Momentum A&E, Inc.

Really, the only word to describe John is that he is a Scamster. He took money from us, lied to us, took over a year and all we have to show for it are completely incorrect drawings with the city asking us to re-​submit all plans. Lost ~ $ 7.5k and over a year.
It’s just sad that we don’t have checks and balances to in place to remove & punish business owners like these.
He has already lost his contractors license following a ruling against him in an arbitration case. I hope the architects board takes action against John and revokes his architects license asap so he does not cheat any more honest hardworking people out of their money & time.
If you do a google search on his name and you’ll find more interesting information on him.
Also, do read one of the other hidden reviews on here that Unilocal has hidden for whatever reason. It’s a real one and I have personally spoken to the reviewer.

Wish I had seen the other review here before being sucked down the rabbit hole. Word of advice… STAY AWAY!
I contracted with John back in July for a simple barn roof design. Paid him upfront (wish I hadn’t) and then waited… and waited… and waited some more. Finally he presented me with some hand drawn plans that were not what we had spoken about. I confronted him on this and after another long wait he presented me with something more to my liking. My boyfriend then took the plans to the county and was laughed out of the room. John then promised to work with the county and after not hearing from him for another very long time. It is now the middle of October and I was just informed that for what I paid him for to be of any value to me I must pay him significantly more money, «a smokin’ deal». He presents himself as a moral person with honest values, but boy was that not true for me.

Anyone can write anything on a review board. So, I am willing to spend 30 minutes of my time on the phone or in person if you like to show the exact facts around my project. I assure you that you will be appalled.
1. Architect’s Contract Violated California Business & Professions code requirement. Be VERY VERY VERY careful. His contract is designed to be extremely biased towards him. Read it carefully and/​or spend a couple of hundred bucks on an attorney. It will save you, your family months of headache and lot of money.
2. Contract included construction. Contractor license was suspended in April and revoked in July for failure to pay in an arbitration case — clearly somebody sued him and won (please make sure you check for latest status) since his site continues to state that he can provide construction services.
3. Delayed project by over 6 months
4. All permits were supposed to be submitted by Jan 2015. We are sitting in Sept 2015 and some permits have not been submitted yet.
5. Building drawings were submitted without my consent when I pointed out numerous mistakes prior to submission. Architect said mistakes can be corrected during construction and we can submit anyways.
6. Architect said he checked with city and permit fees wereless than $ 10k. It turned out to be more than $ 22k (& climbing)
7. Building permits were approved after a 4 month delay with over 20 mistakes (some as fundamental as one page saying that garage is 33′ and the other that it was 30′, incorrect measurements of existing home and some other as severe as code violations). City said that if the dimensions on field do not match drawings, then the inspector can stop construction. Clearly, in my drawings they do not match.
8. Architect said that since building plan has been approved he does not feel he is responsible for the measurement mistakes and made it appear like the contractor was stupid in asking that the measurement be correct on the architectural plan.
9. Ultimately, when he did make (hand-​drew) some (not all) error corrections 40 days after request, the city rejected his error corrections
10. Architect said that my septic did not need to be connected to sewer. City said that it is a requirement even if a single fixture is added.
11. Beware, he will severely front load your payments and then stop/​slow his response when gets the money
12. He will use the reference of his brother in the city to impress
13. Almost no contractor is willing to work with his drawings at this time.
14. I will likely have to re-​submit new plans all over again and pay non-​refundable city fees again after a ten month nightmare with this guy.
Frankly, there is so much more that I could write a book here. Contact me if you need more information.