Having used David in the past for design and permitting for my parents' deck, my wife and I contacted him when we decided to dig out and finish the basement of our row house in Riverside we knew it would be a daunting task that's why we were so glad to have had David involved in the project.

David is very approachable and engaged, and made us feel comfortable right off the bat helping flesh out the idea of what we wanted from the space and offering suggestions to make it better than we could have made it on our own.

In addition to having an excellent design sensibility, David is also efficient in getting the permitting cleared away with a minimum of hassle so we could get the work started. He is quickly becoming our go-to designer for any home projects we have.

David’s review

We had full intentions of vetting 3 architects for our major renovation, but after our first initial meeting with David we felt we didn’t need to interview anyone else. David took the time to ask many questions and really listened to our answers, and came up with a design for our new home that was exactly what we had envisioned. He was very detailed and transparent with us through the committee of adjustment and permitting process, and handled every single detail.
During construction we ran into structural issues with our existing foundation and later clerical issues with city, due to the foundation issue. In both instances, David was always readily available to provide us guidance, advice and support and was instrumental in helping us navigate the city’s bureaucracy once again so we could get our renovation back on track.

We highly recommend David to anyone looking for an architect to help with your renovation big or small, as well as the essential skills he has in dealing with the city’s building permit process.

we had an issue regarding permits and David through his history and dealings with the city had gotten them to issue a permit before the weekend started and therefore our project wasn't held up. Thanks David

My experience David R. Smith has been outstanding. His skills go beyond creative and proficient design talent. David's ability to truly listen and accurately reflect my project goals in the design plan was impressive. His intelligent design plan will serve my family well for long into the future.
In addition to all the foregoing, he is a pleasure to work with, respectful, attentive and responsive. Highly recommended!

David was a delight to work with. He met with us many times and always gave us lots of options, each time bringing his own personal and unique touch to the design. He resolved a couple of tricky issues for us, given the age of our house and worked well with our contractor to finalize everything about our design before shovels went into the ground. A pleasure to work with and I would highly recommend him.

Our entire experience with David was excellent and we would highly recommend David R. Smith Design! He delivered on all promises and was timely, thorough, detailed and easy to work with. We respect David and all the ideas he offered in helping us plan for our house renovation. In addition, we really appreciated his pricing which was well worth it.

I interviewed several architects before choosing David - and I am so glad I did! He has been amazing throughout the whole process. He was always patient, ready to answer any questions and super accommodating. If you are looking for someone kind, patient, talented and easy to work with - look no further. He is highly professional and will not disappoint! I already recommended him to all my friends, who are super satisfied with his service.

David's approach to our project was both professional and thorough. Even with our indecision he was very patient and thoughtful with responses and ideas. We felt like his only clients.

We used David for a second renovation and again, we're completely satisfied! David not only expedited the original design, changes were also handled very quickly. We had permits (original and revisions) approved in record time! David also always goes above and beyond. He is not only our designer, we also consult him on areas that extend beyond his regular scope of work. And he's always very helpful! We'll continue to use David for future projects and highly recommend him to anyone looking for a designer!

We purchased a home and knew that we wanted to completely renovate it, add a two-story addition and finish the basement. Not knowing where to start, we found David R. Smith design through a recommendation from our general contractor. Having read through all the reviews on Homestars for David R. Smith design, we can genuinely say that the positive reviews are all true. David is one of those rare people in the industry that you will go back to time and time again because of his experience, high quality of work and he’s just a really nice guy that you can freely talk to.

We hired David to draft our house plans and to take care of all aspects of apply for and obtaining building permits.
Starting from a few ideas from Pinterest, David created various designs taking into account all the things on our wish list. Having vast experience with the process of home design, David is able relate to the difficult decisions that need to be made balancing budget vs features. He is a great sounding board for ideas and recommendations and is extremely patient with making changes to designs.

During the later stages of the design process, David worked extensively with our general contractor to finalize our house plans. While reviewing the designs, it was clear that David is extremely knowledgeable with the technical aspects of structural design, building codes and experience with resolving issues.

During the permit application process, David expertly navigated the process to expedite obtaining the building permits. He constantly followed up with the City reviewers and made sure to keep our application top of mind for them.

We really could not have found a better person and company to help us through the process and we greatly appreciate the work that was done.