Olga Bakic Architect

Olga's designs serve as inspiring models for anyone seeking a distinctive home. Her gentle color palette and refined designs exude not just style, but also a sense of warmth and comfort.

Olga helped me renovate a 2-bd 1 bath apt. in Morningside Gardens. We knocked out a wall, combining kitchen and living room; enlarged the kitchen and hallway by removing closets and moving doors; replaced all flooring and renovated the kitchen and bathroom. Working with Olga was a dream and we could not have done this project without her. She is very creative, meticulous, and knowledgeable about lighting, design, flooring, furnishings, construction, and myriad of details down to paint and hanging pictures. She helped create a whole new living environment that is both functional and beautiful. She is also fun to work with and takes initiative proposing ideas, responding to worries, dealing with contractors and went an extra mile in helping to find and purchase appliances, flooring, tiles, lamps, etc. She cares about her projects and wants to do a first-rate job, and also make clients happy even if she may not fully agree with your idea. Creativity especially appreciated when working within a limited budget.

We were very happy with Olga’s design and architectural services. Olga has great taste and sense of style. Olga is accessible, thoughtful, attentive to details, and very familiar with the units in our building. She made excellent suggestions and is deeply knowledgeable. We would recommend her for any renovation work.

Olga did a brilliant job, working within a very tricky set of constraints to completely renovate a kitchen. It is absolutely gorgeous, spacious and full of light.. Even better, it is completely functional. I am a serious cook and I am also very, very short. But Olga managed to find ways to make it possible for me to do everything I need to do without ever having to get up on my step ladder!

Olga Bakic transformed our two-bedroom apartment into a three-bedroom. And in doing so she transformed our family. No more did our teenagers share a bedroom. Our 13-year-old daughter finally got her own gorgeous room, elegantly designed by Olga. (Undeniably the nicest room in the apartment.) Even my husband and I benefited: Our children stopped bickering!! Thank you Olga. Dare I say Miracle Worker?

Olga Bakic is an outstanding architect. She redesigned our apartment from a very non-functional and non-modern state to a wonderful, functional, gorgeous apartment. She was able to increase the size of the bathrooms, to create new closet space, including two walk-ins, and to include all needed functionality. Olga helped with the complete selection of plumbing, electrical wiring and location of switches, doors, knobs, wooden floor, and all bathroom, kitchen appliances and lighting fixtures. As I was out of town, she literally directly managed the complete construction work in a remarkably effective way. She is also helping me with the decoration and choice of furniture. She is a great listener and I feel that she and I have truly been a team in the renovation of our apartment, where she is the true expert, ready to listen to my wishes and to merge them into meaningful brilliant solutions. Olga is an amazing architect!

I love our new apartment and none of it would have been possible without Olga! We hired Olga when we purchased a 1-bedroom apartment next to our 2-bedroom one and she came up with a creative plan on how to make it all work. I could not have imagined how beautifully it would all come out; from two poorly laid out, poorly built units, came out a single, thoughtfully designed, natural space. Olga paid attention to every single detail, guided us through the entire process and helped us choose every single element: from obvious ones like tiles, to new furniture, etc. She also hired amazing contractors we fell in love with; both Olga and the contractors helped in reducing stress throughout the process. Based on this experience, I recommended her to my friends; they have since hired her. I will upload photos of the space as soon as the finishing touches are in.

