Littlewolf Architecture

In 2014, Chris designed the home we live in now. It was the first time we took on a project of this scale. His creativity, curiosity, patience, and all around helpfulness supported us in realizing our dream. We love our home, and raising our family here. I'm thankful Chris was a big part of it.

Chris is what you want in an architect -- a great listener and advisor who can design based on feedback throughout the design process. Initially we planned to build based on plans we bought online but quickly realized Chris' value. He helped us save a lot of money by only building what we wanted and gave us input on reasonable and high performance HVAC and window systems that heavily influence the sustainability of a home.

At the start of our house-building process we ask Chris Vlcek of Littlewolf Architecture to provide sketches of two options: renovate and expand an existing house or build on a lot that we owned. We then bought another building lot and asked for sketches for a new house on that lot. Working with Chris through this process helped us to decide to build a house on our new lot. We cannot overstate the importance of working with Chris to make these choices. We then proceeded to work with Chris to design this new house. The process went smoothly and we can highly recommend Chris for his knowledge of environmentally conscious building options, his creativity and the quality and timeliness of his work. After completing the architectural drawings, Chris prepared a bid package, suggested several contractors, and helped us review the proposals from those contractors. We love the finished product and can recommend Chris without reservation.

Chris was a pleasure to work with. He worked with us to interpret our ideas and preferences and create a workable plan from them. We chose him because of his attitude during our interview, which was laid-back, thoughtful, and a good match for our personalities, and because of his focus on energy-efficient designs. Chris steered us toward certain decisions and away from others, without ever being pushy. His judgement on those points was pretty sound, and we mostly took his advice, and are better off for doing so.

We found Chris to be a great architect because we started the process by him listening very carefully to what we wanted. He is a good listener and he asked good questions. At the same time, he showed us some of his previous work and we told him what we liked and what wasn't our taste. We cut out hundreds of pictures and we went through them all together. After 2-3 months, he "got us" and understood what we liked and what we didn't like. He was very interested in making us happy by delivering a design that we loved. Chris did a fantastic job coming up with a design that we loved. He developed a detailed set of construction drawings, etc, etc. He then developed a bidding process to send out to builders. We met and interviewed all of the builders (contractors) together and we selected a great team that built us a fantastic house. Chris was involved from the idea/concept stage until it was completed. In our view he was fantastic and we would hire him again.

Chris is very knowledgeable and thorough, and takes time to get to know the person for whom he is performing design work in order to ensure the project is compatible with their values and goals.

My wife and I hired Chris to design a home for us. He was very professional and met the project deadlines within the agreed upon budget. We originally were interested in an earth sheltered home, but Chris turned us on to the passive house concept. He provided us with a number of different design options, from fairly standard to wildly eccentric. In the end, the design we ended up with met all of our expectations. We highly recommend Chris's services.

I had the pleasure of working with Chris on a new home project that had a very unique design that was visually pleasing and very functional at the same time. There has been no end to the compliments of the beauty of this home. Chris is a very talented professional who understands his clients and his business.

I have worked with Littlewolf Architecture on 3 different new home construction projects; one in Lee, MA, another in Sandisfield, MA, and the third in New Marlboro, MA. All of the projects were in excess of $500,000.00 . The project in Lee had a very difficult site. The project in New Marlboro achieved Tier 3 energy conservation . The project in Sandisfield is one of my favorites. All three owners of these houses are delighted with the outcome of their homes. This could not have happened without the precise planning performed by Littlewolf Architecture. The details were perfect and the houses came together without problems. Any questions that arose Chris Vlcek always responded to immediately. He was invaluable in the success of these projects. Fred Viner Viner Building Hinsdale MA

My husband and I bought a log cabin in the Berkshires last fall. It was originally called an art studio by the woman who built it on her large piece of land. We are not sure what she actually used it for but it did not have a kitchen at all. The cabin is basically one large room (about 20 feet by 30 feet) with a loft and a large mud room attached to one end. The center of the room is anchored by a beautiful brick fireplace with a stove insert. We brought Chris in to make the cabin into a comfortable, livable and easy to take care of second home. Chris knew right away what we wanted. The loft had pull down stairs which were not going to work for us. Chris designed the perfect u-shaped stairs which have a built-in bookcase at the rounded end and storage underneath. I had imagined a tiny kitchen in one corner of the room. What we ended up with is a beautiful kitchen with a refrigerator tucked under the stairs, a large peninsula counter, lots of cabinets. The loft had a half bath but was otherwise not very user-friendly. Chris redesigned the bathroom to be a full bath and then planned the whole bedroom area with built-ins. The queen bed is on a platform that contains four huge drawers plus two more large drawers with bookcases above on each side of the bed. Plus he was able to fit a nice closet under the eaves. The mudroom which is incredibly useful in the mountains now has great built-in benches with storage under and a broom closet. Chris has also designed a screen porch for us off of one side of the cabin, but that will be phase 2 of our project. All of the windows were replaced and made a huge difference in the look and efficiency of the cabin. Chris was great to work with. He also helped us with getting bids from the contractors and once the project started, he checked in occasionally and was available to the contractor for questions. We absolutely love the cabin. It is just so relaxing for my husband and me but also a wonderful place to be with our family including small grandchildren. Chris helped us realize our dream of making the cabin be what we wanted it to be.

I have consulted with Chris on several design jobs. We met through passive house work. At times I have been able to provide information to him and others he has provided good and thoughtful advice to me. He is pleasure to be around, you will enjoy working with him.

Whether starting from scratch or renovating and expanding an existing building, a big key to a successful and enjoyable experience is to have good team work among the client, the architect and the builder. For our project, one of Chris's strengths was as a good team player, working well with all. He quite successfully translated our basic design requirements and created, through his drawings, his adaptations to the existing house structures, his design sense and his knowledge of building materials, etc., a very workable plan that, in completion, we love. His multiple view plans and perspectives were a key to the successful translation of our collective ideas into the visualization of the final product. This included a very simple but clever design of how to mesh different roof lines where they came together. Chris's flexibility, adaptability and willingness to incorporate our additional suggestions and ideas was very important - he was not dogmatic about controlling everything. And he stayed within his budget and coordinated on a timely basis with our contractor when questions arose. The one "soft" spot was his estimation of the total cost for the project, which was low compared to the bids that we ultimately got, but this was not an obstacle.

I was the general contractor on a small log cabin remodel that Chris Vlcek of Littlewolf Architecture did all the design work for. Chirs is great to work with as a Contractor and The homeowners loved the finished product.