Young & Borlik Architects

Dec 2022

We worked with Young & Borlik since January 2018 after an initial talk in 2017 with Andrew Young. We were connected with Andrew Young mainly because he had drawn up plans for renovation of our property with the previous owner, and these plans were passed on to us. We chose to work with him mostly because he was already familiar with the property in question. Our version of plans were completed mostly by one of Mr. Young's junior architects by early 2019, during which the house was completed by one of their recommended contractors (Shawn Pham). Pros: Great portfolio of work, truly beautiful homes but looked to be mostly in Mountain View and Atherton. Their recommended contractor was excellent and I'd recommend him any day. The work was completed expediently and they were flexible to work with other contractors for glass, kitchen counters and stair banisters. We've been in our home for 3 years now (including a year of lockdown shortly after completion) and we're pretty satisfied after pressure testing the design with the pandemic. Cons: Communication can be a little spotty -- getting in touch at the very start was difficult, or emails would take a while to get answered. Billing was our concern -- it can be somewhat dicey when the work gets triggered and the amt of time that things are taking. I would expect that plans (which I'd imagine are very time consuming) should be triggered only after some kind of confirmation of needs / preferences. The first set of draft plans we were issued kind of came out of left field after our first consult with them, yielding plans that included features we did not ask (i.e. total number of rooms did not even match what we could do by city planning based on the number of parking spots we had, and we had already brought this up, so why are we even exploring this option) and an exterior appearance that did not coordinate with our style preferences, which were informally discussed during this initial consult. I'd imagine this took the drafter quite a bit of time to make this initial set of plans, and not only was it a waste of money for us, it was a waste of her time since large amounts had to be removed or altered to go back to how we discussed it the first time. Phase 1 of our home renovation came out to be 20% over estimate (this is not including all the services the Phase 1 estimate was even cut for) for what more than one contractor has described as "a straightforward job" (literally, a 1 floor addition on an existing structure with no change to footprint or foundation). I'm well aware that getting an architect in the Bay Area is like extracting unicorn blood, but this wasn't the most professional.Occasionally difficult to work with or had odd recommendations - we were recommended to not install air conditioning "because you'll never need it" - given the heat waves in the last few years, we're glad we pushed back on that. Might go to show a lack of familiarity with local climates / needs outside of the Mountain View area. Designs vary in quality between his staff - the quality of work from one junior architect to another was like night and day. At some point we switched from the initially assigned architect to a different one, and found the working experience to improve.

Mar 2019

As a local residential builder, I have had the privilege of working with Young & Borlik Architects for over 15 years. Not only do I have a great professional relationship with Y&B Architects, I consider Steve, Andrew and staff to be dear friends.Young & Borlik are great architects. What makes them stand out more from other architectural firms, is that they listen to their clients and understand what their needs are and form a team of professionals and tradesmen that will fulfill their clients dream.Like a good red wine, Y&B Architects seem to only getting better. Steve & Andrew's staff of architects and designer have grown to an amazing group of professionals that I am...read full review

Mar 2019

We've had Steve and Andrew do the design and oversee the work for two major and two minor remodels. Through all of this, plus doing remodel design for friends of ours, Steve and Andrew have exceeded all expectations. The took the time to understand our needs, did extra research on new and interesting additions that have made the design just that much better. They have a network of other great people from landscape architects to interior designers to general contractors they work with that result in a complete harnonized final product. Finally, Steve and Andrew don't consider the work done until its been fully completed, they will deal directly with everybody involved...read full review