Story LLC

Miriam has excellent taste and a real talent for listening to what a client actually needs. Balancing function, beauty, and cost isn't easy, but she does it seamlessly. She helped us reimagine the design and flow of our Capitol Hill condo, making it far more functional for a family with young children. As always, her design was spot on!

Miriam is a total professional from start to finish. An absolute pleasure to work with throughout our DADU build. She has a great vision and is highly creative. More importantly for us, is a total professional, leader, and excels and managing the job throughout the entire process. She is clearly an advocate for her clients and I would absolutely work with her again. Simply put, I give her my highest recommendations.

We cannot recommend Miriam and Story Architecture enough. We hired Story LLC to design a guest house that we were converting from a workshop. From the start, MIriam took the time to get to know us, our style, and our hopes for the space. She genuinely listened and designed a stunning space beyond what we could even imagine. Throughout the process, she was prompt, kind, respectful, and always followed through. She is the utmost professional. She is a gifted architect and, on a personal note, a wonderful person. She is innovative yet practical. She is also incredibly organized and essentially managed the entire project. She kept the contractors moving forward and ensured they followed the design and our vision for the project. She helped with value engineering and troubleshooting when needed and was the voice of reason more times than I can count. She was a total advocate and helped us navigate this very unfamiliar world of renovations. The final product was absolutely beautiful, a testament to her vision, skill, and leadership. We feel so fortunate to have worked with her and now to know her!

We are so fortunate to have worked with Miriam on our first home remodel. We wanted to refurbish a 30-year-old house to create a bright, warm, open, and welcoming home for our family. We were working with a tight timeline, as well as constraints imposed by the existing structure. From the start, we were impressed with Miriam's honesty, intelligence, and depth of experience. We felt we could trust her to have our backs, and we were proved right. Miriam helped us choose a contractor, develop site plans, project-manage the work, communicate with many different subcontractors, source finishes and fixtures, and bring things to a close -- on time! Whenever we encountered problems along the way, Miriam was able to find creative and pragmatic solutions, and communicate clearly yet positively, constantly moving us forward. She probably had other projects she was working on concurrently with ours, but we would never have known -- her dedication to our project showed in the careful consideration she gave to every detail, and thoughtful yet speedy responses to every question or request. Even now, after move-in, she continues to help us resolve any questions or issues that come up. It was a real pleasure working with Miriam, and we'd recommend her wholeheartedly.

We are proudly repeat customers of Story LLC and couldn't be more thrilled with out our remodeled primary suite and bathroom turned out! We first met Miriam at the start of COVID and she agreed to take on a project of remodeling our entryway/living room almost entirely virtual. Fast forward 2-3 years later and we knew she had to be the one to help us with our primary bedroom remodel as well. There was no question that Story would be our architect again on this project - she knows how my husband and I work, she knows what's important to us, ensures we are heard and puts the customer first. She did it the first time and she did it again with this project. From start to finish, we knew we could depend on Miriam whenever we needed it. She was patient when we went through several rounds of design refinement and knew when/how to push when it was time to make a decision. She always brings options for us to review/consider and never takes things personally when we want to go a different direction. And most importantly, she communicates well, is timely in her responses and ALWAYS listens. She provides all the amazing day-to-day updates and communication as well - countless e-mails, texts, weekly meeting recaps/updates/follow-ups and ends up being a dear friend, therapist, supporter, etc. through it all. After 3+ months of tearing the old bedroom/bathroom to studs, we got the primary suite of our dreams and we couldn't be happier with the end result. She incorporated personal touches that mean so much and ensured we were happy with every last detail. I'm not kidding when I say she meticulously went through it all, down to the paint, nail holes and finishing work. I would hire Miriam and Story in a heartbeat if we ever have another part of the house we want worked on. She is damn good at what she does and will work her butt off for you.

We had the pleasure of working with Miriam (Sensitive Information Hidden) from Architect Story, and we were thoroughly impressed. As a home staging company, we partnered with her to help build her portfolio, and her professionalism and clear communication stood out from day one. Miriam has an exceptional eye for detail and kept the project on track, which is rare in the world of building and remodeling. What impressed us the most was her proactive approach—she contacted us well in advance about timelines, and it was clear that this level of organization was reflected throughout the entire project. From a vendor perspective, I can confidently recommend Miriam. And from a personal standpoint, I would hire her for any of my own future projects. Miriam is a true professional, and it was a pleasure working with her.

We had a great experience working with Miriam at Story Architecture on our recent home remodel. As first timers to the world of home construction, we found in Miriam a much-needed guide who was experienced, pragmatic, and consultative. Miriam guided us through each phase of the project, playing a critical role from day one through to move-in. She wore many hats, including architect, designer, project manager, and chief problem-solver. No issue was too big (e.g. resolving unexpected water damage to the roof) or too small (e.g. selecting light bulbs) for Miriam to take on. Her practical approach considered real-world constraints, and accommodated our preferences and working styles. Miriam was also a great communicator and very responsive to our requests. She listened intently and helped tease out, and solve for, the things that were important to us. It was evident that she was personally invested in our project and took responsibility over its success. Her working style — steady, transparent, balanced, and ego-free — made her a great partner to have on an otherwise wild journey. Last but not least, Miriam is great at her craft and excels at functional design. She was able to understand our vision and bring it to life in a way that was cost- and time-efficient. Her background in carpentry helps her marry design and aesthetics with actual feasibility and implementation. For example, she advised against making structural changes to our home, saving us a great amount of time and cost — and still came up with a beautiful design that met our goals perfectly. We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to partner with Miriam at Story Architecture. Hiring her (along with our equally excellent contractor, Aaron at Brown Dog Home Remodel) was the best and most important decision we made in our remodel project.

