Mattingly Thaler Architecture

Judith Mattingly designed a beautiful whole-home remodel for us. It was our second time working with her, and we were delighted with the process as well as the outcome. She generated many options during the design phase of the project. She collaborated with our interior designer, landscape designer, and of course, our contractor to problem-solve as needed during the build. Her assistance helped make this major remodel go smoothly. Judith does her own CAD work, which makes her design process extremely efficient. We had meetings on Zoom where she was making changes to the design on-screen and in real-time. I was particularly concerned with making the home not only esthetically pleasing but also comfortable for us over the long term. Judith helped us think through how we might incorporate design features like wide-enough hallways, good lighting, walk-in showers and a minimum of changes in floor level throughout the house. Our goal was to design a home where we could live for many years to come. The house doesn’t look like an “age-in-place” residence, but it is! It was a joy to work with Judith. You will not be disappointed!

Judith helped me with a smaller project at my new home in 2018: the addition of a third bedroom. Having looked at Houzz and her website and seen the scope and beauty of her work, I was so surprised and thrilled she took on a smaller project like ours. She is an absolute joy to work with: patient, considerate and able to adapt to our evolving vision of how that room would integrate into our home. I have since referred Judith to many friends and clients and the results are the same: she is encyclopedic in her knowledge of styles and design, and will apply her skills to all facets of a project, from shrines, to pet accommodations to an entire manse. She has proved time and again what a creative and talented artist she is: I couldn't recommend her more highly.

Judith helped my husband and I design our remodel. She was wonderful to work with - very responsive throughout the process. We had never done a remodel before this one, so we were sure what to expect. Judith helped us throughout the process, connected us to fantastic contractors and designers, and was with us throughout the way to make sure we were happy with the final product. She is honest and kind and very flexible - even driving long distances to meet with the city to submit our plans. We loved working with her and are looking forward to working with her again for our next project.

After purchasing a unique, but long negleted and un-lived in 77 year old home in Redwood City, the challenge of knowing how to restore and update it to its fullest potential came as somewhat of a surprise. After only a few meetings and site visits, Judith was able to grasp my vision for the property and come up with many wonderful ideas on how to make it work for my 21st century needs while also fulfilling my desire to maintain its 1939 era charms. An example would be the kitchen and both bathrooms - all were re-imagined and completely rebuilt into more funtional spaces, yet guests and visitors still ask if they are original to the house (not an easy design task!). During the redesign phase, Judith quickly responded to questions and acted as the perfect sounding board for ideas or issues that came up. Her expertise and experience were greatly appreciated. The highest complement and recommendation I can give is simply to say, if I ever buy another property, Judith Mattingly will be the first person I call after the paperwork clears.

Judith took my ideas for a 500+ square foot addition to my home and created a beautiful, highly-functional space. She was unfailing brilliant at suggesting ideas that had not occurred to me, solving problems, and soothing my fears. For the many months we worked together, she was both professional and personable, and always timely and responsive to my needs. Her knowledge produced an architectural plan that had me dreaming excitedly about the finished project. I can recommend her with the highest pleasure to anyone who desires quality work. I wish I had professional photos taken to show off my new living space!

Judith was the architect that took my initial inspiration for a "basement sports bar" and designed a beautiful and highly functional space. She is very creative and spent time up front rendering mock ups of the space from multiple angles so that we could envision all aspects of the project. She collaborated extremely well with our builder, decorator and cabinet/millwork team. She's a joy to work with, creative, highly responsive and also practical. Highly recommended!

