HD Squared Architects, LLC

Melanie Hartwig-Davis, AIA, LEED BD+C - HD Squared Architects, LLC is an exceptional architectural firm that United Church of Christ of Annapolis hired in 2021-2022 to design the renovation of the house our church owns. Her team gave us numerous options and amazing visions based on various budgets on how we could proceed with the total renovation of the house. She worked marvelous with our Church Council throughout this process and guided us through all the steps that needed to be taken in order to start and complete the project. There were several complicated issues with the property that needed to be addressed and her team resolved them for us. As our Congregation stated, it was money well spent! Respectfully, Kathy UCCA Moderator

We had a very plain L-Rancher, and wanted to add a second floor bonus room space over our garage. Imagine the imbalance of a second story on such a small part of an otherwise flat home! Melanie and John performed a painstaking massing study to give us the most graceful transition from such a high roof line, down to our modest structures height . They also took much care to address all of our other concerns (and I am not low maintenance). They included the perfect balance of design elements and finishes. Our awesome contractor had no problem following their very detailed plans. Result: We are so happy in our 'new' home, it puts a smile on our faces whenever we return. Unfortunately, if did get finished too late in the season to take great photos with the 'now upcoming' landscape appointments, but we will be sending some finished product pictures in the Spring, Hopefully they will add them on their website gallery. A tip of the hat to the HD2 team! Mike and Evangeline Ross

Melanie and team to the rescue! We are happy with the project they designed. We would enthusiastically choose HD Squared again. Our renovated house now has good curb appeal, is light and efficient inside. It was winter of 2020 and we were at our wits ends. A few months earlier a hurricane had dropped a 100’ tree on our house, making it uninhabitable. The AE firm we were working with didn’t like our design vision for the renovation and couldn’t find time for our project. Supply chain problems escalated the availability and cost of materials. Yikes. We found Melanie on line and liked the values she has for her practice. Though HD was very busy, she made time to really listen to our hopes and put the ideas into a great design. Melanie worked productively with our general contractor. She helped us make good decisions about materials and products to minimize the house’s carbon footprint without compromising it’s attractiveness. We have lived in the HD renovation for over a year and absolutely love it.

HDSquared, including the principal architect Melanie Hardwick-Davis and her associates, are working on the renovation and expansion of our cottage-style house in Arnold, MD. While still in its ore-construction phase, Melanie and her colleagues/staff have shown the utmost attention to our desires as well as budget. They have been responsive to our comments and answered questions, always in a professional manner and showing creativity and attention to details. We look forward to working with them in subsequent phases, confident that the outcome will be an expanded home that will be beautiful, as well as allow us to comfortably age in place. We look forward to our continued relationship and would enthusiastically recommend HDSquared.

HD2 is handling the renovation of our 1952-built cottage in a river-oriented community. Since Melanie first visited the home she (and her employees) have been punctual, receptive to our questions/ideas and professional in detail and assessment. Their availability to discuss progress, questions and goals has been regular and has helped us in our decision-making process. HD2 has shown us that they are cognizant of environmental, energy and neighborhood parameters in the design phase of the project. We look forward to continuing into the building phase with HD2.

Melanie Hartwig-Davis of HD Squared Architects, LLC, has been a pleasure to work with on our room addition project that will take advantage of our winter water view. She has been with us every step of the way in the critical area variance process and knows it inside and out. She has a lot of experience with dealing with Anne Arundel county and how to improve the chances of getting successful results. (We’re currently waiting to hear whether we have been approved for the variance.) Melanie takes her time and is always very patient in answering questions. She is a self proclaimed “tree hugger”, which is important to us because every decision is based on environmental best practices and energy efficiency. Based on the quality of work and attention to detail that Melanie and her team have displayed thus far, if we are approved to proceed, we look forward to working with Melanie on the design phase of the project. We aren’t to the point of selecting a builder yet, but we are confident that Melanie will steer us in the right direction and that we will be very pleased with the room addition once it's completed. We highly recommend HD Squared Architects for any project, especially in the critical area.

We reached out to Melanie for her help in thinking through how to respond to a variety of issues with our home and I'm so glad we did. She was generous with her time and expertise, deeply knowledgeable, and very responsive to my calls and texts. Melanie helped us to prioritize and get clear about what work needs to be done and in what order. It was all pretty overwhelming so that clarity was incredibly helpful. Although we ultimately decided not to take on more extensive renovations at this time I'll definitely hope to work with her in the future!

We hired Melanie to transform our Waterfront Home on the Magothy to be our forever home. She exhibited great patience with us and had no problem answering our detailed questions and very much took our suggestions and bettered them. We had some challenges to properly position our kitchen to be the center of our main floor while maximizing the views. She and her senior support, Dean Holloway not only accomplished that, but Melanie's artistic eye really made the space unique. One thing we really enjoyed is her belief in sustainable materials and using aspects of the original home such as wood from the old staircase to create an amazing bulkhead over a bar peninsula that looks out over the water. In addition to her architectural knowledge and talent she is also very experienced at working on variance approvals and permitting on the waterfront. We found that to be very valuable in getting our screen porch approved as an extension of our living space as this home was a decline in footprint from our prior home. We would highly recommend Melanie for all aspects of interior and exterior residential architecture and interior design.

Melanie’s eye and design talents were just what we needed to transform our tiny outdated kitchen into an eye-pleasing space with so much more ease of use, not to mention storage and practicality. Melanie and the HD Squared team kept the project going smoothly -- paying attention to detail, answering questions right away, and being open to our feedback while offering perspective and alternatives. We are overjoyed with the results!

I contracted Melanie Hartwig-Davis to work with me because of her dedication to being environmentally friendly, as it is a concept that I wanted to embrace as much as possible. She and her staff were very helpful in directing me to trustworthy businesses for these green products, something I would have had great difficulty doing on my own. She was also very supportive in helping me see new possibilities in the design of my kitchen. The result of her services is a truly new and beautiful kitchen that would never have materialized with my limited imagination .I love my kitchen, and it does reflect my tastes as Melanie incorporated my choices of light fixtures, tiles, flooring, and appliances to achieve a great color and design scheme. Her trustworthy role as the contact person with the cabinet supplier and my general contractor.was very re-assuring. The only downside to the whole re-modeling project was not always being provided the cost of the different options for the purposes of knowing where to create a savings in the budget. Examples of which are; the extra cost of adding glaze trim to cabinets, or the cost of granite vs quartz, or a medium range square foot price for wall tiles. This re-modeling project went a bit over budget, but I now have a kitchen that makes me happy, and that is priceless!

We had a little project that seemed too big too tackle and we didn't know where to start. Melanie of HD Squared Architects came to the rescue. A consummate professional, she asked for our vision and style preferences and paired that with design recommendations based on function and budget. Melanie's expertise and creativity was just what we needed!

I highly recommend HD Squared Architects, LLC if you are considering remodeling your home or are in need of architect. Melanie was not only a pleasure to work with, but she also did a great job of explaining to us the process of remodeling and what it all entails. My husband and I were both novices at this process and we felt as though Melanie was patient with us explaining all steps involved clearly and in great detail. In addition, she was very responsive and got back to us right away when we had a question or were trying to schedule a meeting.