Stop looking for an architect – you’ve found her!
We live on a small, narrow lot in Venice and wanted to expand the kitchen without building a second story. Diane encouraged us to consider all of the features we wanted and then through close collaboration during the design process, she achieved everything on our wish list. She is particularly skilled at solving problems imposed by space constraints.
By utilizing our long, narrow lot, we accommodated an en suite master bathroom, added a guest bathroom, and expanded the kitchen more than 200 square feet. With just inches to spare, we were able to achieve a curbless shower in a good-sized bathroom and also a 48″ soaking tub – all perfectly balanced to create a relaxing, harmonious environment.
Creating a beautiful and functional space that feels natural is where Diane excels. She carefully listened to us when we described what we wanted and didn’t want and how we intended to use the space. One of us bakes and one of us cooks. We use the kitchen together, and there is an 8-inch height difference between the two of us, yet the kitchen works well for both of us.
Some of our favorite design choices were increasing the kitchen ceiling height to 91/2 feet, implementing an 8 foot long seamless island, and installing a butcher block countertop that does double duty as a baking counter and desk. We spend all day in the kitchen: we open the accordion doors in the morning to let in the sun and ocean breeze, and we don’t close them until sunset when we turn on the lights. The kitchen is always perfectly illuminated, night and day.
We had the same experiences working with Diane that are described in other testimonials. Diane is knowledgeable about all aspects of the process from plans, to construction, to finished materials. She has discerning taste and is excellent at interior style. We were looking for a clean, modern/midcentury modern look which we softened with reclaimed wood and industrial pieces.
Her advice on lighting was impeccable – she has a keen eye for the smallest of details. She is meticulous, is a facile communicator with all tradespeople involved, and her supervision of the project’s progress was invaluable. She is a true professional in both skill and manner.
We are very happy we hired an architect to help us reimagine our home. We couldn’t have achieved the custom, personalized design without her. You are not going to get a template or standard design here. You are going to get what you want and also what you didn’t realize you needed. We recommend her to all of our friends and would work with Diane again without hesitation.
We planned to demolish our house in Santa Monica and build a new house, a challenging undertaking for several reasons. We had very specific needs that included accommodating a large family for frequent gatherings and our potential changes in mobility as we grew older. We also knew that the city of Santa Monica presented a lot of challenges to new construction in what they deemed a historic district on Georgina Ave. We interviewed six architects and chose Diane Waingrow. In that first interview, we were impressed with her excellent educational preparation, her rich professional experience, and her extraordinary communication skills.
Over the next few months, Diane listened carefully as we sketched out our hopes for the new house. She provided many innovative ideas. For example, she suggested that instead of pushing our old house (built in 1923) to a landfill, we donate it to charity, an option we didn’t know existed. She connected us to the appropriate NGO. The tax benefits paid for the cost of boxing and shipping the materials. Thanks to Diane, the house also has a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) silver designation and is highly energy efficient.
The house was going to be in a neighborhood of predominately Spanish and Mediterranean homes, but we hoped for a transitional style inside that would allow for an open floor plan and a more modern design. She achieved both brilliantly. She suggested that we include an “outside room” connecting the dining and family rooms to the outdoor garden with bi-fold doors. She designed a fire pit in the back yard that is a perfect gathering place in the evening. She also designed radiant floor heating throughout the house, as well as individual air conditioning by room so that we didn’t have to close off the house to achieve the temperature we wanted in a single room.
Her kitchen, complete with a waterfall center counter, is the perfect design with minimal steps from refrigerator to sink to stove. The kitchen can easily accommodate five cooks at once, but is equally efficient for one person. She recommended that we include a small refrigerator and coffee maker in an area off the master bedroom, which allows us to have morning coffee without having to go downstairs. These examples are just a few of the dozens she recommended.