Judith has been such a pleasure to work with! She is informed, thoughtful, creative, incredibly responsive, efficient and someone who “gets it done”. I started working with another architect 10 months ago on a project to raise the ceilings in one room of my home which required some engineering and changes to the roofline at the front of the house. It didn’t seem incredibly complicated, but did require some thought, creativity, experience, and navigation of various obstacles in getting city approvals. After five months of feeling like the beginning phases of the project weren’t moving along with the first architect and his engineer (promises made for drawings to be delivered followed by excuses for why they were not –no value-add or creative ideas – and it turned out also no awareness or mention of the possibility of the obstacles that were to come), I decided it was time to change gears. I was introduced to Judith through a referral in my neighborhood. Incredibly busy at the time she said she couldn’t promise the time line I was pushing for, but said she’d do her best to get me back on schedule. Her best turned out to be so far above and beyond. She jumped in fast. She offered valuable insights and opinions I didn’t expect, but that were needed (and that I hadn’t realized I needed). She immediately brought in an engineer who offered a paralleled level of service. Then, as additional obstacles surfaced in working with the city of Palo Alto (including the Home Improvement Exemption process), she helped navigate through them. I am feeling confident going into the construction phase and am incredibly grateful that the early missteps lead me to her. Construction will be smoother and the end result will be far better than I had originally envisioned. Now that I'm halfway into construction I must edit this review. Judith has been there EVERY step of the way to answer questions and ensure things move smoothly. Had no idea how much I'd still need to check in with her as we moved forward and I'm forever grateful. I can tell my contractors are not used to dealing with plans so well thought out ahead of time. Neighbors are already commenting that the house is going to look like it had always been designed this way - ultimately something that was very important to me in making this kind of change. Thank you Judith!!!

Mattingly Thaler provides a custom approach to design, guidance, and leadership. Collaborating with clients to produce a complete design, with innovative and sustainable elements is a consistent practice. As a landscape designer, we appreciate the inclusive and professional leadership Judith provides to the team. Mattingly Thaler is a creative, responsible, and respected architecture firm, for all styles in residential design.

Mattingly Thaler Architecture not only updated my Mission Revival garage/studio, but also perfectly replicated its historically listed facade, winning the 2011 Palo Alto Stanford Heritage Reconstruction Award. They were brilliant designers and a delight to work with, shepherding the project through the city's Historical Review Board process, and working seamlessly with our engineer and general contractor. I cannot recommend Mattingly Thaler Architecture highly enough. I am so glad to have had the pleasure of working with such outstanding professionals and I am thrilled with my beautiful new structure.

We've worked with Judith twice. First remodeling inside the house, then a year later the deck and some of the outdoor space. She is knowledgeable, creative, flexible, pay ample amounts of attentions to details and is really good at understanding the clients' needs, respect their opinions, but push back when needed. She also worked great together with our general contractor, which she met the first time on our job. In short, she is wonderful to work with and would recommend her highly.

Peter and Judith are an incredible team both in terms of their sophisticated design and their execution. They are able to balance spectacular design with cost considerations and constructability. Their work achieves an elegance based on great design, not relying on expensive finishes (although if expensive finishes are what you want, they can provide that as well). Judith and Peter worked well with our general contractor and all of our craftsmen, respecting their expertise, but also helping to ensure that the original design we wanted was implemented. They were particularly great at documenting status of project and keeping it on track, on budget. They true compassion and concern for the project from start to finish was exemplary. I could not recommend them more

Mattingly Thaler Architecture is the best in class as far as I'm concerned. After interviewing 3 other architects, Judith was the only one that had the vision of the MA BR/BA addition I'd been searching for for over 2 years. She has a keen insight that I hadn't seen before and was refreshing in her straightforward, honest approach. We struggled for years with the Build versus Buy question and would have absolutely hired MTA for our project, but for the fact that we stumbled upon and bought our dream(ish) home just before we dove into the project.

Judith worked as our architect on our (10 month long) remodel several years ago, and I am being truthful when I say there is not a day that goes by that I don't think of her with gratitude. The functional design and beauty of our home is all her doing. We had an odd shaped lot with many, many constraints, and the end result is remarkable. We are asked routinely who designed our house. When we were trying to select architects, we decided to hire Mattingly-Thaler because we felt that Judith was listening to us in the interview (surprisingly, I cannot say the same of the other four architects we talked to). Her ability to listen was tested and proven through the design and building process. While we could not afford to hire her firm to manage our project, she was remarkably flexible, communicative, accommodating, and patient with us and our contractor throughout the remodel. She was the best money we spent in this expensive process!

