Testimonials


What Our Clients Have to Say…

A thrilled client is my main goal in taking on any new home or home renovation project. As a residential Architect nothing is more rewarding than to hear that I have helped my clients design a home that responds to their life style and reflects their personal tastes.

Dave & Tina

What can I say…. Want your house to look like a million but don’t have a cash tree in the backyard, Chris will work with your budget and will re-work the plans to fit your ideas and within a budget even when materials, labor and such are ever changing. Our home was built in late 1960’s, bright blue siding, chopped up rooms, no AC, as you can imagine not a 21st century vibe! Chris gave us options for a very modern home, new roof lines, best use of windows, open floor plan and ways to use existing areas such as stairwells and garages. We get compliments on our home all the time from family members to the delivery dudes carrying our pizza! Chris was wonderful to work with, if you see his booth at a home show or check his website, don’t be intimidated, his work is amazing but working with him is easy and he truly helps you find a plan that feels great!!

Mike & Danielle

We had moved from a large home into Danielle’s grandparents’ home which was built in 1950 and had 700 square feet of living space. We wanted to remodel but knew we would need an architect to capture what we had envisioned. We attended the home show at the US Bank Stadium to find a long list of available architects. We chose Chris because we had wanted to work with a single person and not with a large organization. After looking at his work on display and speaking with him, we knew he was the architect for our job. When we met with Chris, we gave him our ideas. Chris went above and beyond our expectations with his design. He was very attentive to our concerns to preserve some of the features of the home that Danielle’s grandfather had built in. It was awesome working with Chris as he consulted with us throughout the entire 18-month project. He also met with our builder as needed during the building process. If we were to do it all over again, we would absolutely use Chris. Thank you for your creativity and attention to detail in turning our vision into a dream home reality!

Bill & Laurie

Before choosing Chris we looked around quite a bit. We visited architects’ work, we met with different architects, and there were several aspects of working with Chris that we really liked. The first of which is that we just felt a kindship with him right away. He was the type of person we could be friends with and that made us feel like we would be able to communicate properly. At the end of the day it was the best decision we could have made. Chris was both an incredibly wonderful person to work with and an incredibly talented person to work with. The results speak for themselves and those results are because he knew what he was doing not because we did.

Jim & Tracy

We purchased our 1906 Dutch Colonial in October 2015. We added some furniture and artwork during the first 1 1/2 years in the house, but primarily took our time getting to know the character of the house and how we lived in the house. In 2017, we began thinking about adding some space to the second floor. The previous owners had left a sets of plans for some remodeling options they had considered, which inspired us and which gave us a good starting point for developing a plan to add a master bedroom and closet on the second floor. With some general ideas in mind, which included adding space but which required remaining true to the character of the house, we met with Chris. He listened carefully to our ideas and developed a plan that tastefully combined both desires we expressed. Chris worked in unison with the terrific construction team, who then executed our vision and Chris’ plan. We have been delighted with the new space. It is a wonderful addition, both in terms of form and function, and we truly appreciate that Chris and others were able to make our new space even better than what we had originally envisioned.

Joe & Vicky

Chris and Julie did an outstanding job on our home remodel project and we’re happy with the end result! When we started this project we had ideas and “no direction”. With their expertise and attention to detail from design through interior decorating this project has “exceeded our expectations”! We are visual people and Chris gave us great concept drawings to visualize everything before we moved forward, this was very helpful in making good decisions. Julie played a big role in the success of the overall project with her expertise with interior decorating. Everything flows together perfectly and we have Chris and Julie to thank for a job well done! Chris and Julie are very easy, and pleasant to work with and we would highly recommend them to our family and friends.

Jeff & Alyn

The garage and shed project is truly great. Chris is a fabulous designer. You can see by the design, he worked outside of the box. He was super creative in his design concepts and implementation. The building has wonderful character, Chris did a wonderful job designing it, and the nuances that are built into that design are just incredible. When you talk about attention to detail, Chris just nailed it. He is super talented and really gifted.

Harry & Jenn

Chris was patient, listened well, incorporated all the things we wanted, asked good and direct questions to really get to what we were looking for, and designed a layout that was easy for me to read and useful for the builder we hired. The process for having Chris come and learn, measure, and then draw the layout right while we were there made the whole design process simple and slick. He turned around final plans in a matter of days and I was able to turn those over to builders and get a bid for a basement we know we will love! THANKS CHRIS!

Cary the Contractor

Our team has had the pleasure to work on a few of Chris Doehrmann’s projects. I think Chris has an excellent balance of creativity and design, with common sense and realistic expectations for budget costs and “build-ability”. I appreciate Chris’s knowledge of how things actually get built. It makes our job easier. I recommend Chris for clients that are looking for something out of the ordinary.

