Sophie Piesse Architect, PA

Sophie Piesse is a clever, imaginative and responsive architect. She made the 3 phases of our 1960’s house renovation fun and as stress free as possible. Each time we planned to do a project the first step was sitting or walking around the house with Sophie to discuss the scope of the work and what our needs and interests were for it. She was involved as much as we needed her to be and monitored the work as it progressed, intervening with the contractor and town when needed. We are thrilled with the results.

Sophie is just wonderful! She designed a renovation/addition to my home and was always available when questions arose along the way. She thinks of every detail and is equally attentive to both the functional and aesthetic elements of design. I have recommended her to neighbors and friends, and everyone I know who has worked with her gives her rave reviews.

I worked with Sophie on some major renovations for my 40+ year old house including flipping kitchen and dining room footprints, remodeling a small upstairs bathroom, lots of new flooring, replacing almost all the windows, upgrading the front door, adding a new laundry room door as well as built-in cabinets in the laundry, and redoing a roofed walkway from the laundry to a studio. I had a fairly steep learning curve on much of this, and Sophie was there every step of the way to walk me through the design details and ensure it all came together beautifully and in a way that suited my life. She worked well with the contractor and was on-site for all key decisions and to ensure the work was done to plan. I've been living with the renovation for about six months now, and still have moments where I'm amazed at how functional and enjoyable the house is.

First off, there needs to be six stars to rate her. We met her at an open house on a modern house tour in Carrboro. We have a contemporary style house and looking for a designer and or architect was difficult. Other companies we talked to about our house, which was badly designed by the previous owners, only gave what amounted to elaborate tile jobs. We saw from that tour, how she totally thought outside the box to make the house functional and modern and not a beige or white washed easy design. We like the artist Mondrian and there were hints of that there and we said she is totally what we are looking for for our kitchen bath remodel. Sophie saw we had some serious design flaws and found solutions to make our house have a better flow and function. This entailed moving weight bearing walls in the kitchen and bathroom. The bathroom was the walk through to the office. The kitchen was impossible to entertain in and do a lot of cooking, like we enjoy doing. Sophie moved the wall in the bathroom and made the hall to the office an actual hallway. The kitchen counter was extended and a wall removed so we could have a gathering area for entertaining or use as a bar for eating lunch etc. We had the laundry room reconfigured to be more ergonomic for simply doing laundry and expanding pantry space. The shower and bath are in a wet room area with a linear drain that we wanted and top to floor tiling. We used Actual Size Builders for our project and they are true pros who worked well with Sophie. They saw her vision for our project and ran with it, on budget and on schedule. The color scheme we wanted was excellent. We did not want the boring white, beige and browns. We wanted a design in the direction of a Mondrian style house with more warmth. Tough combination, but Sophie pulled it off! We incorporated this in our open cabinet plan and laundry room and bathroom tile selection. Along with a denim color Paper Stone kitchen countertop and red quartz sink. No other designer we spoke to would come near that kind of creativity. Sophie put together a functional, modern home that we can't get enough of. We ask ourselves if there was a regret or something we would have done differently, the answer is no. Sophie worked hard to ensure that.

Excellent Architect, she has the ability take all of your thoughts and conversations and turn them into an amazing home. Sophie is easy to work with and is hands on. She has an acute attention to detail, how tile is laid out, where every light switch goes, even the smallest detail. Advises on selections but understands this is your home and respects all ideas and points of view. Our home is amazing thanks to Sophie and Kevin @ Newphire Building.

Sophie is amazing, and we could not have chosen a better architect for our project. She patiently helped us consider many different designs for our renovation and guided us through the entire design and construction process. During the renovation, she was always there for us anytime we needed help. The contractors all respected her and she was part all problem solving during the construction phase. We feel fortunate that she worked with us!

Construction people working with her respect her; clients adore her. She can think and plan like an engineer, as well as an architect, at a design and construction level at the same time she can get "down in the weeds" with clients about tiny details with respect to placement of light switches, colors for the flooring, and finding chairs that match the granite counter tops. I have recommended Sophie Piesse to friends "thinking about maybe a little renovation of their basement" to those "ready to gut the whole house and redo it completely". It's no wonder that Sophie won the Architect of the year award for the Triangle this past spring. There's no one I'd rather have at my side initiating the process and guiding it through from beginning to end, if I were to buy a new "old" house and remake it as my own, than Sophie Piesse.

