finished product garners from family, friends and visitors. Our latest remodel is a masterpiece. Since its completion, it has garnered only rave reviews. The contractor did great work, and he had a fantastic design to start with. The best thing I can say? I wouldn’t change a thing.
John is a complete joy to work with.