Lea Wiljer, the principal of RENEW architect, has worked on the design of two licensed daycare centres in Leslieville and Riverdale over the past four years; working with contractors, she also managed the renovations.

I would highly recommend RENEW architect for the following reasons:

• During the design process, the architect was attentive to my ideas.  While bound by the Ministry of Education’s stringent guidelines, she made multiple judgment calls about what to express and how, from a project’s big strategic idea to the fine details of implementation to create beautiful spaces for young children.

• The architect has the ability to work with budgets; she monitored the costs constantly, so each project was completed within the approved budget.  In addition, she made every effort to maximize energy and water efficiency, and use low VOC materials.

• With tight schedules, the architect met deadlines.

• I was impressed with the architect’s responsiveness not only to my requests for modifications/revisions but also with the timeliness of her dealings with City Hall – submission for zoning certificate, application to Committee of Adjustment, and applications for building permits.

• The principal of RENEW architect has excellent organization skills, keeping meticulous records of all schedules, costs, meetings, documents and plans.  She was always quick to answer phone calls and emails and made herself available to meet regularly in person.

• The architect is skilled in project management.  She engaged mechanical, electrical and structural engineers and coordinated the work of all consultants.  She worked collaboratively with the contractor on each project to manage costs, meet regularly, report progress, and complete the projects within the specified time.

Overall my experience with RENEW architect has been rewarding and the outcomes – two childcare centres – more functional and attractive than I could have imagined.

Sally Hooper, PhD

Mighty Kids

I had the pleasure of working with Lea Wiljer on renovations to the Historic Tanz Building at the University of Toronto. 

Lea brings with her an astute understanding of how to respectfully integrate modern office needs into an older structure.  She carefully designs so the character of the old and new enhance one another making for a functional and welcoming space.

She brings the correct supporting consultants to the team so the expertise is a unified design solution.  With this team she investigates the structure to ensure that structure and MEP is not an after-thought or an extra to the project when having to accommodate updated codes, AODA, new plumbing and HVAC.

Lea is professional and timely in her responses.  If an answer is not immediately available she acknowledges you and provides a timeline as to when you can expect your needs to be addressed.  I would recommend Lea Wiljer from RENEW architect if you are seeking to retrofit an older building into a 21st century office.

Donna Scrimgeour

Project Manager,  Aecon Group Inc.

It has been a pleasure working with Lea Wiljer of RENEW architect.  I have worked with Lea for over the past three years in my role as a Property Manager for the University of Toronto.

Lea has worked on a wide range of projects for me.  These projects included major renovations to washrooms, office space and highly sensitive lab areas.  Lea manages her projects efficiently and most importantly, her time management on projects is excellent.  At the University of Toronto, we have short time frames to complete projects and Lea always meets the required timelines.

She is professional and works well with the clients, engineers and inspectors to ensure all projects are completed as per required specifications.

I not only recommend her company, but also look forward to continuing our business relationship.

Mike Carere

Property Manager, University of Toronto

 We engaged Lea to design a retirement home on a small island in BC several years ago. My wife & I having been brought up on the BC Coast many years ago, had bought an acre of rock bluffs, fir trees, with a view to the mountains north of Vancouver. We naively thought we could exchange a few sketches, photos, and a hand drawn topography diagram and Lea could come up with a “plan”. There was only one reasonable building site on the lot and it fell steeply toward the east. A large cedar tree had fallen, in a wind storm, on this site not having a large enough root structure on the rock bluff. We, of course, having glanced at a coffee table style book on house designs we thought we knew exactly what we wanted. The 3500 mi distance between us dictated that site visits would be few.

Despite these challenges Lea took charge of our project turning challenges into positives. She steered us through all phases of our project from building to occupancy permit. The design cascaded down the rock bluff in 3 levels; the cedar tree (and 4 others from nearby) became the spine supporting the 2nd & 3rd levels of the house. The 100 yr old 9x9 rough cut fir posts from my grandfather’s house were used to support the 1st level (the soul of the structure). The local contractor found that his detailed questions were answered quickly and his creative suggestions were adopted whenever possible.
The structure quickly became our home and was finished on time and on budget. We became proud owners of a home that is much more than we first envisioned, gets rave reviews from our friends and neighbors, and is a model for our contractor to demonstrate to others how owners, architects and builders can work together.
Lea’s attention to and knowledge of energy and space efficiency has already paid off many times over.I can fully endorse Renew Architect as knowledgeable, experienced, creative, responsive to client requirements, cost conscious, and able to tackle design jobs large or small.

Michael von Zuben

620 Eowyn Lane, Bowen Island, BC

I hired Lea and RENEW to design a second storey top up and basement renovation on my 90 year old brick detached home in the Danforth area of Toronto. Lea was professional from start to finish from our first meeting to discuss the concept through to the completion of construction and building inspection. Lea took the time to understand what we needed, structured the contract to provide only those services we required and was creative and cost conscious in designing our new space. She patiently worked with us through the process of draft designs, advising on the contractor bidding process, working with the chosen contractor as needed through the project and providing terrific advice as we hit decision points in mid-project. We are very happy with the result and would recommend her to anyone interested in a professional, conscientious, creative and thorough architect for their project.

Christopher Smith

East York

We hired Lea to design the extensive renovation for our home in Toronto. We had a 2 bedroom bungalow and wanted a two-story home to accommodate our growing family. Lea is a thoroughly excellent architect. She is creative, and was consistently able to come up with solutions to design challenges that arose due to the existing house structure. I found her extremely knowledgeable and resourceful, on topics ranging from basement waterproofing and cement stain to millworkers and hardware. In addition, Lea is environmentally proactive, and has ensured our house is efficiently built and reasonably free of harmful chemical products. She is very attentive and invested as she listens to us and was always available for a consult, meeting or discussion, throughout the eight months of our renovation. I cannot recommend Lea highly enough. She is thoughtful and purposeful and a fine architect. She is also extremely easy to get along with, important in this sort of relationship.

L. Murphy

East York