Although we lived in San Francisco during much of the planning and construction, we met with her regularly as she developed the blue prints that eventually became our new home and obtained all the necessary city permits. Between face to face meetings and email, we always felt we had excellent communication. Diane did weekly inspections of the construction site and had a great relationship with the general contractor, which insured a smooth building phase. We are now happily living in our new five-bedroom home. We finished the project with great appreciation for Diane’s ability to translate our inchoate wishes into a stunning home. We highly recommend her to anyone needing an architect and would choose her again in a heartbeat.
We needed an update of our 1920’s Spanish house, especially in the kitchen and living areas. After consideration of several architects, we chose Diane Waingrow. Diane was extremely helpful in developing creative solutions to space planning and working within our budget. She conceived several initial plans and worked with a contractor to determine preliminary costs. After deciding on one of the plans, she refined the idea until we were satisfied with the concept.
Her designs were attentive to detail and included creative uses of the space. She took the time to understand how we lived in the house and incorporated that into her plan. She also honored the original architecture of our home which was extremely important to us. Diane worked well with our contractor and interior designer, and was open to their suggestions in the field. She was present on the job site and always available for consultation. I would highly recommend her work. We are very satisfied with the project and happy to have had Diane as a partner in this renovation project.
From a contractor’s perspective, it is a pleasure to work on any size project with Diane. She is a professional whose communication style includes being very responsive and easy to contact. She also has an impeccable sense of style – making her a team leader that is easy to get behind.
As an experienced team leader, Diane is always readily available to make those spur of the moment decisions – the ones that can stop a project in its tracks. She keeps in close contact with the owners and is able to bridge any discrepancies allowing the project to continuously move forward.
As the architect of the project, Diane is the center-point between owner, contractors, designers and anyone else involved with the project. One of the keys to her successful projects is her responsiveness to inquiries coming from every direction and keeping the communication flowing between everyone.
By incorporating her natural sense of taste, the owners vision, and awareness of LEED/Green Space concerns Diane has created a spectacular space for her clients with minor impact on the environment. I look forward to working with Diane on many projects in the future.
Diane has done both a whole home remodel for my family in the early 1990’s, and a 1000 sq. foot separate building on a different property in 2012. I was very pleased with the finished results on both projects and have enjoyed living in these spaces. Diane is a good listener when it comes to understanding the client’s needs. Her sense of how a space will be used is clearly reflected in her modern designs and she has a tremendous attention to modern detail.
She has excellent skills on state of the art architectural CAD software that allows her to show her clients 3D spaces, and also results in very detailed plans and specifications, which is critical during both the bidding and construction phases. She has a depth of knowledge regarding building materials and finishes that helps to create a coherent aesthetic design. She is credentialed in the LEED program, and sustainable development is clearly part of her philosophy.
Diane’s services include construction observation as part of the fee and it is well worth it. She is on site making sure the construction is per specification and correctly detailed. I can’t emphasize how important that is. She is a true professional and a joy to work with. I recommend her without hesitation.
Diane was the architect who processed my Mills Act Contract for the City of Santa Monica. The Mills Act Contract is the tax reduction program for those who maintain a historical house in California. The process is complicated and requires an experienced architect for approval. Since she has experience with the Mills Act Contract and has very good communication skills, she successfully completed the process. She is organized and a pleasure to work with. I can highly recommend her for those who want to apply for the contract.
We’ve lived in this Diane Waingrow designed home for nearly a decade and have never lost our appreciation for the skill and artistic sensibility it reflects. I’ve often described Diane’s work as the perfect blending of form and functionality. I continue to marvel at what I call the ‘geometry’ of the house – the lines and planes (and perfectly placed skylights) adding up to a overall feeling of spaciousness and ‘rightness.’ That same feeling of rightness is reflected in the way the house commands but does not overwhelm the lot.
Diane’s work is imaginative and skillful but – even more importantly- it’s extremely liveable.
When we were thinking of building a guesthouse at our property, a friend of ours in real estate told us to go look at a wonderful example that was part of a property for sale at that time. That was how we found Diane and eventually hired her to design our guesthouse, as well as a to remodel and expand our main house. Diane’s design took our goals and made them into a satisfying reality. The new spaces are efficient, functional, not too large, and beautiful. We were able to squeeze in all the spaces we wanted around the existing kitchen, and we love the aesthetics of the breakfast room.
