Bendrew Jong, FAIA, Architect

Engage Jong to help design a residential house that he had worked on before. Experience was horrible. Despite the F in his FAAA and what he claimed about himself, his design was unimaginative, a big block with 1 huge roof. And garage was detached from the house and blocked half of the front entrance. He initially designed a 8 foot hallway that runs through the house with ackward entrance to all bedrooms. Yet, he kept saying "I think your house will be beautiful". Asked him to change a few details in master bath. 2 weeks later, still the same. He even got my owner name wrong on the cover sheet. The only thing he was good at was billing us. And in our face to face meetings, he would spend half the time talking about irrelevant stuff, like his past work, his family, and he would bill us for those hours. He promised a delivery time. If I didn't email or call, don't expect it on that day. Even after I called, i would get an email from him saying for xyz reasons, revision is not ready. But his bills were always on time. Oh, we asked him about his contacts with cilvil, structural and general contractors. He was not willing to reach out and solicit the best bids. I had the feeling he didnt know anyone, at least any good 3Rd party contractors. Maybe because his incompetency, nobody wanted to work with him. That was an early warning sign - how good can an architect be if he cant even give you some details on other important parts of the project, like a good general contractor who will actually build the house? Too bad i didnt act sooner on this warning sign. Still he would constantly remind me "I am a good designer". After about 3 months, I was so fed up with his mediocrity and attitude. Paid him small amount and fired him. I am so glad I did it. I found a really good designer. He designed a nicer and bigger Spanish house for us in a matter of 4 weeks at 1/3 of Jong's cost. He lined up civil, structural, surveyor and general contractor for us, all pre-vetted (we also checked their work). Our designer is very responsive, always getting back to me in 1 or 2 days. Bendrew Jong lacks professional competency and professionalism period. I am so glad I fired him. Wanted to file complaint with AAA but then thought what's the use? Better let other consumers know. He doesn't deserve the 1 star but that's the lowest on this website.