John Lodge Architects

John Lodge is the best architect I’ve ever worked with. He’s very creative, smart And knowledgeable-and he stayed within his quote. I never felt as though he were trying to overspend. He did a beautiful job on my “green” home!! I recommend him highly!

We recently completed a gut renovation of a small, three story house in North Cambridge with John and general contractor Byron Angel (B&A Construction in Lynn, MA--also five stars!). John was with us from the beginning of the project (he inspected a house we tried unsuccessfully to buy before we even hired him). He led all aspects of the renovation including creation of an amazing plan, contractor selection (not easy these days with so many of the best ones completely booked), problem solving during construction, consulting on the many finishing details, and so much more! We probably called John once a day seeking advice/help/comfort. First, John's easy-going demeanor and endless patience make him incredible to work with. He's a super nice guy! No less important, John has a solid, simple aesthetic that we gravitated to immediately: you can see it in his other projects on Houzz. John made the absolute most with our limited budget. There's nothing fanciful or overbuilt here which I attribute to the seemingly countless instances where John steered us (me especially) away from too-decorative trim, a pointless concrete stairway off the backdoor, expensive German radiators, and a basement dig out that we didn't need. When he thought it made sense, he also encouraged us to upgrade (reclaimed lumber floor for the first level, for example). We are completely thrilled with the results: a dark, haunted, almost-sprial stairwell is now a delightful, light filled journey up into the trees with the addition of small, well-placed windows and careful/intelligent design of the first floor landing. It's my favorite part of the house. A large window seat in the kitchen has replaced a bathroom/storage area that completely blocked the garden view and morning light and has basically given us a second living room. John's intelligent design takes advantage of the best aspects of the house and site. Although we exceeded our budget a bit, we were at all times aware of where we were going and I have no doubt John's guidance saved us from many pointless expenditures. We love the new house but are a bit sad because we'll be seeing less of John and Byron: honest, hard-working people who we learned so much from!

I am a kitchen designer and have worked with John on many projects. John Lodge's down-to-earth vibe coupled with his design sensibilities makes him a pleasure to work with. He is a great listener, has great suggestions and knows the design/build process as well as anyone I've worked with.

John helped us with an extensive re-model of our residence to gut-renovate the basement, making it more like part of the living space, removing a staircase in the center of the house to allow us to build a master suite and half-bathroom for visitors and create a new family bathroom. The spaces he created maintained the proportions of our Victorian house and preserved the aesthetic integrity along side the existing trim detail which we love. The actual construction work lasted 5 months but John was helping us for a few months prior to make sure we got the design we wanted and helped us line up quotes from different contractors. Through the construction, John was working with the contractors and made himself available for our many questions. We ended up with a hugely improved flow through the house, a much more useful use of space and utterly enjoy the result that John was primarily instrumental in creating for us.

We worked with John on a renovation project to create a more open floor plan in our kitchen /dining area. We live in a small 1940’s cape in West Cambridge and with city dwelling you need to be creative with your space. We had been to several different architects and kitchen designers and we got pretty much the same ideas from all of them. The designs were not giving us really what we wanted, which was a three seat breakfast bar, casual sitting and dining area and a modern kitchen. John was able to provide us with this by making a very subtle but incredibly impactful change to our existing space. We bumped out a wall into our living room that had very low impact on the living room space and a huge impact on the flow of the kitchen / dining area. This was the first renovation project my wife and I had done and it was something we had been thinking about for a long time. It was a significant investment and we had very high hopes. Johns help from design to assistance through every phase of the project was a huge help. Friends and family are amazed at the change, the space feels so much bigger and more functional. The project exceeded our expectations and the design made it possible.

We have an 1863 house. John Lodge (working closely with Nick Beasley from Adams Beasley contractors) helped us to create an open, modern kitchen and family room (and an additional room in the basement) that have enough of a traditional style that it feels like it fits right in with the old house. I'm not much of a cook but now I want to cook. And all of my friends who are great cooks have kitchen envy! In fact we now spend most of our time in our kitchen/dining room; we used to go in there only when we needed to eat. John worked closely with us to come up with creative solutions for more usable and beautiful space. He worked collaboratively throughout with us, the contractor, and the sub-contractors. He listened to what we wanted and offered options for how to implement our visions. He is a joy to work with. And that's not an easy feat during/after a year long renovation project!