Koffka Phakos Design

Koffka Phakos designed a beautiful renovation for our mid century home. Previously my house had an inefficient and outdated layout. Koffka Phakos's created an open concept with modern, clean lines and maximum natural light, which was exactly what we wanted. We are renovation novices and were nervous to take on an expensive renovation. Adrian guided us through the process from planning, permitting and contract bidding to window ordering (more complicated than you'd think) and paint colors. He also suggested helpful ways to save money throughout the process. We would've been lost without Koffka Phakos and highly recommend their services and expertise.

Koffka Phakos created my dream house! There is at least one time each day that I look around and cannot believe this beautiful house is mine. I chose Kaffka Phakos after seeing how they transformed three houses in my neighborhood. Everyone comments on how seamless my new second story looks - my house looks like it was built from the ground up. One of the things Kaffka Phakos excels at is making an addition completely blend in instead of adding an addition that doesn’t completely match the style of the original house.

Adrian Koffka and Cynthia Phakos designed and oversaw a complete house renovation for my wife and I this year. Their work was absolutely exceptional. The design itself is exquisite and perfectly matched the original style of the house, which is eighty-six years old and enjoys a classic style of red oak wood floors and ornate molding. They solved quite a number of difficult problems we faced with the space. Their piece de resistance is a stunning gourmet kitchen which has already proven itself to be the centerpiece of the house. To put a fine point on it their elegant and efficient sense of space is only matched by their delicate and pinpointed sense of color, as evidenced by the new paint job. They collaborate beautifully, both with each other and with us, as clients. We cannot recommend them highly enough. We have done a number of renovations over the years in various houses and they are unquestionably the best architect/designers we have worked with.

There simply are not enough superlatives to describe the experience working with the Koffka Phakos team. The quality of individual time, attention, and care that a client receives is second to none. Cynthia, Adrian and the full team make a concerted effort to listen and understand their clients' needs. They then leverage their tenured experience and abilities to translate their clients' desires into reality, taking into account how a project looks, feels, and functions. They are exceptionally collaborative in their process and multidisciplinary in their approach, offering the rare ability to deliver a cohesive, fully integrated solution. More than anything, this team truly cares and is fully vested in the quality of work, from initial conceptualization to final delivery. As a result, every consideration is acknowledged, every detail addressed. You are fortunate if you have an opportunity to work with them, I cannot recommend this team enough!

Adrian and Cynthia have been my go-to architects for the past 15 years. We started out doing small projects together, but over the years the scope of those projects grew, and they have recently designed a high end home for me that his currently under construction. They're attention to detail and their love of what they do shows up in the final product — a home that is exactly what the client needs. Koffka Phakos make sure you get everything you want — in addition to what you didn't even know you wanted or needed.

We worked with Koffka/Phakos Design firm on our whole house renovation. The principals Adrian and Cynthia listened to our ideas and concerns carefully, and respected our desire of not making radical changes to the footprint but focusing on updating and refining the existing structure. Throughout the design process, the firm provided blue prints, design ideas, materials sources, and suggested potential contractors. Adrian helped us to make several big design decisions including the colors schemes for tiles and paints. Cynthia provided very detailed and logical lighting designs. We also engaged the firm to oversee the construction process. Cynthia was involved in monitoring the major infrastructure updates and solved problems with the contractor and construction crews on site. The resulting renovation, the first and perhaps only one in our lives, brought a 40-year old house to a more contemporary state as we intended.

Adrian, Cynthia and Mark built my dream house. The project took 15 months from the design until we moved in. A complete rebuild of the house. Koffka Phakos Design helped me every step of the way. They patiently advised and educated me since this was my first time. I am very happy and I get many compliments from my neighbors and family. Thanks.

Koffka Phakos is the best! We found them while looking through Houzz and really loved their projects on here. We had purchased a 1920’s Spanish style home that not only needed an extensive renovation but we also wanted to add more room. They really listened and understood what we wanted and came up with amazing solutions. Throughout the entire project, from the initial meeting, to the design phase, to finding a contractor, and right up to the last day of work Adrian was there all along the way. We love our house, but should we decide to do any more work on this house, or another one in the future, we will definitely be working with them again. We can’t recommend them enough!