Diane was able to move the garage to the front of the house using an exception to the restrictive setback codes, which made our entire project possible and hugely impacted the functionality of that part of the house. The complexity of our project was great and Diane handled all of it with utter calm and professionalism. I always felt that she was a strong advocate for our goals whenever dealing with the contractor, engineers, and city. Having her perform that role plus creating the design was equally important and valuable. We would use Diane’s services again if needed and refer her whenever possible to our friends.
We spent years trying to decide if we should move or remodel, and finally we realized that the best approach would be to hire the right architect to maximize the potential of our property. Diane’s training, skill and talent accomplished just that, with an amazing design that could be implemented within our modest budget. She thought of a design that we never, ever would have or could have. I can still remember thinking to myself when she showed us some initial plans “how did she come up with this???” because I could not have imagined the solution.
The challenge was to capture all the floor area that the Culver City building department would allow us, without using up our beautiful backyard space. Adding a little bit here and there, at several sides of the house, made all the difference in being able to completely rearrange the interior spaces, solve some problems, and get in everything that we wanted. The fact that each family member ended up with their own defined alcove desk space (well, the kids have to share but it is big!) is one of the best functional accomplishments in the plan. I remember when Diane did a site visit just at the right moment early in the framing phase, ensuring the correct framing of the main room’s high ceilings so that the house ended up with its intended spacious feel. It was a completely different house when we were done and we got a huge return on our investment. We still love the house and the use of space.
Diane was our Architect for two separate phases of work to our property. The first phase was the remodeling of the lower floor of our main house, completely reworking the spaces and adding a bedroom. Then, six years later, the second phase was designing the entire backyard to include an accessory building with garage, office and pool bath, an outdoor kitchen, and pool and deck spaces. Diane’s designs maximized the useable space and responded perfectly to the integrity of the original 1927 house. She was able to get all the program spaces we wanted in our lower floor for the first project, and then was equally skilled at the allocation of spaces in our very small backyard in the second project. We collaborated well – if we had an idea, Diane would figure how it was going to get done or suggest a way to do it better. The final solutions were very successful; we couldn’t have chosen a better Architect for the jobs.
When we hired Diane to remodel our existing house and add a second story master suite, we could not have anticipated the complete transformation that resulted. The house turned out to be a jewel. It was clear that my design input was an essential part of Diane’s process, and the house was so much fun to design. Her knowledge and sense of design took me into fabulous nooks and crannies of local shops for pulls, plumbing fixtures, and fireplace ideas.
Never having done a remodel myself, I was enchanted by her world of design and her use of space. At first, we did not include the remodeling of the kitchen in the scope of construction, but when it was clear that Diane had a vision of improving the entire planning and quality of the house, we knew that we had to bring the kitchen into the vision. She was so successful at working within the codes of the City of Beverly Hills, and was able do design a beautiful and well-planned master suite within the very restrictive square footage requirements of our lot. Diane encouraged an upgrade in material to real slate for the deeply pitched, dramatic roofs, a last minute decision which hugely affected the curb appeal and was in hindsight a great use of funds.
Diane designed an office space in the backyard of our home in Santa Monica, which is separated from the main house. We hired her to design this space that had to be warm and beautiful so that we would truly enjoy coming to work each day. Diane listened to us and designed an office that captured our vision of a “writer’s office” or a “psychologist’s office” completely. We knew it had to have angles and curves and not just square walls & ceilings. It had to have windows that looked out over the garden and have the right compromise between the size of the building and the open space of the backyard.
We weren’t sure what our vision would look like but we knew we’d be able to recognize it & know it if someone special designed it. Well, Diane IS that special architect and she got it just right. When our clients see us in this office space, they always say, “Who designed this, it is so beautiful!” As a matter of fact, a reality show was recently filmed there which airs in Sweden, and the producers chose to film in this office space because they loved the way the French doors open into the garden…all of which was Diane’s creation.
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