Recommendation

I had an excellent experience with Jean David. Two actually. After finishing the kitchen and bathrooms, we decided to do the whole rest of the apartment. JD is amazing as are his workers. And his pricing was unbelievable. - truly. New York French Contracting - 347-993-2838. Good luck.

Yep, my contractor was terrific. I recommended him to many people who have been very happy with his work.
He just finished a prewar gut renovation and I'm sure would be happy to show you.
His email is philipshomeimprovement@gmail.com. Good luck!

contractor: kbhomeinc@aol.com
architect: garycruzstudio@aol.com

be careful with the "top notch" designation. go with people who do great work, but not necessarily who have fancy reputations. if you go with a big, fancy contractor operation you will be paying for several layers of marketing and management, and that will add up fast. in addition, the people that you meet during the bid process will have little or nothing to do with your actual work. if you use a smaller operator, the contractor him or herself will be directly involved with the work-might even be there working alongside the crew, depending on the size of the job. at big places, the top people spend most of their time hustling up new work.

whoever you use, make sure you see examples of their work in person, not just photographs in portfolios or online.

architect: www.plattdana.com they did our UWS prewar; very clean lines, classic, classy style
contractor: jeffrey wong ijuniv@verizon.net -- lovely guy, on time, on budget contractor, very professional.

best of luck

Design by Francois, LLC
www.francoistenenbaum.com

He works with an architect and contractor.

I recommend Jeff of Prime Renovations, www.primerenovationsnyc.com. He is top notch quality without the "fancy" pricetag. We are working with Jeff on a number of projects now, great quality and, as important, he is great to work with.

I am a designer and would be happy to discuss your project with you. You can see some of our work at www.builtinstudio.com. Please feel free to email me at geisner@builtinstudio.com and I can give you some websites to look at.

logrolling

manhattanrenovations.com 212 685 6858 Andrew Harrington (contractor)
http://vtinteriors.blogspot.com/2011/01/bathoom-inspiration.html

Any update to this list of recommendations? Looking to restore/renovate a prewar co-op that has been a bit "muddled" over time. Designer? Architect? Contractor? Appreciate any suggestions.

I would be interested in speaking with you further regarding your potential project. My office's work focuses mainly on residential projects in the New York City area. Please visit our website to view samples of work.

www.studiolabdesign.com

Best,
Matt
mhm@studiolabdesign.com

i have been working in nyc for 15years and have great GC/speciality contractors as well. send me an email anytime and we can go thru what you have - go from there. i could do a free consolation up front as well.
sawarchs@me.com