Lea Design Studio

John was recommended to us and our creative design journey with him has been exciting and rewarding. Being experienced builders, John has exceeded our expectations; tailoring a design outcome and documentation service, to suit our specific needs in designing our new home. The constraints of a small and irregular shaped site for our residential home – a fan shape with two street frontages- gave John plenty of opportunity to demonstrate his high skill set and creativity in transforming our initial sketch into a unique, functional and aesthetically charming home design. Each meeting with John has been exciting, as he continues to amend and develop our vision; where the design is now almost at completion. From 3D Design Modelling to Virtual Reality walk through presentations, we’ve found the entire design experience to be an impressive revelation of the benefits provided by the cutting edge technologies that Lea Design Studio offer. John has enthusiastically guided us towards a range of building products and appropriate websites to assist us in our building finishes, whilst always considering the constraints of our budget. In addition, he has been active in coordinating with the engineer, town planner and certifier to move our design towards submission for approval. John is nothing short of professional and it was clear from the outset that he is very passionate and dedicated to arriving at the optimal outcome. He is a sincere and friendly person who makes communication easy and meetings pleasant and enjoyable. We wholeheartedly endorse John and Lea Design Studio for the exceptional skills, talents, capabilities and professionalism they bring to any customised architectural project!

I first connected with John almost 2 years ago. We are now so close to starting the our build of our once in a lifetime dream home. John has been a huge asset and has lead the way through the entire process. He has not only delivered a home that will fit perfectly on our property but it will also fit perfectly with our family which was a priority for us. John is as professional as they come, from finding the right builder, landscape designer and interior designer, to taking the lead at meetings. John listened to our needs and incorporated every little detail. Our vision and Johns vision finding synchronicity.

John Lea is an absolute professional. From initial mood boards to final design the quality of his work has been terrific and has exceeded all expectations. He has listened carefully to what matters to us and has skillfully combined our voice with what is practical and aesthetically pleasing. John has aptly applied his extensive design experience to our residential build and has embraced the challenges of a remote coastal site to design something that will be robust, beautiful, unique and most importantly, has livability front-of-mind. His use of traditional presentation techniques augmented with 3D imaging and fly-throughs have really helped us to envisage what will be our home and business. We’ve ‘walked’ through our design queries and just as importantly, these clever technologies have helped to sustain a level of excitement throughout what will be an 18-month process. Thanks to John we have a design that we love to look at, that fulfills our brief and that can be built within our budget.

When my husband and I decided to add another storey to our family home, we decided we should engage an Architect to assist us. We found Lea Design Studio through Houzz. John has guided us successfully through the design process and created a well resolved extension that we are excited to be commencing soon. We provided to John an initial budget and builders have returned to us estimates within this. We’d highly recommend John to anyone considering undertaking a major renovation or designing a new home.

We had been planning our new home for 11 months and had come to the realisation that we needed professional assistance to distil all of our ideas into a successful design outcome. Having never used an Architect before, we discovered John’s Studio through a comprehensive online search. Lea Design Studio appealed to us because he checked out. It is as simple as that. I feel his multi-faceted experience has given him an understanding of the intricacies of the whole process; not just the “Architects” point of view. There is a lot more to designing a home than we anticipated but with Johns guidance and support, not to mention his contacts this has been a rewarding journey. Johns professionalism and integrity has been evident throughout the project not only in his design but more importantly in his ability to listen and amend the design to our requirements without pushing his own agenda. The design solution that John created exceeded all of our expectations. He has taken our sketch which contained multiple square boxes within a larger rectangular box with kilometres of hallway and deciphered what my wife and I were trying to achieve. I am still blown away with how he took what we proudly presented to him at the time and created our dream home. A home that not only looks beautiful but is functional. His guidance and co-ordination of the entire design process has made the journey a very positive and enjoyable experience. We’d have no hesitation in endorsing John and Lea Design Studio to anyone looking for architectural assistance with the design of their new home or other projects. James & Alesha Anderson

An astute professional. Tracy and I throughly enjoyed each meeting design session with John, designing and establishing a complete set of drawings, plans and strategies for our floor level beachside renovation. The guidance, leadership and natural ability to listen to our ideas has seen John deliver a spectacular design that will indeed result in a world class new property. Thank you john, a fantastic outcome and totally enjoyable journey!, we loved it, and thank you for that.

Being from interstate, we relied on an internet search to find the best Architect to design a major renovation of our Queensland holiday home. We found John's firm through Houzz website. He responded immediately to our inquiry. He met with us on site when we visited the Gold Coast several weeks later. We have been exceptionally pleased with John's prompt attention to our project. The well resolved design outcome and his assistance in co-ordinating the necessary consultants to obtain building approval. We would highly recommend John and Lea Design Studio to family, friends and anyone looking for an Architect on the Gold Coast. Mary and Paul Victoria

My wife Di and I commissioned John to redesign our waterfront entertaining area to incorporate a 15m lap pool, spa and BBQ pavilion on a difficult sloping site. We had a few attempts to find an Architect who would listen to the brief and interpret the style and design that we liked. We engaged John who took into full account the attributes of the home and blended it in seamlessly with the prominent north facing waterfront block where our home is located. John throughout the entire process has been proactive in not only the design, but also in co-ordinating and hastening the structural engineer and other consultants to guide it successfully through the complex Council approvals process. We would certainly have no hesitation in recommending John for any project. Chris Otley-Doe. Director at Accenture.

I have known John since he first joined Pacific Projects Group as principal design Architect 25 years ago. At this time, together we developed a successful architectural practice undertaking a diverse range of projects including prestige residential homes and resort projects throughout Australasia. This practice eventually transitioned into a high end property development company where John was responsible for both designing and managing other Architects in delivering award winning projects throughout Australia. John has a rare combination of skillsets for an architect with the wonderful ability to produce highly creative and innovative designs that are at all times functional and cost effective. As a loyal colleague and trusted friend, I’d highly recommend John to any client looking for a highly skilled architect to turn their aspirations into an exciting reality. Peter Madrers Joint Group CEO & Managing Director SOUTHLAND CORPORATION PTY LTD

John Lea is an absolute pleasure to work with on projects. He has the ability to not only see the big picture and the vision, but also to pay attention to the finer details that are so important to bringing a finished project to the highest of standards. The beauty of working with John is he is adaptable, reliable - particularly when meeting deadlines and has an amazing eye for design. I highly recommend working with Lea Design Studio.

I have worked closely with John for over 10 years on numerous prestige Development Projects. He is a talented Architect creating award winning designs in his own right, but also skillful at directing and refining the work of other Architects where required to ensure the very best design outcome for any project. He is an excellent listener, understands his brief and is attuned to working with Developers or Property Purchasers to establish a clear understanding of their specific needs, and then translating them successfully into well resolved design solutions. He has been very successful in working with us in conjunction with our builders to ensure we deliver the quality and cutting edge design to suit the clients. John is professional, courteous, clever, hard-working and is unique in the Architectural services he provides to his clients. I recommend John Lea highly to potential new clients.

We engaged John to work with us in realising our vision for major renovations to our last two homes. His ability to quickly come up with creative design solutions that met our brief made the design process an enjoyable, rather than a daunting experience. We’d have no hesitation in recommending John to anyone looking for a highly skilled Architect with an innate understanding of the design fundamentals that produce very comfortable and liveable homes. Theresa and John Heffernan Founders / Owners of Megaburn.