Working with Sophie Piesse was a joy. She was recommended to me by a close friend who had just finished having her house designed and built by her, so I already knew I was going to be in good hands. I had no idea how good those hands would be! Not only did she help me locate a piece of property, but she also handled all of the necessary work that ensued. I had a lot of wishes that Sophie managed to work into the house. She managed to realize my dream home even with the limitations of the property. I don’t think one square foot was wasted. Sophie’s a true professional, knowledgeable on all aspects of the design and build project. She assisted in picking all the materials I used in the building. She was on time for every appointment wherever it was. She was at every meeting with the builders who were impressed by her knowledge of all aspects of the process. There were no budget surprises. She reviewed every detail of invoices I received from the builders. I never paid anything before Sophie went over everything and agreed it was all kosher. She had my back along the way. I couldn’t have done this without her total assistance with every aspect of the job. Growing up with a father in the contracting business, I have been around construction professionals my whole life. No one compares with Sophie Piesse. Sophie is a great problem solver and trouble shooter. She was responsible and organized, taking notes, making suggestions and pushing back when and where it was needed. She is fastidious. I have never met a person that’s is both so creative and so practical. She thinks like an engineer as well as a designer—what a gift! Her connection to the community is amazing which was so helpful in the building process. People walk by my house all the time and stop to admire it. Some even knock on the door to ask who designed my house. Others drive by and take pictures. That’s how fabulous it is! When I build my summer beach home one day, I will have Sophie design and build it. She is awesome.

I can’t say enough about Sophie. Not only is she a highly skilled architect who has creative problem skills and insane attention to detail, she is also wonderful to work with. She turned our thoughts into a home that reflects who we are and what we wanted, all while staying on schedule and within the original budget. A close family friend referred Sophie to us and I’m so grateful. Our home is beautiful, comfortable, fun and energy efficient and it also feels like us. Sophie is amazing!

I enjoyed so much my experience with Sophie. Not only is she a talented architect, she is a joy to work with. She listened to my original idea, interpreted it into a plan, and met with me often to hone the plan and find a good contractor to do the work. It was a small addition to my home, but it was as important to Sophie as it was to me. The addition turned out beautifully and I give credit to her plans. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend her to anyone thinking of building new or adding to their existing building or home.

Our project: complete kitchen renovation with the removal of a load-bearing wall Sophie was incredibly helpful through creating the right floor plan to help picking a contractor. She worked seamlessly with our contractor, heading off problems ahead of time and thereby helping to keep the project on time and budget. She was quick to respond during "emergencies" and helped us think through what we needed & wanted -- when often we did not know. We had to wait a while for her schedule to clear to take on our project but it was absolutely worth it. We have friends who have been to our house several times and still compliment us on the kitchen -- our response is to give them Sophie's card!

My husband and I began working with Sophie long before we even purchased our house. We felt, and Sophie agreed, that it would be best to consult with an architect prior to our home purchase so that we didn’t end up in a situation where we bought a house that could not be reasonably modified to suit our needs. We clicked in our conversations with Sophie early on. It was obvious that she listens to her clients’ needs and wishes and works within that criteria. We also liked that she has a vast knowledge of eco-friendly construction and materials and a knack for style and design. We got on Sophie’s list for client projects and when our name came to the top we still did not have a house. She assured us that she’d be ready for us whenever we had a house. We were in frequent contact with Sophie during this time to provide her with status updates. Due to our struggles buying a home in a seller’s market we also consulted Sophie regarding the pros and cons of doing a new build on vacant land. Ultimately we found a home in a perfect location for us and brought Sophie in to look at it during the negotiation process. She also returned to the home while the previous owners were still living there and did measurements to get the design phase of the renovation moving forward. We were excited that Sophie provided us with 3 blueprint options for our whole house renovation and we were able to pick and choose our favorite features from each to integrate into the final plan. Sophie was great at “thinking outside the box” when it came to addressing our 2 separate front doors (pre-renovation) and designing a new front entry that would also give the right flow and “wow factor” of our wall of windows in the living room. Sophie guided us well through the process since renovations/construction in North Carolina are done differently than where we are originally from (i.e. more work up front for pricing from contractors which results in more accurate estimates of cost). Additionally, Sophie was able to recommend contractors and subcontractors that produced good quality work at reasonable prices. She was also able to work with us regarding our use of IKEA cabinets in our laundry room by giving us clear dimensions that we could bring to the store to buy the appropriate size cabinets. Our renovation has been completed for about 8 months now and my husband and I find joy in all of the spaces. While eating weekend breakfast on our new screen porch, relaxing in front of the newly designed fireplace, listening to music in the new media room, pulling the car into the new garage, walking up the front path to the new portico and preparing a meal in the renovated kitchen we can’t help but think “This is truly the perfect house for us.” We couldn’t have done it without Sophie!