Hisel Flynn Architects

We are a General Contractor who have worked with Hisel Flynn on multiple occasions. Not only are they talented and inspiring people, but they are great communicators to us and their clients. When we team up with Hisel Flynn, we feel like it is a collaboration we want to be a part of! Recently we completed an addition of a mid-century home that included a new master suite, new family room bathroom, heating systems and a beautiful cedar exterior. Katie Flynn was excellent in her approach of working between us and the client to ensure that the work met their expectations and stayed true to the original look of the house. The clients were happy as were we with how the project went and the results were excellent thanks to a great design-process.

Katie and Dan are exceptional at what they do! They turn houses in amazing homes. They hired me to photograph a few projects that they worked on over the last couple years. They are professional, highly talented and very knowledgable. A true collaborative team and a real joy to work with. They will do wonders for your next renovation. Thanks, Kate and Dan, keep up the amazing work!

We worked with Hisel & Flynn on a full gut job on our starter home. It was our first renovation project, so we were unfamiliar with the process and how to partner with an architect or contractor. We had a vision, but we also wanted someone who could expand our thinking about how our home could better fit our life. Katie & Dan over-delivered on all of the above. Their skill, attention to detail and design instincts make an incredible package. Their consultative approach made us feel listened to and professionally guided through the project. Their were responsive, clear and accountable. Our results, and our experience with this team, far surpassed what we ever would have expected.

We hired Dan Hisel in 2012, and immediately appreciated the good personal chemistry and candor he brought to our project. Dan guided us through the process of determining how our family needed our 100-year-old home to work, what our priorities were for the kitchen and living spaces, and what our budget could cover. With his practiced combination of pragmatism and aesthetic intuition, Dan designed an inspired plan that worked with the existing structure and paired contemporary and traditional elements in a transitional style, as well as assisting us as we navigated the challenges of permitting and building the project. We couldn’t be happier with the results.

Dan and Katie were great to work with, had interesting ideas and helped us figure out where to spend more money (windows, structural integrity) and where to spend less (lighting, millwork). Their models and drawings were easy to understand, and they had good reasoning for the designs they suggested. They were also easy to contact by phone, email, and text, and flexible on scheduling to meet with us.

Unbelievable experience. Perfect balance between client and architect. Dan is a great listener and is able to interpret feedback in a constructive way. Highly recommend

Dan Hisel and Katie Flynn are two amazingly talented architects we had the pleasure of working with over the last ten months. They recently completed managing the construction administration of our house renovation, which they designed for us. The final product is a beautifully crafted modern minimalist renovation that we are in awe with! I would highly recommend Dan Hisel Architect (DHA) to anyone committed to modern design - even if you are working with a shoe-string budget. We began with Dan late last year with a walk through of our very old house with an intention to modernize it. Dan's vision for the space was simple and elegant, marked by clean lines with a minimalist design approach. After conversing with us, he & Katie came up with a design that beautifully married the existing traditional architecture of our house with a very clean and contemporary layout they developed for our renovation. The design process took about 12 weeks, and the construction took an additional 18 weeks (approximately). Throughout the process Dan and Katie were on top of all developments, including construction management. Dan and Katie were also great listeners, and very detailed in their approach with us. They understood what we were looking for, and exactly how we intended to use the space. Their ultimate design is a seamless union of clean minimalist and the existing traditional design of the old house. To top it all, these two architects are incredibly talented, super detailed, and always available for questions or discussions. I remember sending them so many inspirational images and I always got an opinion and a suggestion on why/why not, and how those inspirations could be incorporated in our design. All in all we are very pleased to have found DHA and worked with Dan and Katie.

Dan Hisel was an absolutely wonderful architect to work with. From initial meetings to discuss project scope, through the various architectural design iterations and all the way to project completion – Dan exceeded our expectations. He was very attentive to our needs/wishes while at the same time infusing great ideas and creative solutions. He was also very helpful in various phases of town approval processes (we had to go through quite a few of those) and in securing the council of structural engineers. Lastly, he made himself available a number of times during the construction to clarify, provide advice and help resolve issues that came up in the field; he also got along very well with our contractor. We truly felt he cared about the success of the endeavor. We recommend him highly without any hesitation.

