My wife and I have had the absolute pleasure of working with Sussan Lari and her firm for the past two years designing and building our new construction home in the Village of Flower Hill in Manhasset, NY. Sussan performed all possible aspects of her trade including i) architectural design and layout, ii) interior design such as kitchen and bathrooms, lighting, extensive built in cabinetry and millworks, stairs and railing, wall and flooring design, iii) site & landscape design including pool, patio, gardens, and outdoor BBQ, iv) construction administration and even v) furnishing, finishing, accessorizing and coloring the interior.
We had a very specific "modern classic" design in mind for our home which is very challenging because every aspect of the home had to combine both design styles within it (as opposed to "transitional" which tends to mix some modern and some traditional elements). We searched regional architects from Boston to Washington D.C. and even started working with another, supposedly high end, architect in New York City before finding Sussan right next door in the village of Roslyn. We were incredibly fortunate to find a national quality architecture firm so close which allowed us to combine rare top level design skills with the very close local oversight and personal service Sussan provided.
Sussan is an incredibly skilled designer who brings an extraordinary attention to detail to all aspects of her work. While she has designed homes in other styles, she was particularly skilled with our "modern classic" design vision and greatly enhanced it - both aesthetically and practically. The result is an extremely well balanced home that combines local and global, open and intimate, and modern and classic. For example, when selecting modern classic windows for our home she passed on traditional “double-hung” windows and referred us to MQ Windows in Canada which, while being modern in using large panes and slight mullions, incorporate a classic design used in Europe for centuries updated with “turn & tilt” functionality. We also had very extensive "healthy home" restrictions with natural-only materials requirements that she patiently worked with us and the building contractors to adhere to.
While most architects now cut corners to keep their commitment and cost down (such as only providing kitchen and bathroom layouts and sending the client to go to a "kitchen showroom" to pick everything out themselves), Sussan would never think of this and designs the entire house as a whole. She drafted extremely detailed elevations and was at all product design showrooms herself both with and without us. While we did not know it when we hired her, Sussan's kitchen, custom cabinetry and millwork designs are one of her trademarks and, built by her long-time cabinet, millwork and tile installation contractor artisans, offer the highest level of custom results for a cost comparable to upscale kitchen and cabinetry showrooms.
While we hesitate to call Sussan "old school", as she is anything but in her designs, she provides the full, classic array of architectural skills including hyper-detailed designs, materials selection, construction oversight, and perhaps most importantly, contractor management. Sussan gets the best out of every contractor (most of the best of which she knows from multiple projects). Contractors know they are working on one of Sussan's houses and all take their game up a notch knowing only the best results will be accepted. And her professionalism working with local zoning and architectural boards and building inspectors was appreciated by them and lead to a level of trust that was very important in the approvals process for us.
Perhaps most importantly, though, are Sussan's client relationship abilities. She is just such a pleasurable and trustworthy person to work with. If you mention something to her, she will remember it and, unless she comes back to you with a better idea, you can count of it being incorporated. We had a great collaboration with her with a truly massive amount of ideas exchanged with both of us always willing to defer to a better idea. While, of course, she will bend to the client's will if you want, you probably won't want her to, as the few items we "shelved" for later discussion until an agreement could be found, she was definitely correct on in hindsight!
Even as we walk around our house a year after moving in we still notice interior details Sussan created and we are still getting compliments from neighbors regarding the exterior design. We could not be happier with our new home.
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