Light House Design

To whom it may concern, I first met David Hornstein of Light House Design in 2016. At that time my wife and I were considering purchasing a parcel of land in Lincoln, MA. Although both of us had experience buying houses, we had no experience buying land or with building a home. A friend recommended David to us and so begin an eventual two year relationship. David was helpful in all stages of (what soon became) our house building project, including scouting the land, creating design concepts, helping us through permitting, and eventually overseeing construction. At the core of our successful relationship was a synergy between the type of house my wife and I wanted, and that David excelled in designing. I would describe the house that we built as modern organic. Although unabashedly modern, consisting of clean lines and lots of glass, it flows along the contour of the land beautifully. And through David's selection of stone, wood, and other materials, it looks warm and inviting. During the design process David helped make a big project less daunting. He was adept at breaking the entire project into smaller manageable steps and decisions. Working with him from concept to construction never felt overwhelming, and as the primary interface between us and the General Contractor, David was an invaluable source of practical, useful suggestions to keep the project on track. David Hornstein is an immensely talented and knowledgeable designer. I can not imagine having created the beautiful house that my wife and I now live in without him being the architect and project supervisor. I heartily recommend him for design projects both large and small, particularly those utilizing a modern design style. Sincerely, Chuck Lewin Lincoln, MA 01773

David is a brilliant architect and is well accomplished in residential work. We hired him to renovate the front facade of our house after meeting with several architects who could not come up with any design that met our specific tastes. He came up with a gorgeous design that is modern and yet seamlessly fits in with our neighborhood. We get constant compliments on it. He was punctual and his prices were reasonable. He worked very well with our contractor and represented us favorably on many smaller issues related to the construction. I recommend him highly!

Although I only had the pleasure to talk to David over the phone and exchange a couple of emails regarding our project plans I can definitely understand why he was awarded for client satisfaction. David was a pleasure to communicate with.

David designed and supervised our house renovation. The scope of renovation was building an additional garage bay, new screened porch and deck, laundry room, extending existing family room and kitchen and renovating all bathrooms and the kitchen. Our challenges included transforming a standard traditional house into contemporary style home. A few architects that we interviewed had no idea how to approach the project. David drew us a picture of our new house in the first meeting in 10 minutes. Then he took the house measurements, entered them into an architectural software and produced a computer design of our house renovation. At any stage of the design we were able to see the pictures of the new design or get into 3D viewer and "walk" around the house trying on the new spaces. David helped us to find the right GC. David guided us through the entire construction process, helped managing the billing schedule and controlling the budget. David introduced and designed many interesting details in the house: the new stairs, kitchen, fireplaces, front entrance, doors, windows, trim. He paid attention to every little detail and worked on it. He designed and implemented innovative lighting ideas in the house. David explained all his ideas to the contractors while he was overseeing the construction, frequently visiting the site. He detailed the tile layouts and the plumbing fixtures locations to agree with the layout. David found a kitchen maker who made our challenging kitchen exceptionally well. David always knew the best materials for the task and where to find them for the best price. He is a very professional, knowledgable designer. He is very efficient to resolve any problem or find a competent professional who can do that. We have now our dream house that has a lot of light and space. We are convinced that our house would never be that great without David's work.

We recently had the chance to work with David on a great project. He was exceptional to work with and designed an amazing space/kitchen. I would recommend him to any client looking for a true professional!

David spend a lot of time giving me feedback on the design of our new house that we will hopefully be building in the next few months. He was very honest with what was working and not working in the design, offered some great tips and was very patient. We have to go back and work on our budget before getting back to the design and we will be sure to keep him in mind when the time comes!

I have worked on three of David’s projects, including his own home. As a general contractor and finish carpenter building high-end homes in the Boston area for many years, I have worked for many architects on a wide variety of projects. David is the first one I’ve met who has a thorough understanding of building, including exactly how things should go together. I was skeptical of some of his ideas at first because he does a lot of things differently, but in every case I have been very impressed with the finished product. On his own home I followed his design to create a curving handrail that snaked down two stories of a stair, made from PVC. The finished product looks amazing and was done for very little money. I also worked on a 7000’ project in Newton that was beautifully detailed, including a walnut handrail with a steel bar hidden inside to make it strong without appearing clunky. On a project in Lincoln he designed an aluminum loft ladder that was simple to build but looked very custom. I recommend him to anyone looking for a creative architect that actually knows how things are built.

David designed an extensive renovation to a 1968 modern-style house. We got a lot of natural light where we wanted it and less natural light in the master bedroom where we didn't want it. There were a lot of constraints on the project, e.g., due to plumbing and electrical being in a concrete slab. But he figured out how to give us an extra bathroom for guests. He also came up with a couple of interesting loft areas that delight our children. We liked his work on this so much that we hired David to design an addition as well. He was able to get approval for the project from a notoriously difficult set of town committees. Now we just need to find a contractor that isn't booked for two years!

I have worked with David at light house design on a few jobs. He is very professional, has a very creative eye, all around great team to work with. Would highly recommend to anyone.

I have worked with David on various projects over the years. He is detailed and innovative in his design and thought process making it a pleasure to work with. I would highly recommend him for anyones next remodel or home build. I am an Electrical Contractor.

David designed a renovation of our house including a kitchen/family room addition, new bath, deck, and reconfiguration of the first floor. We had spent years working on various schemes, but his idea to push out the side, rather than back of our house made perfect sense and created a more spacious plan without encroaching on the backyard. We liked his creativity, professionalism, and sense of humor. We love entertaining in our new space and hanging out in the family room.

David Hornstein designed and managed a whole house rennovation for us--including a new kitchen, sunroom, mudroom, master bedroom suite and five full bathrooms. Working with David has been a pleasure. He's done a briliant job figuring out how to give us everything we wanted within the constraints of our budget. In addition to designing these beautiful and functional spaces for us with the utmost respect for our tastes and desires, David managed the process of finding the builder and helped us choose just the right GC for the job. David also managed the entire project for us which meant that we were able to relax during what could have been a very stressful process--we knew we had his capable eyes overseeing all the work--making sure everything went smoothly and quickly, was exactly the way we wanted it, and was completed with great attention to detail. Not sure how we would have made it through such a large project without his help--thank goodness we found him! We would highly recommend him with no reservations.