Dan Hisel designed our master bedroom/bath renovation. My husband and I had several competing needs: privacy toward the street elevation, views and sunlight on the southern exposure. In a minimalist aesthetic, we needed to incorporate storage. Dan design a space that provided everything including a warm atmosphere with mahogany paneling and a lighting system with pre-set scenes. Radiant floors and a gas fireplace combined with a ceiling fan keep the heat where we want it. Dan worked very collaboratively with my husband who offered many of his own ideas, helping us to remain true to the minimalist design concept. He also helped to move the process along when we stalled and had difficulty making decisions.

I retained Dan Hisel for a major renovation of my personal home. I'm the owner of a 100 person professional commercial construction company with 40 years experience. I'm also very opinionated and have worked with some of the finest and largest architects in New England. Dan did more than survive me. He did a fabulous job. And there's nothing more demanding than a builder's personal home. Dan consistently went beyond the scope of his responsibilities. My home is in Lexington and the exterior is Georgian Colonial. My taste is contemporary. Dan wove the two aesthetics together masterfully. A major portion of the redesign is a fabulous master bedroom/bath/spa. His design opened the entire area-- about 1100 sf. He came up with a concept he calls a "Z Box". This places a 12'x12'x8' high cube (sort of) in the center of the space. The cube contains a new walk-in closet. Into one side of the cube is carved out a 16" deep recess for the headboard of the bed. This 'carve out' is is lined with mahogany, fitted with tiny LED down lights, built in night tables, bedside sconces and tilted back board to lean up against in bed while watching a large TV-- which hides behind floor to ceiling draperies covering the TV and exterior wall when not in use. Into the opposing side of the cube is carved a recess for a 10 foot long floating double vanity. So begins the master bath which continues with a cool toilet room, huge double shower with 16 heads, step-up pedestal tub perch with floor to ceiling window overlooking a pond, and an 8'x15' mahogany lined spa with full width folding aluminum exterior doors which we open in the nice weather to create the equivalent of a roof top deck. Since I was the builder the punch list is still not done and only artwork is holding up photos--which will appear here soon ( "I promise dear" he says to his wife ;-) Back to Dan. Dan is creative (naturally) but he is patient, ("long suffering" is the old English term) thoughtful, knowledgeable (he teaches architecture at Wentworth Institute) practical and fun to work with. This is an example of his 'going beyond'; Before responding to our request to design both a garage enlargement on one end of the house and a 20x30 conservatory on the other he called in a realtor-friend experienced with the Lexington market to provide advice as to the marketability of our design preferences and, even more importantly, whether the investment of such major additions is sound or not. His counsel restrained and guided our final decisions-- in some ways reducing Dan's work (and fee), but that's how Dan works. In our business we have a motto we post on every major construction site "we all work for the project". This reminds all the individual trade contractors and architects, engineers and us (the construction manager) that our calling is to achieve the best for the project, not ourselves. Dan lives by this without the poster. I can't recommend him more highly for tasteful, cool, yet appropriate residential design.

We hired Dan Hisel to renovate our home at 9 Salem Street, Newburyport. He not only brought his intelligence & unique creative vision to the project, but he was a great listener an amazing problem solver, and an honest, good-hearted person. I felt like we were all a team -- Dan, Us, and the contractors. The whole process, while not without its challenges, was interesting and exciting and empowering. Thanks Dan!

Dan comes to the table with a unique blend of experience, thoughtfulness, sophistication and easy going energy. Our work together has always been dynamic and fruitful, from the initial conversations through final punch list. Dan's ernest desire to solves the problems he is charged with solving from the client, is taken seriously and addressed gracefully. As a builder, we encounter many different styles of design professionals and working with Dan is one we value greatly as it is truly collaborative, fully engaged, and solution oriented. Dan has a strong compotency balancing design statements, focal points, and the design genre he specializes in, with the requirements we all have to adhere to, regarding building codes and functional the parameters of a modern home. Dan's orientation towards simple elegance, and the beauty derived from clean modern design has made building his ideas exciting and satisfying. I would strongly recommend Dan based on the items listed above and in general the pleasant ease and fluidity of his working style.