Michael E Breseman Architects Ltd

I worked with Mike on a historic Howard Van Doran Shaw home that I own in Lake Forest, IL. He came in as a recommendation from a friend after another highly respected architect in Chicago failed to have the vision of myself, my husband and the Historic Preservation Commission. Working with Mike is a breath of fresh air after working with several high end architects here in Chicago. He is a no-nonsense type of architect in his approach toward design and building and yet has a great respect for historical architecture. We updated our kitchen/pantry, converted an open covered porch into a mudroom and cleverly connected it to four garages (two 2 car, one being connected). The garages look like they’ve been there since 1908 and you would never know that the glassed in porch was once just a covered back porch. Mike also designed the cabinetry in the mudroom as it is now all glassed in and finding space for coat closets and cabinets was quite a challenge but not for Mike. It is now one of my favorite rooms in the house. It reminds me of a conservatory but it is oh so utilitarian. In the kitchen Mike added another powder room, went into an empty hallway wall to build in a hutch for cookbooks and opened up the breakfast room with still keeping the intimacy of the space. He added elements which echo throughout the house. We have a beautiful newly operating kitchen that still retains the feeling that it could have been around for the past 100 years. Mike has a sense of building and understands if it is possible to attain his vision of design. I cannot say that about others I have worked with. He is also sensitive on your budget and really listens to his clients. I would hire Mike in a second with no hesitation. I might add he is a very nice person too!

We retained Michael last year for a complete interior renovation of our home. His ability to conceptualize new and better use of space is remarkable. We now have an interior layout that is both classic and “21st century” at the same time. The project is nearing completion now and the final product is exceeding our very high expectations. His attention to detail is beyond anything we have experienced before (we have done a lot of building and renovating). As we are now nearing the final product we are seeing wonderful details that we didn’t expect. Michael is very easy and a pleasure to work with. He took the time to understand what we wanted and then pushed those ideas/concepts to a level we never would have gotten to without him. He has worked extensively and very effectively with our General Contractor and Sub-Contractors, and has played an important role in ensuring the project was delivered at a high level. We would highly recommend Michael to anyone considering building or renovating a home.

Sometime ago we were looking to do an addition to our house. We called Michael. He showed up, took some measurements for a half hour and then sat in his BMW on the phone for an hour. Gave us the computer generated drawings the next week and charged us a RIDICULOUS amount for 11 hours of work, INCLUDING his drive time of 45 minutes to get to us. Who else does that? Extremely unprofessional. When we tried to talk to him about his fee, he threatened us with a lawsuit. Needless to say we where very upset and we parted ways. I would look (RUN) elsewhere and avoid the headaches!

My husband and I have hired Michael Breseman for several renovations to our 1920's home. I am a professional designer. I have high expectations from working many decades in the world of hospitality design and found that Michael consistently met and often exceeded my demands and expectations. Our projects included a kitchen, family room, and garden room renovation. The scope of each project was a gut remodel. Michael listened to our wishes and sought to incorporate our visions into the reality of our space. There was a true collaboration of our wishes and his skills resulting in three highly successful projects. We plan to use Michael again on our upcoming projects due to his warm and friendly personality, his openness to our input, his timeliness in preparing well coordinated documents ready for city review, and his overall professionalism.

Michael Breseman is a brilliant architect. We have used him on two of our family homes through the years and have been extremely pleased both times. His friendly, easy going style make him very pleasant to work with, and his timely turn around is always impressive- Our current home was an 1875 historic home which needed a total gut and large addition to turn it into our dream home. He worked tirelessly with us, our builder, and the village to create a beautiful home for our family to enjoy while maintaining the structural integrity of the historic home. Breseman is so bright and has an incredible eye for adding detail, trim, and finishing touches that are often skipped by others. Always conscious of your budget, he let's you know where it makes the most sense to spend your dollars and what make sense to skip- to assure you don't overspend. His ability to balance large renovations while paying attention to modern living trends and neighborhood scale is to be commended. Both of our homes were large scale renovations and both have generated enormous curb appeal and added beauty and value to our neighborhood. Many of Breseman's homes can be found on the north shore of Chicago and his style is so well versed and original- no cookie cutter houses here. We give Michael Breseman our strongest recommendation based on experience. His qualifications, skill, and product delivered are absolutely first rate!!!!

We have always had a passion for old homes that have character and we were fortunate to find a 1928 French Country home in Lake Forest that is now on the National Historic Register and has been designated a Lake Forest Landmark. The home was designed by the famed architect, Stanley Anderson, prior to the 1929 stock market crash. The exterior is elegant, stately, and charming but the home had a (very) small kitchen and my husband and I love to cook! We knew that the Lake Forest Preservation Foundation would hold us to the highest standards and that is why we chose Mike Breseman as our architect. Many say that the addition he designed looks like it was present from the beginning. In fact, the home now seems more balanced from curb view. From the dramatic slope of the orange tile roof to the multiple similarly placed casement windows, from the "matched" wrought iron grillwork on the balcony to the charming canopied back entry, and from the heavy wooden beams symmetrically placed to reflect the opposite end of the facade to the strategically placed shutters, the new exterior is stunning and retains a formality true to the original plan. The interior received the same careful attention to detail with interior archways drawn to reflect both the original pattern and its unique cove moldings. The breakfast room is a delight and we now have a mud room, a butler's pantry, a wine cellar, a "man cave," and a children's playroom! A competitive architect wanted the addition to extend out the back and what a visual loss that would have been! We love, love, love all that Michael did and appreciate his respect of the renowned architect that preceded him.

Michael Breseman was the architect for our second home we had built last year in La Porte, Indiana. He was very professional and had some great ideas that we incorporated into the house. In working with Mike on the plans I found him very straight forward with a great deal of integrity. So much so we asked him if he would be the Project Manager since we would be out of State for most of the construction. He agreed to be the PM and the construction started and was completed on time. We were so satisfied with his work that we have recently hired him as the architect to draw up plans for a Horse Barn that we want built on the property and as the Project Manager to schedule the subcontractors and oversee the construction.