The city of Suffolk is part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan region. Retail, manufacturing, distribution, farming, and a range of hospitality businesses drive the city’s economy. Residents and visitors can participate in a variety of activities on the city’s rivers and lakes, such as swimming, canoeing, kayaking, scuba diving, and fishing.
If you live in or want to transfer to this charming neighborhood, the list below contains some of the top residential architects in the business. These companies were chosen for their experience, credentials, and track record. Each firm has the expertise and skills required to make your dream house a reality.
GARC Design
500 E Main St 16th Floor, Norfolk, VA, 23510
Founded in Norfolk, Virginia in 2015, GARC Design is committed to improving its client’s everyday life in every way it can. It specializes in architecture, interior design, and landscape for its clientele in the United States, Southeast Asia, and China. Clients say that the firm’s work has positively impacted their living, working, and social settings.
Yang Tian and Suping Li are the firm’s founders. Yang has fifteen years of expertise in the sectors of planning and architecture in both China and the United States. He has specialized in campus planning, educational architecture, creative space design, and landscape design. Suping has collaborated with several renowned architecture firms in Beijing, Singapore, and the United States. In her fifteen years of business, she has worked on a wide range of projects of all sizes and scopes, focusing on educational and cultural architecture, adaptive reuse, and interior design.
G.M. Frech and Associates
4356 Bonney Rd. Building 3, Suite 102, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
G.M. Frech and Associates is a registered trade name for Design Four, Inc., founded and licensed as a Class A contractor in 1984. GMF+ has created hundreds of houses, residential extensions, and award-winning commercial projects throughout its twenty-five-year existence. Its business-oriented approach enables it to serve as a master builder in the Renaissance architect builder concept and to be actively involved with each construction.
The company was also recognized through various honors for its exemplary work, including the Hampton Roads AIA award in 2007 for Smithfield Affordable Sustainable Workforce Housing, the Virginia Governor’s Housing award in 2010 for Best Affordable Housing, and the Energy Conservation Effort with its Beach Park West Apartments project. Gregory Martin Frech leads the firm as president, with experience as a city planner, university professor, and various positions as a staff architect before establishing the company in 1984.
The Livas Group, Inc.
246 West Freemason St. Norfolk, VA 23510
The Livas Group Architects P.C. is an African American-owned and managed minority firm. It was initially founded in 1948 in Hampton, Virginia, as Henry L. Livas, AIA, Architects. Based in Norfolk, Virginia, the current company comprises a group of experts who work together to focus their skills and abilities toward the discipline of comprehensive architecture. Its key experience includes hospital design, housing, educational facilities, industrial park planning, industrial building design, and broad design background in housing, academic, medical, and office buildings.
The Livas Group is an awardee of the AIA Award for Excellence in Design, AIA of Hampton Roads 2005 Design Honor Award Design Achievement For Preservation, Architectural Portfolio 2008 Award Name by the Virginia Black Expo and Norfolk Dept. of Development, and the 2009 Business Leadership Award. The firm’s works were also featured by several publications, including WVEC, Daily Press, The New York Times, WRIC, and Richmond BizSense.
Wermers Design & Architecture, PLC
1177 Starr Way, Virginia Beach, VA 23454
Wermers Design & Architecture provides architectural, interior design, and planning services for residential and commercial projects. Its work includes community planning, residential design, custom homes, workforce housing, and apartments for its clients in Suffolk and surrounding areas.
Under the oversight of Charles Wermers, the firm listens to its clients and strives to deliver success from both aesthetic and practical perspectives. Charles’ abilities and the team’s professionalism have enabled the company to obtain various awards, including the 2019 Most Innovative Residential Architecture Design Firm in Virginia by Build Architecture Awards and the 2012 1st Place Award for Kitchen Design. Charles graduated from the University of Virginia, receiving a Bachelor of Architecture, and then he earned his Master’s of Architecture at Princeton University. He worked in New York for fifteen years with some of the best architecture firms in the country, including Rockwell Group and Ike Kligerman Barkley.