Story Architecture came into our lives at the perfect time. We were searching not only for incredible skill, but also a firm that could represent our best interest when interacting with others. We got that and so much more. Story was with us from the very beginning, to help us come up with our vision - that would incorporate our style within a limited time frame and budget. I was blown away by Miriam’s vast knowledge of products from appliances to trim to paint. She knew it all! She helped us see things about our space that we never could have imagined - turning a closed off galley kitchen into a luminous and open area with unimaginable counter space. I still don’t know how she did that! Her vision was unparalleled. Miriam was even there to tell the contractor the various ways to make the top of a cabinet look better through her knowledge of construction techniques. To combine her kindness and professionalism with such an immense knowledge of her craft, and insight about space - blew us away. But what truly set her apart is how she advocated for us. She understood our situation and what we wanted to accomplish, and she worked diligently on our behalf to see that through, every step of the way. She was gracious and brilliant with each interaction. The final result is that we have a magnificent kitchen! Wow! Story has it all and we feel so grateful to have worked with this incredible business and Miriam’s phenomenal talents.

It was an absolute pleasure working with Miriam to realize the vision for our remodel - we wanted to preserve the character and bones of an old turn-of-the-20th century Craftsman, while pretty much completely completely changing floor plans for all new living spaces in the home. Miriam worked with us all the way from early conceptual drawings, to architecture and site plans, organizing bid sets for general contractors, researching finish options, recommending color combinations and fixtures and ultimately serving as our project manager through the construction process. We couldn't be happier with the result - the home is an expression of her creative vision with our preferences and crafted with detail and care by the collaboration with our general contractor. Two characteristics stand out in Miriam above and beyond the many creative and technical qualities that one might expect in an architect/designer/project manager - * Empathy for the people who would ultimately live in the home - this comes across in the way she expertly balances the aesthetic with the function, and * Ownership of the process throughout - even after the completion and move-in, staying on top of the little fixes that are often required. We are grateful for having worked with her during this process, and would wholeheartedly recommend her for any project!

We are so grateful for all the work Miriam did for our addition. Miriam took our limited budget into consideration, designed our beautiful master suite addition, found reputable and relatively affordable contractors, took care of city permitting, and managed our project throughout construction from beginning to end. Not only is her design absolutely beautiful and included exactly what we wanted for a price that we could afford, but she also knows a lot about construction and coding. Her instruction ensured that we understood the construction process. Miriam took what we thought was going to be a very scary endeavor and made it painless and enjoyable. She is responsive, communicative, and your advocate when you need her. We can’t recommend Miriam highly enough!

Architect Miriam Larson of Story designed the plans and is providing impeccable construction administration on a large addition and full house (3 story) remodel we are working on in the Seattle Capitol Hill area. Throughout the project, the clients have lived in another state, and Miriam has kept the project on track, quickly solving any issues that come up, steering open questions and decisions toward closure, and driving all parties toward the shared goal of efficiency, quality, and timeliness. It is hard to overstate how valuable this service is. With boots in the field, time really is money, and this particular remodel was a tricky one: a 1905 home that experienced a not- good-quality remodel in the 1980s and with its current addition, needed to come up to 2020's code. It required a lot of structural problem-solving on the fly and a knowledgeable team. Miriam's advocacy has been the secret sauce of project success, serving to simultaneously hold all parties to high account while maintaining an encouraging, collaborative spirit. The level of trust this earns from all parties is what it takes to navigate complexity with confidence. From a contractor's perspective, in addition to a beautiful design, you really need an architect with these skills to realize your remodeling dreams. For this reason and many others (including beautiful design!) we highly recommend Miriam Larson/ Story Architecture.

Can't say enough good things about Miriam and Story LLC - she is a consummate professional, excellent at her craft and so committed to her clients. Miriam designed our living room/entryway remodel during the height of COVID, all virtual with minimal to no adjustments once we were able to see each other in-person and on-site. Her design hit all of our asks right out of the gate, we felt like she listened and grasped our style and needs so quickly. Once we actually got the project started, there was a great deal of issues we experienced with the chosen contractor and Miriam jumped in to mediate, project manage and problem-solve. The amount of care and support she provided us was nothing like I've ever seen - she helped us find a new cabinet maker mid-way through the project and got us an amazing outcome because of her commitment to us and seeing everything through. She has an amazing attention to detail and really designed a space that looks gorgeous but is truly functional as well. I've already referred Miriam to anyone that asks because I believe she has the perfect combination of expertise, knowledge and care. She won't accept anything less for her clients and we are so grateful for her support through a longer than anticipated process. Miriam will be who we use again when we tackle the master bathroom in a year or so!