Orion & Barb

We knew after our first meeting with Chris that he was the right architect for us. Our home presented multiple challenges and we’d been struggling for some time to come up with a plan. His ability to blend our needs and taste into an executable vision was immediately apparent with the conceptual work he started with. We completed the work at our own pace and by sticking with the architecture plans he provided, the finished product was an interior and exterior remodel that we’re extremely happy with. We highly recommend Chris .

Todd & Heidi

We met with Chris and after one interview decided this was the architect that we felt most comfortable with. He was patient and listened to what we would like to see. He did a great job on taking our ideas and putting it to reality in his drawings. We were very excited when he showed us the 3D views on what the home was going to look like. We love the home he designed and get glowing remarks from people that see it for the first time.

Bill & Donna

Our tiny deck needed to be replaced and at the same time we wanted to add a 3-season gazebo. We asked Chris to give us his ideas. His vision was immediate and perfect for what we wanted; a 3-level deck with the gazebo on part of the second level. A cupola on the gazebo artistically moved the design way beyond a square box and fit the style of the house. He met with us and our contractor to clarify what would need to be done and materials used and to be sure it could be done within the budget. Chris is easy to work with and really listens to what you want. When people come to the back of the house they are amazed at how charming it is and what a pleasant place it creates to be outdoors.

Dave & Kris

Chris worked with us to draw up plans to renovate and expand our 1950’s home. Chris helped to create the vision for the 16×20 work room expansion on the lower level and build a screened porch on top of the work room for the upper level. Additional landscape drawings were also created for the contractor. Chris was professional and easy to work with on this project. His quality work was also done very quickly in order to meet our timelines for the renovation. I would highly recommend him for any project – big or small!

Kevin & Paula

We worked with Chris in 2003 to design a sizeable addition to our home. Chris met with us and was able to quickly understand what we wanted to accomplish with our addition and brought great ingenuity to the design. He brought in new ideas that we had not previously considered and architected the addition to flow smoothly with the existing home. Whenever we have guests, they are always amazed at what we’ve done with the house! Chris was great to work with and I’d recommend him to anyone!

Paul & Romelle

We are so grateful that we hired Chris. He did an amazing job with a complex cabin remodeling project. He was able to interpret our ideas into our dream place. Chris is very professional, extremely creative, timely, and a really nice guy! He wanted us to be happy and happy we are!

Denny & Christine

Chris listened to what we wanted and needed in our new house and was able to translate it into a very beautiful home with great conveniences. I would not hesitate to use him again.

Mike & Holly

My family and I had the privilege of having Chris design our home in Des Moines, IA in 2005. We expected to live in the home for many years, but my job took us to Portland, OR after 4 years. We can say without exception our experience from the draft of the home specs until the day we moved was nothing less than spectacular. He worked very closely to design a home that at the time was our dream home, and we enjoyed it immensely. Due to Chris’s creative design, we were able to turn a quite handsome profit in the worst housing market of our lifetime. In fact, we have actually inquired about using the same design here in Portland. He is a class guy who is extremely focused, creative, and responsive. We wholeheartedly endorse Chris Doerhmann and his unique talents.

Rick & Adrienne

We are so pleased with our remodel project! You each played an important role. Chris your idea to exchange the refrigerator and the range and using the closet for the refrigerator were wonderful ideas. We love the floor and counter space. Julie your help in making selections was invaluable. Without your help I would probably still be at Steve’s trying to decide which range to choose. Thanks you both!

Chris the Contractor

The plans look great. All of my subs and vendors just keep saying “wow” in regards to how detailed and nicely drawn the plans are. The hand drawn plans are something we are not used to and we are all just amazed by it. Nice work. It’s a beautiful home!

Dave & Molly

Chris – Many thanks to you for your help with our building project. Dave and I so appreciate your input and vision during the process and we can’t wait to get started. Thanks again!

Gary & Sherry

Just wanted to send you a note to once again thank you for helping us get that illusive “look” we were searching for. Gary loves to tell our story how we worked with others for over two years and didn’t get close to what we were looking for, then after one visit, you nailed it!

Ron & Michele

We wanted to write and thank you for the tremendous time we had designing our new home! It is so incredible to see the thoughts and ideas put down on paper. Your leadership, communication and specific suggestions gave us confidence throughout the process.

Chuck & Cindy

We really appreciate the sharing of your architectural wizardry in the design of our pool house. It was very important for us to get that figured out quickly for our project to continue to move forward. We couldn’t be more happy with your creation and are anxious to get started on the build. Thanks again and well done!

Tracy & Tammy

Chris custom designed a gorgeous pergola to match the architecture of our historic home, right down to the hardware. Couldn’t be happier.