BRYANT DESIGN STUDIO

I am writing this in August 2022 with great regret. I begged Carl to please redeem his reputation and do the job he agreed to so I would not have to warn anyone else. He chose not to respond to repeated requests. I am sorry it has come to this but others need to know about his unprofessional behavior. I hired Carl in March of 2020 to design a 1200 sq ft ADU. Given the pandemic we experienced delays. Not surprising. But a few times it seemed like things were stalled for reasons I couldn’t pinpoint. I politely asked if he had too much on his plate and was assured whatever other projects were wrapping up. This happened twice. Then communication became less frequent and longer delays. The LUP was finally approved January of 2022. In March of 2022 I made the decision to have the ADU built by Pacific Homes so my custom designed ADU could be easily assembled on site. It would save both time and money, not to mention disturb the neighbors less. I hired the construction supervisor as a consultant to try and minimize costs and delays due to utilities etc. He called me one night because he could not find the building permit case # online and wanted to look at the plans to bid the project. Carl did not have a case number either. In the end it turns out he had not submitted the plans. The plans are supposed to be submitted simultaneously with the land-use permit application because both can take more than a year. They should be processing concurrently. Carl claimed the county had made a mistake and then later said it might’ve been his fault. Regardless, he submitted only nine pages of plans with no details at all. A typical submission according to the contractor can be 40 pages +, detailing everything from windows and doors to ceiling heights and house colors. Carl never asked me questions about any of that leading me to believe he has done no work at all. We had a meeting at the beginning of July 2022 where Carl agreed he would have all the detail drawings turned into the county by August 1. On July 29, he said he needed more time. I have heard nothing from him since despite numerous emails, calls, and texts requesting information. The contractor has also tried to reach him. At this point I have paid more than $20,000 and have absolutely nothing to show for it. In addition to that, I have been making monthly mortgage payments on the lot with no income and it’s reducing my build budget monthly. We talked about this in our initial meeting and he was well aware of my budget. He has not shared his cad design so that I could try and engage another more competent professional either. It’s looking like he has cost me a lot of money and I’m still going to have to start over. Please do not hire Carl. This is all strictly facts, nothing personal. I hired him because he was my sons volunteer soccer coach and I like to give business to people who volunteer in the community. But he betrayed my trust, jeopardized my project, and refuses to solve the problem he created.

Carl Bryant is an old world artist , his taste and balance are exquisite and they are matched by his amazing attention to detail , in fact detail so minute your conscience may not even pick it up until you by happenstance notice the detail after living with it in your dining room years later . I'm sure if Carl were alive in the 15th century he would have worked for the Medici family , he is that good , and in fact he still HAND draws 90% of his work and it is art in itself !! If it is old world perfection your looking for in your home or hardscape he is your best choice . My only criticism of Carl is like most artist is timeframes , I have seen him draw a detail Six to ten times and before he is satisfied with the balance and ironically when he would present them to us , my wife and myself loved them all so many times it was pointless to us , but not to him . Ed St. George

I met Carl when we started working together on a large-scale, 22,000 foot remodel of a home in Montecito, California. We worked very well together as Carl is the consummate professional. We have since collaborated on other projects he brought me in on, as he has a high degree of trust and confidence in me to work at his same high standard to ensure the integrity of his designs were maintained and his client’s expectations were exceeded.