Beckstrom Architecture + Interiors

I worked with Eric Beckstrom to rebuild a large residential loft in a 100+ year old San Francisco building -- and the results were extraordinary. I can't say enough about Eric's collaborative, creative and professional demeanor. As is often the case, we went through many iterations and the stress levels were often high, but Eric was calm, responsive and helpful. And his work is top-notch. Highly recommended.

Eric is very professional, courteous and personable. I work with him on many projects for other clients but most importantly I also trust him with my own personal house as well. As an engineer I appreciate his attention to structural needs and the supports homes need and design them in a way that is extremely cost effective.

I have worked with Eric on two custom home projects over the past 2 years. Eric's dedication and commitment to his clients is unparalleled. Eric always makes time for on-site questions and really resembles the true meaning of a "team player." Our weekly meetings were always full of great ideas, humor, and team collaboration. I look forward to working with Eric again, he is a true professional that brings a strong sense of design and positive energy to each of his projects.

Extremely disappointed in Eric’s services. We chose to work with Eric after meeting another architect that was rude and pushy… Initially Eric was pleasant and easy to talk to. He ended up being disorganized, ignoring our input, and unprofessional. He’s was patronizing and likes to say things like “My job is to be the parent in this process”, “that will cost you another Mercedes”, "I was trying to read between the lines", and “my delivery is your reveal” over and over again. Almost everything he said ended up being a euphemism or anecdote instead of facts or speaking directly. Some context. We are in the process of significantly remodeling our two story house and decided to use Eric’s services to help us formalize our goals and existing designs. In our initial meeting with him we gave him a $1500 deposit, the original drawings of our house as well as our own designs we had created for the work we wanted to do. The goal was for him to take our drawings and create a formal version that was the most realistic based on costs and general do-ability. This would also require him working with a structural engineer to sort out structural challenges. We were super excited to have our second meeting to go over two different concepts he had created. It was clear at this point we were way off the rails. He was super disorganized presenting drawings (even forgot some), changed meeting locations from his office to our house at the last minute showing up late, and left before we could finish going through the work he’d done. When I saw his drawings I quickly noticed they weren’t at all what we had asked for… not based on our designs at all. When I asked him why he said he had decided to “not look at our designs at all” and to make his own. This was alarming to me. He basically ignored our drawings, used some of the verbal input we gave him, like that we wanted a laundry room and another bedroom, then proceeded to draw something else entirely. Both concepts were nothing we wanted and very poorly designed not taking into consideration the flow of the house at all. He asked us to tell him what we didn’t like about his two drawings so we did. He left before we were finished saying he would meet with the structural engineer then get back to us. Before I could talk with him again he decided to revise the two concepts that we already told him weren’t what we wanted, and he never met with the structural engineer. When he emailed the revised drawings to us we responded via email with how there was a large disconnect, how we were concerned that we wouldn’t be able to stay in the not to exceed budget give how far off base we were and that we needed to have a conference call before more work was done. He agreed, but before we talked he went ahead and did a third concept that was closer to what we wanted on the first floor but still completely wrong on the second floor. He also told us we couldn’t add a foyer to the house because he didn’t like it! He did other stuff like adding 2 bedrooms when we only wanted one and an extra bathroom too. We were confused as we agreed to talk before he did anymore work that he was charging us $185/hour for. The next thing that happened was also super surprising to us. He said he was done with this phase of work and that we needed to pay him now. From our perspective he hadn't done anything we asked and very hurriedly produced a few drawings that we weren’t interested in and then said pay me $7100+ dollars. When we called him out on not doing what we asked he refused to answer the question and once again mentioned that his role was to be “our parent” in this process. It was totally strange. He then proceeded to tell us using as many anecdotes and euphemisms as possible that we’d need to pay him another $50K to get what we wanted. He could have easily saved us $8600 and just told us this in the beginning. We emailed him asking to deliver us organized digital drawings and other assets to a shared online folder. So far we only had a couple emails with some attached drawings. It was hard to understand what was what because of how disorganized it all was and how files were named, e.g. “a.pdf”, “zzz.pdf”, etc… He ignored this request entirely. Didn’t even respond to the email. He was also supposed to deliver a “preliminary probably cost outline” which we never received. The closest he got to a description of cost was telling us it would be roughly $450/sqft to do work which we already knew as it’s the going rate for our area. Several times during this process he pushed us to do our projects without getting permits which we were against. I suspect this heavily influenced his designs and caused him to ignore our designs... leading him to try not to change exterior walls… adding interior walls all over the place where we didn’t want them. He was able to make our master bedroom a fraction of the size by turning it into 2 small bedrooms, a laundry room and the walk in close was down the hall... totally bizarre. In the end he was so far off base we decided not to invest anymore time or money with him and paid our balance in protest. We got burned and walked away with no new info or assets we could use at a cost of $8600+

I have used Eric for 2 jobs, and both turned out beautifully. He is professional, friendly, efficient, and goes the extra distance with city planners and contractors. He was even able to come in and correct another architect's mistakes. He has knowledge of the entire building process, so this helps when working with contractors.

For a down-to-the-studs renovation and expansion of a shorefront home in Maine, Eric conceived a vision for the finished house that was in keeping with our goals, and delivered that vision. He supervised the bidding process and assisted in retaining a general contractor who did an excellent job. Eric has remained a friend and advisor and I recommend his work enthusiastically.

Eric Beckstrom is an excellent architect. He provided insightful designs for the renovation of our 1850's circa Federal style home. He took a difficult 19th century floorplan of "chopped up" rooms, and designed a functional 21st century home within the existing footprint without sacrificing the historic character of the residence. He has a grasp of both the classical look and contemporary functionality. Quick to follow-up and extremely personable to work with, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him for any project.

What a great experience. I cannot say enough about how happy we were with the whole process and most importantly the end-product. We selected Beckstrom based on recommendations from friends and a general appreciation of the other near-by homes that he has designed. Our project was fun from day one. Like any project there were days that we struggled with decisions on the budget but these were all in the planning stages rather than halfway through the build. (Don't underestimate the importance and rarity of this type of organizational skill.) His knowledge and expertise helped us create and build the home we wanted. Although it is fun to receive complements on the house from people in the area, what we really appreciate is how well the house works for us day and and day out. We first hired him to help evaluate a home prior to purchase. The intent was to buy and then remodel. With his help, we were able to redraw property lines from the owner-neighbor to include a stone wall that added nice character to the landscaping. Then he created a house that was just what we wanted and that also fits into the aesthetic of the neighborhood. He helped us stay within our budget with gentle but realistic guidance and by proposing budget balancing trade-offs. Once we had the design, he helped us evaluate building proposals and even was able to put it in a format so we could easily understand what each builder was offering. The build went very well. (The only surprise was that the cabinet builders take 2 weeks off in the summer but this only bumped our completion date back one week.) Small changes were able to be incorporated as funds allowed. These were small variations to the original design that were easily incorporated but that added both function and visual interest. He was always very receptive to our concerns and had an amazing attitude that kept people at ease and kept people talking and working together. I would recommend him without reservation to any friend or family member.

Eric's sensitivity, aesthetics, empathy, passion and love of collaboration made working with Eric a true pleasure. Our gigantic renovation project of an 8,000 sq.ft. 100+ year old house, combined with building a new multi-level garage, rec. room and office in the form of a gorgeous barn, required more imagination and sensitivity to context than would have been required if the entire project was ground-up.

We worked with Eric for about a year designing our wonderful house. His attention to detail was great. He did a wonderful job and we are thoroughly pleased with our new custom home in Maine...despite the snow!