We worked with Olga Bakic from September 2014-January 2015. We embarked on a major renovation after purchasing a two bedroom co-op on the UWS of Manhattan. After sifting through many options of architects from Sweeten.com, we chose Olga. Our decision was a function of her portfolio, including the clean lines demonstrated in it, her clear interest in the job and our opinions and finally, in her rate. She includes both the filing of permits along with her designs in her rate. Our space is relatively small, approximately 1100 square feet, and included revisions from the co-op board and from city agencies. Olga’s ideas on changing the existing layout were exceedingly insightful. For instance, the existing entry to a master bedroom was in the middle of the living room. She suggested moving that entry to create a bigger feel for the room, and she was right. She worked interactively with us to generate the final design. In our partnership, we found a great deal of constructive conflict. She always had multiple alternatives and we pushed back. Looking back, that back and forth really allowed us to come up with the best solutions for our space, and indicated Olga’s real interest in the job and in the outcome. For instance, our kitchen design ended up being precise to the half inch in order to accommodate our appliances. While Olga suggested multiple variations of design elements and we pushed from our direction, in the end we worked together to really come up with a masterful use of the space that has received compliments from all visitors. In addition to the structural changes, she suggested paint colors and finishes and even floor finishes. When the contractor built something crooked, she suggested a fix. Her opinion was so very valuable to us. The overall outcome is actually quite impressive, and we are quite happy with every inch of it all. I can wholeheartedly recommend her for her architecture abilities, and would hire her again without question. While our overall outcome was positive, there were three points of caution to consider, as there always are in any partnership. First, while Olga is incredibly helpful in sifting through hardware choices, such as which faucet to purchase, be aware that her views are expensive ones and she doesn’t necessarily push the good deal. For us, though, we were satisfied with buying many things from Costco, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Amazon, following a style in which we splurged on some things and saved on the others. Olga didn’t always agree on our value based choices. Clearly she really takes on the project as though it’s her own and wants the best of everything. Second, Olga works via email and does not have an office. For people like us, who were doing a major renovation in NYC for the first time, this meant that we were in almost constant contact with Olga. That became a problem for us, because we could change our minds moment by moment, and her, because she had to deal with us all the time. We suggest that in working with Olga, you establish a set time and place to meet every week and go over plans making changes real time at that meeting. That allows her to offer all the amazing options she can create, and allows you to really think though the positives and negatives of all the options before your meeting. Finally, be aware that Olga does not do project management. That is not part of the initial deal and you’re not paying her for it. We used her suggested contractor, Kris Famurat, and ended up with much more hassle than we hoped. A project manager and a better contractor might have been useful in this case. You live and you learn. In all, as we said, Olga is an amazing architect. If we do further renovations here or in another apartment, we would hire her for her insight and innovative use of space. The number of compliments we receive on our space is incredible!! Sincerely, The Shahs

I am deleriously happy with my new kitchen. Olga was wonderful to work with. In general I liked her suggestions, but when I didn't she was able to quickly come up with substitutes that I liked much better. I really didn't have to worry about the project at all. She took care of every detail. I can't wait to work with her again.

We hired Olga to develop architectural plans for a full remodel of a 3-bedroom, 2-bath New York City co-op apartment. Olga was instrumental in helping us achieving everything we hoped for with our new apartment. Not only was she diligent, patient, and creative as we worked through the development of the architectural plans, she also made many excellent suggestions along the way, saving us time and money. Additionally, she helped manage the construction process, providing an expert eye and quality control throughout the project. Olga also helped us pick virtually all of the important interior elements of the apartment, from cabinets and appliances right down to the hardware for our doors and the vent covers in the bathrooms. She joined us on several shopping trips to ensure we purchased the right items. She was a true partner throughout. Without a doubt we could never have achieved the beautiful, functional outcome we are now enjoying without her expert assistance. We recommend her without reservation.

Olga guided us through a 2-apartment combination with grace and lots of energy. She drew up many versions of plans, taking into considerations our priorities and working within our budget. She was flexible and creative in revising plans when situations in the field impacted the original designs, and was there to provide both guidance and advocacy around working with our contractor. Olga met us at various stores to help shop for hardware and tiles, and sent us countless recommendations online as well. She has expertise in both the space (architecture) and interior design aspects of the work, and managed our project very well.

Olga Bakic was the third architect we interviewed to get suggestions on how to convert a 2-bedroom into a 3-bedroom. She had by far the best and most economical suggestion, to use a built-in bunkbed as a room divider. She made all the plans and helped us find a contractor for the job. Overall, she was excellent.