Y.Designs

Having Yuki as our architect has been one of the wisest choices made throughout our remodeling journey. Many never-thought-of advices went into the design. We also appreciate the patience and time as we went through structural challenges. She made herself to visit and check on the progress on site every week. Response is swift and just a really pleasant individual to work with. Our house turned out beautiful in the end. We are very pleased to have her in our house project.

Yuki came to us through a friend’s referral and we were extremely happy with her services! Our project entailed reconfiguring the existing space, renovating the master bathroom, adding a new bathroom, and adding a deck to the backyard. Below are a few traits that made her an outstanding architect in our eyes: 1. Great advocate for the homeowner - we interviewed a few GCs and she helped us weigh the pros/cons of the contractors who made it to our shortlist. Additionally, during construction, she helped to make sure that they delivered what we were looking for and pushed back when they said certain things could/couldn’t be done. As new homeowners, having someone who is knowledgeable and experienced like Yuki on your side is incredibly invaluable to serve as a check on contractors. 2. Very responsive - Yuki always responded to texts and emails promptly (within, and usually less than, 24 hours). Even when some family circumstances required her attention, she was very responsive, accessible, and dedicated to ensuring our project would still proceed smoothly and on time. 3. Great ideas - we were looking to create a more open, connected, and modern kitchen that fit our lifestyle. Yuki offered a few options that took our ideas and budget into consideration, but also offered some of her own new ideas. One of her ideas was completely out of the box and we were initially skeptical about it. She presented a 3D rendering to help us visualize it better without putting any pressure to select that option. We ended up choosing her design and really love it! Everyone who has come by to visit also commented on how much they like the new design. 4. Attention to detail - while it took some time for the county to approve our permit application (which was not under Yuki’s control), they approved it on the first try because Yuki’s permit plans were comprehensive and clear. Even we, as layman, were able to understand it. We have already recommended Yuki to other friends and would definitely work with her again on future projects!

Yuki is a great professional to work with! Her design is amazing and her plans are so detailed which our construction team so easy to follow! I will highly recommend her to my clients!

After firing our first designer for being unresponsive, we hired Yuki for the interior remodel of our 2000 sq ft home and never looked back. You will never have to worry about Yuki being unresponsive! But actually we selected Yuki for her ideas. After interviewing a number of other architects and designers, and also consulting with our real estate agent, Yuki visited our house and we described the ideas so far: removing a wall to make the kitchen larger; and moving the entrance to the master bedroom to make it into a suite. Much to our surprise, Yuki had new ideas in both cases. For the master suite, she suggested moving the entrance to the bathroom, which made the whole layout much more efficient without adding much cost. And for the kitchen, everybody had been going to remove the wrong wall! Yuki suggested removing a different wall, and while initially that looked to me like a much bigger job, it was evident that the layout would be far superior. Well it turned out the the obstacles to removing the wall were superficial, a floor had to be raised 12", and a ceiling raised to follow the vault. It wasn't a big deal, but it required someone who could see through the artificial constraints. So we hired her because of her ideas. But that is only the beginning of why you should hire Yuki, that is, if you want a modern or contemporary design for your home. Yuki is one of the most trustworthy people you could ever hope to meet. She will always be on time, and she will never overcharge; at one point I realized she wasn't charging to return all my long detailed emails, and I had to tell her that she shouldn't work for free (sorry if I've ruined things for you all). My wife and I are very independent minded people, and we don't always agree. Yuki maneuvered this situation beautifully, slowly coaxing us into a workable decision making process. Sometimes I wanted to design things myself, and Yuki was very patient with this. I was able to send her my hand sketches and receive constructive feedback that was not at all dismissive. Selecting materials was also an area where we felt very uncomfortable; it seemed hard to tell the difference between creative and weird. Here is where we really came to trust Yuki, and learned to go through a patient process of matching and studying the designs of others. And in the end the house could not be more beautiful!

Yuki is creative, professional, detail oriented. We really enjoy working with her to design on our home. Our house had a room that was very dark, Yuki was creative and found a design that solved the problem. Yuki also came with us to select tiles and kitchen cabinets. We really appreciate her design perspective! Yuki attended weekly two hour meetings with the contractor and she helped us problem solve any issues that came up. She really cares about the home and wants to see it through. We love our new home and so happy to have worked with Yuki. We had a wonderful experience and would highly recommend her!