Adrian & Cynthia came highly recommended to us from a friend who did a year long project with them and having spent our own year with them, I truly can't say enough good things about the process of working with them, and about them as people. (They're so nice and fun and easy to work with!) Our job was big and tricky. We wanted to remodel our three bedroom, two bath into a four bedroom, three and a 1/2 bath, adding a second story, all while in a neighborhood with strict square footage and height restrictions. We had a very distinct idea of what we thought we wanted to do and upon our first meeting, Adrian and Cynthia came at us with so many better ideas than we could have ever even conceived; we were just blown away. The real talents of these two is their ability to problem solve, to make efficient and beautiful use of space, to know where to spend money and where to save, and their overall taste. They also hooked us up with a great contractor who finished on time and on-budget (aside from additional cabinetry which we decided to add mid-job). It was such a good experience, we've put Adrian & Cynthia up for multiple other jobs and they've done great work for those friends as well. We absolutely love our house and Koffka Phakos deserves all the credit!

I worked with KoffkaPhakos Design on the renovation of my house in the Hollywood Hills, LA. It involved an extensive renovation including bathrooms, kitchen and a second floor addition with complicated zoning rules. Loved working with them: professional, creative (while taking in my ideas), responsive and helped me pick an excellent contractor. The project actually required thinking "outside the box" because we were trying to preserve a 100 year old cactus tree so space was limited; they came up with a brilliant concept, placing the staircase in a diagonal location which had the added benefit of creating a little courtyard! I highly recommend these excellent architects!

Working with the team at Koffka/Phakos has been a pleasure. They are extremely knowledgable and work to bring all their projects in on time and on budget. Their clients are always very pleased with the results and this makes for a great transition from the building of the house to the furnishing of the homes interiors. I would recommend them highly.

Let's face it. Building a home is a massive undertaking, fraught with peril. At least that's what I had always believed. That was before my wife and I hired the Koffka Phakos team to design our home. The most daunting thing about our home building experience? Writing this review. Why? Because Cynthia and Adrian were so amazing it's almost impossible to adequately express in such a short blurb. We hired Cynthia and Adrian in the Spring of 2014 to turn a teardown into a dream home. Cynthia and Adrian went to work right away, listening to our ideas and imbuing them with their overabundant creativity and expertise. Cynthia is both a master technician and a highly inventive thinker. Comfortable working both inside the box and venturing far outside it, she always considered our building challenges from every angle, offering multiple brilliant solutions. Our hardest task was choosing between her various great ideas. If Cynthia is a true dynamo at what she does, Adrian is her perfect compliment. He's technically astute, fastidiously detail-oriented, and has absolutely impeccable taste. Our reliance on him went far beyond the job description. He helped us pick out nearly every fixture in our home, from kitchen hardware to paint colors, helping us to create an aesthetically gorgeous look and feel for our space. Together these two make a fantastic team. The partnership between them is utterly harmonious and it's clear they thoroughly value each other's abilities and enjoy each other's company. That said, they were always ready and willing to challenge one another for the sake of getting the best result. Working with such a smart, amiable team, it was hard not to look forward to our meetings. We enjoyed every minute of our design process and missed our weekly confabs once they were done. Long story short, if you hire Koffka Phakos here's what you can expect: Timeliness: They worked well within our timeframe, quite often exceeding it. Reliability: They were abidingly quick with email responses and patiently responsive to all of our annoying questions and concerns. Efficiency: They oversaw every step of our construction process, making sure things were done correctly and on schedule. They were also dogged in their dealings with the city, handling all the un-fun permitting issues and sparing us what I imagine to be an enormous hassle. Budget-consciousness: They are keenly aware of the fact that money doesn't grow on trees, and were always looking for solutions that would lessen our expenses. They knew we needed to stick to a budget and they aimed for going under so that we wouldn't exceed it (which we didn't). Eco-awareness: They are green building experts, and brought numerous ideas to the table to make our home more eco-friendly. Creativity: As mentioned above, an area they truly shine. They were never short on ideas, and have a knack for transforming half-baked concepts into brilliant results. Thoughtfulness: They took the time to truly understand who we are and what we wanted in our home, and relished in finding opportunities to personalize our space and make it special. Attention to detail: Every nook and cranny of our home was given careful consideration. No stone was left unturned, and hence, the actual construction process was quick and efficient with zero holdups. Cynthia and Adrian, thank you for giving us the home we wanted and then some. You and your team truly deserve your magnificent reviews, and we are so glad to have been able to share in this process together, to be a part of an amazingly collaborative environment, and (now that our house is nearly complete) to enjoy the results for many years to come!