Marc Newman Architect

We were fortunate that Marc was available for our small-ish remodel, converting a den and kitchenette into a bedroom, closet, and bathroom. He gave us many options for how to utilize the space and was quick to iterate on ideas, and had lots of practical suggestions. The finished product matches exactly what we had in our heads at the end of the design phase and is a really lovely space that we're proud of. He also astutely noticed a potential issue with an existing part of the space that we were able to address right from the outset, meaning there were no surprises during construction. And as much as we valued the quality of Marc's work we also valued the way he works. He's extremely responsive in general and it was really easy to quickly work through details via email both during design and construction. This ease of communication did not seem to be the norm based on other architects we evaluated. His bid was also clear and transparent, with a great breakdown of the phases of work and the estimated time and cost for each, so it was really easy to judge the reasonableness of it, and in the end it was extremely accurate. Again this did not seem to be the norm, other bids we received were vague and based on a percentage of project cost which didn't make as much sense to us for this kind of job. We highly recommend Marc!

Working with Marc on our ground up building project has been a wonderful experience. I can't say the process is easy but Marc stayed on top of our project, navigated it, corralled the various engineers, and gave us great guidance throughout the planning process and onto final permit. This was a completely unfamiliar process and an intense learning experience. Marc was patient and helped guide us through it all. We highly recommend him.

Marc is a thoughtful, detailed, and trustworthy architect. He's an excellent listener and brings a viewpoint, which was appreciated during the design phase. He captured exactly what we were looking for.

Highly recommend Marc. He helped us with an almost whole-home remodel that included our kitchen, family room, bedroom, and bathrooms. He was very thoughtful throughout the design process and considered and incorporated each of our requests while still maintaining the overall design aesthetic. Marc also was very responsive and kept the project moving forward. We could not be happier with our remodel project and have Marc to thank for putting together a great design!

Marc was my architect for remodeling my kitchen, dining room, and adding a beautiful backyard deck accessed through double doors from the dining room. He did an extremely thorough job of recreating drawings and structural elements of my 90-year old house and led me through the process of developing a tasteful and efficient design. I would highly recommend his creative services.

Marc was a tremendous help on our home remodel. Not only was the permitting process quick and seamless, the path to get there was fully enjoyable and never stressful. Marc was engaging and informative, as well as insightful in understanding of our needs and aspirations. We could not be more excited about how well the remodel came together.

Marc is amazing. We chose him (over 2 other architects) for our pool house and home renovation in Lafayette, CA. The project was challenging - a phased project that allowed us to moved into the pool house, while the main house was under construction. Further, we needed to synthesize generations of different styles, maximize function while adding some luxury, and do it all as a green net-zero energy project. Marc listened to our needs, and delivered on a design that delivered this on budget. He worked with ideas from both my wife and I. He gave push back at select times when he felt a design element was important, and we agree with every one of those decisions. He was diligent with permitting, submitting the right amount of documentation, and in a timely manner. Throughout the project, he was extremely friendly while addressing any problems that came up. My wife and I continue to consider Marc a good friend, and appreciate all he did to make our home a reality.

Marc is a true professional, talented and smart. He's a quiet giant. The work he did for us, an independent school in Berkeley, exceeded expectations. He designed an outdoor classroom for our middle school deck - no easy feat, demanding functional as well as aesthetic requirements. Moreover, the deck sits right next to a registered historic landmark! Marc a pleasure to work with and we will again, without hesitation.

Marc was professional, reliable and knowledgeable. He worked with us to make our bathroom remodel plan work. I highly recommend Marc.

Marc is an awesome architect. He walked us through an ADU (Two bedroom/ 1 bath pool house) and pool design. He is very easy to work with and guided us through the design, planning and permit phases of this massive project. We live on a hillside and in an HOA. Marc made sure our design was compliant with all HOA, City and County guidelines. I highly recommend Marc Newman for your Architectural needs. We love how our project turned out.

Marc was literally the foundation in our finally, successfully completing a nearly $200K front stair demo and replacement on our 1898 Haight-Ashbury Victorian, which we were intent on doing without destroying its historic character -- and did so after our having been told by a couple of other architects (one quite prominent in the Victorian renovation space) over a couple of years that we'd need to make highly undesirable design changes to accommodate current code requirements. I wasn't sure that Marc would be able to navigate the San Francisco Building Dept bureaucracy and deliver on our hopes after the prior advice we'd received (and further after having hired another Oakland architect 10 years back for a deck project, which proved a much bumpier, less successful and expensive ride through SF's Planning Dept and even Board of Appeals, as that architect wasn't so well versed in SF rules), but deliver Marc did, and I'm pretty sure ours is the most photographed home on a block of classics thanks to his talented efforts. He also worked well in coordinating with the engineer and city to get the project past some unexpected structural hurdles. Couldn't be happier with the result -- and while the overall project cost more than twice as much as anticipated going in, Marc's fees were less than I would have expected given the ultimate cost of the project, and were entirely reasonable --- for that matter, absolutely worth every penny. Highly recommended, I'd reach out to him first, should another project come up in this home or any other.

I hired Marc to design a net new bathroom addition to our house. This work included excavation of quite a bit of soil, building a retaining wall and foundation pad that tied into the original footing. Marc was great -- he was responsive, detailed, thorough and communicative. His drawings were clear and precise and required no revisions when reviewed by the planning department. I highly recommend his services and will use him again on future projects

I’m a general contractor and homeowner. I have worked together with Marc for over a year now. We are building our own family home. The house is three story new construction home in the Oakland hills. The project is extremely complicated due to several neighbors view rights and it’s just a difficult lot to build on in general, Marc has been instrumental in working with the city, my wife and I then also the neighbors to design a house that fits in well to the area, and has a positive outcome for all parties involved. Marc is very easy to work with, very responsive, detailed and creative. I will work with marc to finish our home, then hopefully in the future, on new projects. I would recommend marc to anyone that needs a good architect!

Excellent clear and honest communication. I look forward to working with Marc in the future. I would highly recommend Marc to anyone.