Klopf Architecture - San Francisco, California

Tim S.

John and the team are fantastic! In preparing the brief for our custom home build they were incredibly thorough; covering every detail and ensuring we understood every step of the process.

John himself is personable and humble— not something you'd expect from such an accomplished architect. He visited our old home to help get a vision for how we live and what we're looking for in a new home.

Despite moving to the East Coast, we still wanted Klopf's team to design our home, but the logistics for our specific project didn't work out. If we were building in the Bay Area, he'd be first on our list to contact.

Mary-Anne M. R.

We chose Klopf Architecture for the addition of a master suite, a laundry room and a garage to the front of our house. After reading Matthew's review below, I don't know how we can add on to what he's said. His review is representative of our experience with Klopf Architecture.

I will add that John had a section titled "Should you work with an architect?" on his website that we found helpful to go through before we met with him at our kitchen table. We had never worked with an architect before and that information gave focus to our first meeting. Our tiny 70-year-old house is a copy of a Cliff May design and didn't look like the spectacular homes featured on John's website, but he never regarded our little project with anything but his full attention.

We had a big hiccup with the City of Cupertino when they would not permit our design as submitted. The design had a one-car garage and the city required a two-car garage. (Apparently they have since changed that.) John and Angela came to city hall with us to try to get the design approved, but we were not successful. John came back with a revised design within 72 hours, and that was over a weekend. The new design was approved and constrution started immediately.

We worked closely with Angela on our project and were very happy that she was on board. She was incredibly detail-oriented, very professional, prompt in all communication, and we never felt like there was anything we couldn't bring up with her, which is really important when you're going back and forth about the smallest details. She never treated any of our inquiries like they were insignificant.

I would also like to add that it has been six years since the completion of our project and we are still thrilled with how our design turned out. There isn't anything we would change. The excellent customer service continues, as well. John responds immediately to any questions we have for him, from what paint color did we use, to recommendations for a landscape designer.

Little did we know that what seemed like a casual kitchen table meeting with some sketches would turn into a years-long relationship. We would highly recommend Klopf Architecture to friends and family and would go back to them for future projects.

Matthew G.

We hired John and his team to help us with a complete renovation of a midcentury home. We had an absolutely fantastic experience from beginning to end. We love John's style and approach to design, and especially his deep experience and appreciation for midcentury architecture. His houses are just beautiful. Our project turned out just as we had hoped it would. The construction was on time and under budget.

The quality of Klopf design is something you can see clearly from John’s portfolio. There are some other important points that might not be so obvious:

(1) Klopf construction drawings are meticulous. Many contractors we talked to commented on this and it became really clear as the process went on. Though we hadn't really understood it going in, this turned out to be incredibly important. The best way to control costs is to have a fixed price contract. But such a contract is only helpful to the extent that what you're contracting on is clear. Most architects leave lots of details vague, and this creates all kinds of scope for contractors to add cost later on. ("The drawings aren't clear on how this foundation is going to be poured; if you want it poured that way, it will cost 30% more...")

(2) Everyone wants to work with Klopf. That means when it came to soliciting bids and working with contractors, consultants, etc., they were eager to work with us. And during the project gave us a lot of leverage because while those we were working with may or may not have cared about their relationship with us they cared a lot about their relationship with John.

(3) John runs a super efficient shop and this translates into less cost and less time from the client. They answer emails fast and are great at communication. They are happy to propose great default options for just about everything so you only need to spend time on the decisions you care about. They track details and don't let anything slip through the cracks.

(4) Another example of the way John makes things efficient is the process of finding the consultants, etc. Rather than either (i) making us go out and find all those other people ourselves or (ii) hiring them himself and then charging us a 25% markup on their services (which is common), he gave us several recommendations of people he had worked with then let us negotiate to hire them directly.

(5) The fact that John has so much experience with midcentury houses means he knows how to make them beautiful while keeping costs (relatively) low. A lot of good architects are used to working with super-rich clients who just want to get the fanciest of everything. That's not John's style at all. He knows where spending more will add real value and where it won't.

(6) John is definitely not the cheapest architect around, but he's a lot less expensive than top shelf SF firms that are the only ones I think can touch Klopf in terms of quality.

Jaydon C.

We engaged Klopf to provide some design services for an Eichler remodel in Foster City. Several prerequisites were given to Klopf including the budget and restrictions (including instructions such as "don't move the kitchen"). Klopf then charged us ~$12k for a whole bunch of unrealistic designs options built out by a junior employee, including 3D visualizations of floors plans that were explicitly ruled out. Can't recommend.

John N.

Excellent service from the staff, especially Curtis.

Joshua C.