Looking for Architect recommendation in New York City

February 1, 2018 6:40 AM

Looking to find an architect who will give a free consultation regarding putting an extra bedroom in our space. Needs to be licensed and familiar with getting the required permits and all that jazz, so that we can get a reliable estimate of total cost/complication of the job.
posted by DMelanogaster to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

A reliable cost/complication estimate will require more work than you're remotely likely to get for free.
posted by jon1270 at 7:54 AM on February 1, 2018 [4 favorites]

I would think you would want a contractor to come out and look at what you were trying to do and provide you with an estimate. Not that you should take our experience as a model, because it was somewhat traumatic, but in our case we hired a contractor who was also (semi) capable of doing the design. once we got to a design element (a non-load-bearing wall removal) that our coop building required us to pull a permit for, we hired an architect to draw up a submittable pan for permitting and sign off on the city side of things. The contractor was able to quote us a price for the architect's services, including permitting etc. I wouldn't use the one we used, but I think you might want to start w a design-build or contracting firm first, and see what they say about needing an architect. (im assuming here that extra bedroom means re/moving or changing interior wall configurations and not, like, putting a physical extension onto the building, for which I would definitely start with an architect/engineering firm).
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 8:03 AM on February 1, 2018

I would ask around in your building. The architect we used for our opposite renovation (removing an illegal bedroom) lived in our building and had a pretty good practice going of working on residents' apartments. So, she could give pretty reliable cost and time estimates given that she had done a ton of work under almost identical circumstances to ours. Memail me if you'd like her name (I wouldn't recommend her without reservation, but would recommend her under some circumstances).
posted by snaw at 8:12 AM on February 1, 2018

Response by poster: (Our building is a 3-unit brownstone that we own. Nobody to ask around to!)
posted by DMelanogaster at 8:56 AM on February 1, 2018

Response by poster: Cancel this request: found out that code requires a bedroom to be at least 8 feet high (ceiling). Which we're not. Thanks anyway!
posted by DMelanogaster at 12:06 PM on February 1, 2018

A good general rule about free estimates: if a professional's license requires a college degree, the initial consultation isn't free.
posted by hwyengr at 12:10 PM on February 1, 2018 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: hwyengr, boy is that not true! I am a psychologist (Ph.D.) and have given many free consultations and so have many of my colleagues! And I have received several free consultations (as a client) with several attorneys during my (quite long) life, AND even had an architect consult with me for free many years ago.

PLUS I also registered with Houzz.com yesterday and HAD several phone consultations (ALL Free) with several architects!

So -- cute, a bit snarky, but -- FALSE.

Anyway...anybody have a NYC contractor (NOT architect) who knows how to put in a laundry room who would consult with me? (note: this is not a new question, merely an offshoot, subsidiary question to my original)
posted by DMelanogaster at 10:38 AM on February 2, 2018