I first met James Coane about 6 years ago when he was designing a new Transitional Style house in San Marino for my nephew. My nephew and his wife were very happy with James’ work and how their project was proceeding, so I called James to come look at my house, which is also in San Marino.

James is a very patient man. Over the course of about two years, we had him first design an extensive renovation and addition to our house, which he then got approved by the City. We loved his ideas so much that we asked him to come up with ideas for a totally new 9,000 square foot house. He did that and got that approved by the City as well. Finally, as time to build the new house got close, my husband and I became sentimental about some of the parts of our existing house and wanted to keep some parts of the original house that were important to us. So James patiently came up with a third set of plans which incorporated all of the ideas from our original remodeling plans and the ideas from our new house plans, which he got approved at the City as well.

He and his team are very professional, creative, and easy to work with and there was no drama. He was very attentive to our desire to save money where possible in certain parts of the house. It is a large house and some rooms are used always and some rooms are seldom used.

We had a lot of positive feedback that he worked very well with the City of San Marino and attended the many hearings and special meetings necessary for our project, interacted with our neighbors, and handled all of those things on our behalf.

He helped guide us through the selection of contractors and reviewing construction bids, and was at the construction site often to answer questions and make sure things were getting built correctly. He is very professional and worked really well with our contractor and his guys.

We loved everything he had done for us so much that once we started construction we also hired him to do all of the interior design for our house. He and his team selected our tiles, paint colors, fabrics, hardware, and other similar interior design items. They were also on site often making sure the materials were installed properly.

In addition to giving us everything we asked for, there were many nice unexpected surprises he had designed into the project which we did not fully understand until they were built. But we are very glad he included them.

We love our new house and would be happy to refer James and his team to anyone needing an architect or interior designer. As a matter of fact, when my niece and her family recently moved back into town, I told her to call James and he went and looked at several houses with them that they were looking to buy and advised them on what could be done with each one. Now, he is currently preparing plans for them for the large remodel they will be doing to their new Pasadena home.

We would highly recommend James to anyone.