Judith and Peter figured out how to transform the space of our 1950s suburban one-story into an well-articulated open plan which we have enjoyed everyday since it was done. Running out of buildable space on a long, narrow lot, they came up with a creative way to extend our dining room with a large wall of garden-facing windows. That change gave us great views from the kitchen and adjoining interior spaces. During the construction process we met regularly at the house and talked about how the design was coming, deciding to introduce several skylights to brighten the hallway and family room, and nudging a new wall over to improve the kitchen space. Our remodel was virtually a complete rebuild on the inside, and we benefited greatly from Judith and Peter's ideas for attractive materials and finishes, and kitchen and built-in cabinet design, all looking great without breaking our budget. It all started with the vision for how the rooms of our main living and eating areas would flow together - to get that we worked through at least a dozen possible layouts until Judith and Peter saw the perfect solution. In all that they were always total professionals and wonderful people to work with, and we are forever grateful to them for giving us our house!

I worked with Judith and Peter over the course of several years to design and build a complete remodel of my home on a challenging site. The design went through several iterations and we went through several potential contractors as well. They were creative, practical, persevering, responsive, honest, and great partners in the endeavor. On top of that, the house is beautiful!

We worked with Judith Mattingly of Mattingly Thaler Architecture for our remodel in Palo Alto in 2010. (We were extending, updating and bringing up to code our 1951 ranch house.) Judith is fabulous to work with. She is positive, articulate, and full of ideas. She has a sense of humor, is pleasant to work with, and always on time to meetings. One of the great things about her is that she really listens to the client and wants to understand your needs, taste, etc. At the same time, she's not afraid to push back if she thinks you are pursuing a really bad idea! Judith helped us select our general contractor, and then worked daily with them to make sure the project stayed on schedule. At her behest, we had a weekly check in meeting with the contractor which really helped keep the project moving, as no problems were allowed to fester (and you can imagine that there were some - the previous owner had been "Mr DIY"). Judith also navigated the notorious Palo Alto permitting process with grace and ease. I would not hesitate to recommend her services for a remodel.

Judith and Peter designed our new pool house and patio. The pool house is about 2600 sq. ft. (with basement.) We think it turned out quite well, and it matches the the design of the rest of the house (old Spanish adobe) very well. They have done work for us before (they remodeled our previous house and designed it's poolhouse), and will be doing work for us in the future. The work took from late 2012 to early 2014 - I don't know why this website insists on a month and year for an 18 month project. Mike

Judith Mattingly provided her design services to me for a remodel of a condominium. She drafted an existing floor plan, reviewed the structural drawings of the building, secured an engineer for the project, and then created the new plans necessary for us to get our permits. She worked with the contractor, the owner, the engineer and the building department. She was knowledgeable, efficient, responsive, and in general, a pleasure to work with. I would highly recommend her services.

I hired Judith Mattingly from Mattingly Thaler after a fire had decimated our garage and guest house at our home in Atherton. At the time I was seriously ill. Judith was a bright light. I can not say enough good things about how her and how she does her job. She created beautiful buildings that look like our 104 year old house from the outside, with beautiful details and open spaces inside; as if our disaster never happened, but better. You might be able to find another architect who could do that, but not on time, on budget and most importantly with the care and service that Judith offers. Judith was able to recreate our carriage house and guest house while I struggled in the hospital 2,500 miles away. Judith listened to her client so closely and communicated so well that my periodic absences and sudden unavailability did not add cost to the project. She was so attentive to detail that she salvaged some antique light fixtures from the fire, had them refurbished and then matched them for the entire project. In addition she has great contacts with contractors, landscape architects, structural engineers, survey companies, building department personnel. I would hire her again in a heartbeat for any project, not only in our home, but for another house with a totally different feel. I think she is smart, versatile, honest, and above all else talented.

I'm working with Judith currently. So far, Judith is very reasonable, reliable, practical, and elegant. Trust she will make our house comfortable and beautiful!