Before/After photos speak for themselves: https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/cupertino-transform-to-a-contemporary-house-pj-vj~6621088 Yuki is one of the few architects in South Bay/Pennisula that specializes in modern architecture & interior design. We feel extremely lucky that she had capacity to take on our project last year. With her help, remodeling became a super fun activity that we totally enjoy. To be more specific: 1. Customer focused: Yuki took a lot time listening to us and helping us figuring out our needs before jumping to drawings. During each drawing iteration, she creatively incorporated our input and presented solutions that beyond our imagination 2. Unparalleled service level: Yuki suggested having weekly standup meeting at the project site. This helped smooth out any problem/obstacle/mistake during the construction. She also accompanied us to showrooms for interior deco material selection. This service level is even more remarkable considering that she charges her projects by flat fee, not by hours 3. Easy-going, fun, engaging personality: as a homeowner, you will be working with your architect for almost 1 year. It's almost like having a co-worker or, in Yuki's case, a friend. It's just plain fun to work with her. Yuki has the super power to read your mind extremely well. She knows when to slightly nudge us out of our comfort zone and when to respect our important needs even if it means she may not achieve the best design effect she was hoping for. Thank you for reading this far. If there is one advice I can give, that is to get on her waitlist ASAP. It could still be a few months, if not more than 1 year, before she can accept your project, all because she wants to maintain the very best service :)

After living in our home for 18 years we plunged in for complete renovation. The start of the project was neither smooth nor fruitful. We spent 9 months in contract with a design and build firm; resulted in a design that was full of compromises and half-hearted OKs. We had to start over. We eventually contracted with Yuki after a long process of selection. Yuki is a brilliant designer. She took all of our inspirational ideas, mixed in a healthy dose of realistic functionality. She was extraordinary in the timeliness of her work. Delays in the design process was primarily due to our schedule. Her patience in altering the design based on our developing sensibility in modernism was commendable. Yuki assisted us with either with referrals for various contractors, engineers, or meeting with someone that we found to help clarify the designs. Gave us loads of feedback and referrals when we sourced finishing material (saving 1000s $). Helped to keep us on point with the design aesthetics that we wanted. When we interviewed other architects, they typically only promised to perform site visits just a couple of times during the construction phase. Yuki was present at just about every single weekly meeting with our contractor. In summary, we could not be happier with our decision to go with Yuki as our architect. Her dedication to her craft, artistry, and client is beyond expectation. Her fees were very reasonable. We would not hesitate to work with her again in future projects.

An easy going professional who's patient and knowledgeable. I highly recommend Yuki! We redid our kitchen and Yuki was very helpful all around. She was always on time and had great ideas for us.

We worked with Yuki for ~ 1 year for our home remodel project. Before working with Yuki, we had experience with other architecture designer that is horrible. The whole experience with Yuki is really a pleasure. We converted our 3Bed/2Bath to 4 Bed/3.5Bath, plus an open play room for both kids and working station. The family room is connected to open Kitchen with up to 16' ceiling provide a great space for 2 kids running around. The home entry is designed with a Japanese style foyer that we really love it. This foyer is at lower level that we can take off dirty shoes without make home messy. It also connect to a small shoe room that we can easy store all our shoes! The Japanese style divider at foyer also provide some privacy with beautiful looking. we also really love the master bathroom, the design is clean, convenient and easy to maintain. Through the whole project from architecture to interior and material selection, Yuki always listen what we want and provide her professional feedback. She gave us lots of great ideas and helped us picked interior materials (such as tile, floor, vanity, cabinet...). She also pay attention to details and timely communicate to our GC to avoid mistake or fix technical challenges that really helps whole project moving smoothly. In general, Yuki understand what you want, has rich experience and good tasty that you can trust. I would strongly recommend Yuki..

I worked with Yuki on a renovation for a newly purchased condo. The scope of worked spanned doing the architectural drawings, to material selection and layout. Yuki was extremely knowledgable, very responsive, and had a quick turnaround time. I enjoyed working with her very much, and the project looks great!

Yuki did the architectural designs for my entire house, where she converted a 3 BR / 2 BA to a 5 BR / 2 BA, with a open-concept kitchen + great-room, added a master bath and a master closet. All I can say is that Yuki is amazing. She did a wonderful job, was always delivering with quality, on a timely manner, helped with getting proper permits and coordinating with the structural engineer and my contractor. I highly recommend her,

Yuki is a incredible person and professional designer. I've worked with her for 4 projects so far (3 commercial offices, 1 residential house). The recent project that I am doing with her is the residential house- Morden Style. I am glad to say it's almost complete! The project was taking so long (about a year) at the beginning due to unclear directions of keeping or selling the house. She was still be there for us on helping me selecting/talking to the contractors, revising the designs, applying for the permits and so on. Yuki really cares about her works. She goes to site really often, and meet with me for the progress review, talk to contractor about the issues and changes, prepares the materials list for me to purchase and provides a lot of valuable suggestions. Thank you Yuki. It was a pleasure working with you!