Paladin Design Group

As a general contractor and owner of Hills Construction, Inc., I have worked with the owner of Paladin Design and Engineering (Quang Phan) for many years. Over the past 10 yesrs that I have been in business, I have worked with many designers, architects, and engineers. None are as good as Paladin Design and Engineering. Quang always delivers a quality product, on-​time and on budget. He is very knowledgeable and puts a lot of care into his designs. His plans are always neat, clean, thorough, and easy to create estimates from.
Paladin Design and Engineering is the one and only design and engineering company that I recommend to my clients. And if that doesn’t say it all, have a look at some of their designs.

I hired Quang with Paladin Design and Engineering for a remodel involving a foyer, master bedroom, walk-​in closet, and master bath (involving an authentic Japanese bathtub). We completed the remodel at the beginning of this year (2014). We couldn’t be happier with the results. The planning and engineering departments at City of Campbell were very happy with Quang’s work. Our contractor was able to clarify with Quang about changes (like the new pantry and sun room I added). We were able to establish a nice working relationship. Quang was very flexible with his time. All told we needed about 8 or 9 meetings and phone consults, including the visits to City of Campbell. Quang was available by either phone, text, or email for these larger meetings, but also for quick questions. As a busy professional librarian/​mother/​woman planning her wedding at the same time!, I really appreciated Quang’s modern approach to communication. My new husband and I keep marveling with delight about how well the addition turned out. What I liked best about working with Quang and staff was their willingness to listen to my needs and to take my amateurish home drawn plans and dreams seriously. Any designer can propose a set of plans that looks beautiful, but to take into account my family’s needs (keeping cost down, and having the least disruption possible), takes a great person. Quang is that person.

After the real estate downturn back in ’08-’09, we put our remodeling project on hold. Now that the financial apocalypse appears to be receding (knock on wood), we decided to move forward again. So, curious about whether one of the worst merchants I’ve ever dealt with had gone out of business yet, I looked up Paladin Design. Lo and behold, my wife’s review had been filtered for some reason, probably because she hadn’t written enough reviews before she decided Unilocal wasn’t for her, which is a shame because people really should be warned about these folks.
So, let me then reiterate and re-​phrase as needed:
This will be your worst nightmare if you are thinking about contracting with them.
Jason (the owner) never responded to emails until weeks later. Service was lousy and work ethic was zero. When I politely suggested: if you do not think you can handle this project, please let me know. And he would apologize, answer a few questions and go back to his old routine, which is not responding. And let’s not forget the melodrama: An excuse about another project that had «consumed all his time, his health, and his energy.» Uh huh.
When I finally had enough after months of no progress, I requested half of the deposit back. Whoa, all of a sudden his responses became extremely timely. Of course he immediately refused, spinning some BS song and dance about how many hours he had devoted to the project. He must have been mixing us up with the «time, health, and energy» project, since it seemed he hadn’t spent much time except apologizing for taking so long to get back to us. To us it wasn’t worth the «time, health, or energy» to continue fighting about it, since we did get one set of drawings. We considered it an expensive lesson learned about doing a better job of vetting your contractors.
Bad business– stay far, far away. If there’s a negative rating, I will vote –1.

We’ve been working with Jason for the past year. We wanted to start our remodel last year but had to save more money before we could start. When we developed our preliminary plans, Jason was really quick to go to the city planning department and get a variance for us.
After we saved money for our remodel, we worked with Jason to finalize our plans. He was really good about adding any changes that we requested, and he gave us good advice on how to handle problem areas.
When we finally submitted our plans, we were on pins and needles waiting for the city to approve our plans. They were backlogged and didn’t see our plans until 3 weeks after they were submitted. We were expecting another 3-​week wait assuming that we would have to do the back and forth with the city. To our surprise, the plans were approved during the first pass. The plan inspector said our architect did a really great job and covered all of the bases.
Jason’s prices are reasonable, and we are happy with his work and gladly recommend him.

We brought Jason in after we had to let go of a previous architect. Jason showed up at our house and literally within minutes — MINUTES! had articulated a plan for the house that we had been trying to get our previous architect to for months at our very big expense.
And, mid-​project, we found that our front was water and termite damaged beyond repair, so we had to bring Jason in once again to help us thru a façade design. And, again, he listened to us, had me look at a house, and created a beautiful design for us. I fretted over some of the details, and Jason chimed in with options and opinions that we valued and largely integrated.
He was quick, responsive, and a joy to work with. The proof is in our house. If I can figure out how, I’ll post pics! In fact, I was so puzzled by the negative reviews that I looked up those reviewers and sure enough, with one exception, all they’ve ever posted on Unilocal were 1-​star reviews. Their experience with Jason is so contradictory to ours that I wonder if we’re talking about the same firm!
And, we found Paladin thru our very busy contractor who uses Paladin as his architect of choice. Jason saved our project and we’ve already referred him to half-​a-​dozen people.

I’m a carpenter by trade and deal with architects daily. Some get it and some dont. This guy gets it…
Going through the motions to come up with a design that worked for us was fairly painless but did require a little work on our part as it should. Jason provided us 4 – 5 general design directions within about a week of starting the process. Then it was up to us to let him know what we liked/​didnt like. From there we went on to round two where things became much more focused and refined. All in all I think it took us about a month to come up with the overall design for the house from begining to end. Not bad, considering the fact that we werent exactly quick about making decisions.
When it came time to assemble our construction drawings Jason and company were on it. We had a really tight timeline for getting things done and Paladin came through every time. A real rareity! trust me on this…
The icing on the cake when it came to dealing with Jason was the permitting process. Our project is rather complex and probably should have been a standard submission but due to the fact that our prints were very well done and 100% complete we were able to get our permit over the counter in one afternoon.
All in all I can say my experience with Paladin was a positive one. If you’re in need of design/​architectural help dont hesitate to contact Paladin Design.

Reviews are all spot on. Worked with Jason (owner). He would only communicate by email and insisted on it. Whenever we would call, he would say send it by email. When you’re trying to work through a design of a house with a designer, there will be many questions and back and forths. What could have been accomplished in a 15 minute phone call took weeks via email, especially since he hardly responded to email promptly.
During one email exchange, he bragged about an investment property he bought, remodeled, and sold for a huge profit. No wonder he was so slow with our work! He was busy working on his own projects.
Finally, we emailed him about half way through the project saying we didn’t think he had time for our project and it wasn’t working out. We promptly got a bill for the full balance of the contract even though the project wasn’t even close to being finished. When we complained about it, he responded back saying that he had spent a lot of time on our projects and referenced the large amount of emails he received from us. If he would just take a phone call or two and not insist on only emails, we wouldn’t have had to email him so many times!
He ended up putting a lien on our house after we refused to pay the full bill which was another hassle we had to deal with.
Bottom line… definitely stay away!!!

This will be your worst nightmare if you are thinking about contracting them.
The designer never respond to emails until three weeks later. Service is lousy and work ethic is zero. When I politely suggested: if you do not think you can handle this project, please let me know. And he would appoligize, start to answer questions and go back to his old routine, which is not responding.
When I finally had enough after months of no progress, I requested half of the deposit back. Then he responded immidiately stating all the hours he and his team put in. Which, is over billing. And guess what, he asked me to pay him more.
If there’s a negative rating, I will vote –1.