Campus Wonderful

“What we really liked about Gary was he listened to our thoughts and comments and took great pains to encompass them in the design. We were also fortunate that we were not in a mad hurry to start building. We wanted everything to be just right, so we visited Gary on another 3 or 4 occasions during the year before we were all very happy with the final design. One interesting comment Gary did make, he wanted the whole experience of design and build to be enjoyable, and I have to tell you… it has been." It is with great pleasure I write to you about our experience hiring Gary to design our holiday home in Wanaka. On two occasions in the past Belinda and I have commissioned architects, one to design a new house and another to renovate our current home in Sydney. Both times, for different reasons we walked away. To say we were a little gun-shy commissioning an architect 2,000 kilometres away is putting it mildly, especially as this was going to be the first house we had ever built. After we bought our land, Belinda scoured the net and came upon Gary’s web site. Call it luck or by design but Gary was flying into Sydney the following week and we arranged to meet at the airport. From that first meeting we liked Gary very much and felt very comfortable talking with him. On his return home Gary visited the site in Wanaka and phoned saying that he was confident in designing us a house that would be a perfect fit for the land, the surrounding environment and for our family. What we really liked about Gary was he listened to our thoughts and comments and took great pains to encompass them in the design. We were also fortunate that we were not in a mad hurry to start building. We wanted everything to be just right, so we visited Gary on another 3 or 4 occasions during the year before we were all very happy with the final design. One interesting comment Gary did make, he wanted the whole experience of design a build to be enjoyable, and I have to tell you… it has been. Early on Gary gave us a broad brush cost estimate so we knew if we were within the ball-park or dreaming a fantasy. To be honest it really hasn’t deviated that much from Gary’s original estimate. Sure the costs have increased a little but not that much over the contingency that Gary strongly recommended we allow. Gary did make further recommendations during the construction as the house began to evolve. The extra costs were always quoted for us to consider and if not happy, we had the opportunity to stay with the original quote and design. Gary introduced us to Nevin Gibb, our builder and between the two of them I cannot believe the exceptionally high standard of build. Gary has been with project the whole way and the best decision we made was for him to stay involved until the end. I hope you use Gary; he’s a great guy and a very talented architect.”