Congratulations to Sal – our principal engineer – and his wife as they’ve welcomed a healthy baby boy into their lives! We wish the family great health and happiness. May you have at least three more!

D’Anna Associates is currently seeking an Architectural CAD technician / designer to assist one of our licensed project Architects in the production of construction drawings. This entry level position would allow the potential candidate the opportunity to learn and grow with our firm.  Knowledge of Revit Architecture, Photoshop and Autocad is necessary.  If this position is something you would be interested in, please contact us at:  careers@dannaassoc.com  This job opening is at our Rochester Hills, Michigan office location.

D’Anna Associates, established in 1980, is a rigorously innovative and dynamic professional architecture firm. Our practice has always been based upon functioning as a multidisciplinary collaborative, and we’re constantly broadening our resource structure to assure our operations utilize cutting edge technologies and methods to support our clients at every stage of the development process.  D’Anna Associates has held a reputation of delivering effective architecture via services that perform as processes of thorough analysis, communication, and ethical practice to achieve successful solutions.

Congratulations to Sal D’Aleo, one of our architects, whose wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy over the weekend!! Welcome to fatherhood! God bless you and your family.

With local home prices remaining very low, some people may find a home in a premier location, with all of the amenities they require but with a facade which they don’t. The answer, redesign it! In many cases, because a home’s cost is considerably low, money invested in “refreshing” its exterior will only increase its value. Take a look at a quick scheme we put together for one of our clients:

Before Renovation

After Renovation

D’Anna Associates has sponsored the Rochester Hills Government Youth Council 5k run/walk race to benefit Rochester Area Neighborhood House (RANH).

The RANH helps neighbors in need by providing: food, clothes, transportation, counseling, and financial assistance. Rochester Area Neighborhood House recognizes the basic needs of residents in crisis and responds with emotional and financial assistance – for more info visit www.ranh.org).

The event took place at Bloomer Park, this past Saturday (6-18-11). This was a fantastic event, benefiting an even more fantastic local organization.  We all had a great time – some of us ran some of us walked, but we all finished in respectable time.  Congrats to our staff’s frontrunners who finished the race in 30 minutes.

D’Anna Associates is proud to have been a participating sponsor, as we share the values of the RANH who believes that people helping people is the model of a strong community.

We’d like to thank the Rochester Hills Government Youth Council for the invitation and for the opportunity to help!

Sponsor Banner at Registration Tent

We believe energy efficiency and environmental sustainability are virtues which must take a forefront position in the conception of a building. It is our responsibility as architects and engineers to ensure our resources are conserved, and the impact of used resources is responsibly limited.

As such, we are now an Energy Star partner and have the certification to qualify new projects as Energy Star compliant. The benefit to our clients is that when we’ve completed a project which reaches the required efficiency, it automatically qualifies as an Energy Star building if it’s built in close adherence to the plans we’ve prepared. The result is a building which uses a fraction of the energy a comparable building of the same scale would use and, ultimately, it costs the owner a commensurate amount to heat and cool it.

There is also a $2,000 tax credit for builders who build a residence which provides a 50% heating and cooling energy saving over those conforming with the 2004 International Energy Conservation Code. In fact, Energy Star qualified buildings exceed all current energy code in place to date.

What does all of this equate to? Smaller carbon footprint, cleaner air, and a long term cost savings for our clients.

Energy Star is a program administered by the EPA

We’re extremely happy to announce that Peter, one of our principal architects, and his wife Marygrace have just welcomed their second child into the world – a beautiful baby girl!

Giuliana D’Aleo was born on May 3rd 3:21am, weighing 7lb-9oz and measuring 19-3/4” long – she is certainly healthy, beautiful, and so very sweet, and her presence serves as a reminder that at D’Anna Associates, our families are our inspiration. They are the reason we work hard and strive for greatness every day. Peter is a leader on our team and a key driving force of our continued success. He, his wife, and their son Giancarlo are extremely deserving of such extraordinary joy. We wish them the very best!

Congratulations!

The following is an actual email containing a very common, but unintentionally vague, message: “how much does an architect charge?” as the author places a fee as a determinate factor for selecting an architect. My response follows:

“…  Hi-
My wife and I are trying to design our dream home.  We have a floor plan/model that we like but we need assistance in drafting the drawings and making some changes.  I was wondering what your costs are to develop drawings and modifications.

Thank you,
Joe  …”

Hello Joe,

Thank you for contacting us. Our fees are variable as a function of project scope and scale – simply put, more information is required to answer your question but I would be happy to discuss the project with you.

Often prospective homeowners are conflicted about commissioning an architect simply based on their fees without considering or simply not comprehending the significance the resultant plans have on the final product. Since you are seeking to build your dream home I assume that you will probably live there for an indefinite length of time and for most people, their home is their largest investment. Because of this, your greatest objective is that the final product be one which addresses your particular lifestyle and be certain that its conceiver can produce a solution which does just this while creating a cohesive, well designed result.

To address any uncertainties you may have, we can provide incremental services which would allow us to meet, compose schematic drawings based on requirements you set forth, and if you decide you want to proceed in developing the schemes we would continue doing so, if not, then you would only reimburse us for our invested time at that point without committing to any significant investment.

I invite you to visit our website and social network sites to browse through some of our work, then contact us to discuss the project scope in further detail or make an appointment.

Sincerely,

Pietro D’Aleo, RA

(Unfortunately, no response was given to date)

VISION, TALENT, DEDICATION.   Three words I would use to describe the D’Anna Associates team.  During my short time here these three components are the common thread I see throughout each project – from homes and commercial properties to senior living centers.   I am very proud to be a part of this team.  If you are in the area, please stop by and have a look at our office building.