Jeff Luth - Soldano Luth Architects

Soldano Luth (and Jeff Luth and Ellen in particular) did an incredibly professional job for us on our major home retrofit (~$300k) - coming from a professional engineer, that is very high praise. We went into it thinking we knew what we wanted "design-wise", and just needed help finding and managing contractors. Jeff did indeed find us an excellent contractor, and help us negotiate fees and manage the contract; but those turned out to the least of the services he provided. He showed us what the house could become - far more than our "design" could ever have done. It all looks so simple and logical now when you walk through it now, but in my experience "simple" actually takes hard work. The layout is great, we love the finishes, and the custom pieces (the fireplace, the walk-in closet, my office) are still topics of conversation with friends to this day. In the architecture world, there are project architects (people who know how things get things built) and design architects (people who decide layouts, and finishes, and how things will look and feel) - Jeff Luth proved to be great at both roles.

Jeff Luth was the architect for the remodel of our home. He took an architect designed mid-century modern home that was well designed in a couple of rooms and made it a complete well designed house. He listened to our needs and wishes and created a design that exceeded them!

Upon arising each morning, my wife and I view the Olympic mountains from our bedroom window and sing praises to the creator of our home Jeff Luth!! Well, OK, that's a bit of a stretch, but, he did create our present home on Phinney Ridge and we do adore it. Our relationship began with Jeff 20 years ago and resulted in a couple of remodels of a home we had near Haller Lake and the make over of the home of one of our children in the Fremont area. He also has been very helpful in looking at various homes with us, making sketches of various improvements that might be done and drafting preliminary plans. One of the many things that makes him special is his ability to transform ones hazy, ephemeral, ideas into concrete, realistic, lovely structures. Feel free to call me and hear additional praises! 206-954-3030.

Because our budget was small and we wanted to do much of the finishing work ourselves, many architects were not willing to talk with us. We wanted a modern house as well as someone we could feel comfortable working with. Jeff had no problem with any of this. He is extremely personable with a good sense of humor...a great asset as the construction process can often be a very challenging and anxious period. He seemed genuinely excited about our ideas and wasted no time in getting started, sending us emails regularly with ideas and drawings he was working on. His plans were all hand drawn, something we personally enjoyed and he spent considerable time revising and honing the design and details we wanted to get right. His conscientiousness and his years of experience made the construction phase go smoothly with a minimum of surprises. He agreed to oversee the draws and construction invoices from the contractor which, for first time builders like ourselves, was a huge help. We liked Jeff's enthusiasm for architecture. He seems well matched to his profession and genuinely enjoys what he does and this came across during the entire process. The final budget for the house was very close to the projected budget. We felt extremely lucky and fortunate to have Jeff design our home and to date have nothing but good things to say about our experience.

As a custom home building company with over thirty years of experience, we have worked with dozens of Architects over the years. We recently had the opportunity of working with Soldano Luth Architects Specifically Jeff Luth. We believe Jeff to be one of the more professional architects we have worked with. We appreciated Jeff's accessibility, responsiveness to our questions, feedback to our suggestions and attention to detail. Truly, Joe Lachaussee Adam Lidral Sound Construction, LLC

Jeff, is an incredibly good architect. He designed and oversaw the construction of a large 6k+ sq ft house for us. Not only did we end up with a beautiful house that we enjoy living in, the experience was pleasant, fun and educational. Jeff is a very good listener and has an amazing ability to sketch out ideas even as you discuss possibilities. He combines that with excellent aesthetic sense (in the footsteps of Frank Lloyd Wright) to deliver a well designed house that is also functionally very useful. As may be evident, I couldn't recommend anyone more strongly - I've been selling Jeff to my friends ever since 2001! :-)

Our experience with Jeff Luth was excellent. He really listened to what we wanted and the discussions about details were open and straightforward. We enjoyed working with him. We have a continuing relationship.

I've worked with Jeff Luth on many projects over the past 7 years. He has always provided excellent designs, with attention given to a high quality of construction while keeping costs down. On recent project was a rambling one-story home in Mercer Island. The project used quite a few interesting architectural features, which have turned out beautifully. Jeff has a good focus for the details, which create a big difference in the final look of the structure.

We hired Jeff after a house fire. Our neighbor is a builder and had worked with Jeff in the past and spoke highly of him. Soldano Luth was also the firm that designed a previous remodel on the house. The building was basically a total loss but enough was left that Jeff could see what had been. Then he worked with us to incorporate our ideas into the rebuild and expansion. He was a good listener and also had really good ideas, most of which we used. Jeff was involved with the builder and all three parties got along very well. Communication was excellent throughout the process. He was flexible enough to work around our time demands. We would definitely recommend Jeff Luth as an architect.

We hired Jeff to design a beach house for our property in the San Juan Islands. He was great to work with during the design phase; he answered our questions, listened when we tried to explain what we thought we wanted, and gave us many ideas to consider. He has a good grasp of both details and how the finished structure will work. One of my favorite memories is Jeff standing at the property with many paint chips in his hand comparing them to the bark of the trees and the gravel on the beach to make sure the selected outside color would blend well with the surroundings. He helped us evaluate and select a contractor. He then worked with our contractor to make sure that they understood and were following the plans. Our contractor kept telling us how much they appreciated the clear and complete drawings and Jeff's prompt response to questions. The result was a beautiful house that is a pleasure to be in.

Jeff was our architect for two houses for which we did extensive remodels (in one case down to studs). His vision and attention to detail helped solve issues that resulted in a much higher home sale value. He is very quick to respond, and holds contractors to a very high standard of craftsmanship. We recommend Jeff to our friends, and they also have been thrilled with his work.

Quantum is currently working alongside Soldano Luth on an impressive Pacific Northwest contemporary residence complete with clean lines and large expanses of glass. We look forward to developing our relationship with this firm as their commitment to sustainability and timeless modern design is commendable and exemplary.