Scott Schnall P.E

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• By Joel

  September 14, 2018

  Verified Hire

  They were reliable and would recommend.

• By a user in Brooklyn

  September 14, 2018

  Verified Hire

  I only chose him because he was very affordable and I did not need an architect to do the work that I could do on my own. His office is quite chaotic and disorganized. And I thought I heard through the grapevine that he lost his license. He seemed to cut a lot of corners. I would not recommend him. I believe his son is now in charge of the firm but my gut says to look elsewhere.

• By a user in Brooklyn

  September 14, 2018

  Verified Hire

  We were not very happy with Schnall. He seemed like we were bothering him every time we'd ask him what was happening. Be was not proactive.

• By a user in Brooklyn

  September 14, 2018

  Verified Hire

  I do not recommend them.

• By Seymour

  September 14, 2018

  Verified Hire

  We used Scott to acquire Building Permits for our renovation and had a very positive experience.Got our Permits and construction began on schedule.

• By Paula

  September 14, 2018

  Verified Hire

  Scott did a fine job with the permit.

• By Lilian B.

  May 18, 2018

  bathroom renovation

  $6,500

  This review may be moot, since Scott Schnall is banned for life, but for catharsis I am writing it anyway.

  Scott Schnall is the most unprofessional dirtbag I’ve ever encountered in my entire life. Sadly, I didn’t realize this until it was too late for me.

  The people who work for Scott (draftsmen, expediters, assistants) were all very good and kind, so I don’t want to impugn his underlings. Eddie the draftsman was super sweet and his runners were very attentive.

  I went to Scott because I was on a limited budget and a high stakes deadline to complete a bathroom renovation in my apartment. A contractor who bid on my place recommended him highly. So I googled his name and found he had been profiled in the NYT.

  Fast? Cheap? And vetted by the New York Times? Done! I gave him a deposit and signed up!

  A month after giving him my deposit and having his draftsman take measurements, I started to follow up. His phone rang to busy all the time, which was the first red flag. Who doesn’t have a switchboard phone these days?

  Occasionally Scott would put me on hold and then hang up, which was rude. Red flag #2. I started to go stand in his office and wait for updates, after swimming at the Y nearby. I swam anyway so I figured why not swing by?

  Scott’s idea of office banter, I discovered, consisted of the most horrifyingly racist and misogynistic statements that I had ever heard. By the first time I resolved to stand in his office and wait, he had my deposit, drafts, and I was increasingly pregnant and running out of time so I endured. I felt like a hostage, not a client.

  Want an example? He said “Don’t worry about being a bad mom. Even if you drop your baby on its head on a hard tile floor, it won’t be half as bad as what black mothers do to their babies.” That’s ONE example. Another example, “I’m not racist, but my penis is.” One time a fat client left his office on my way in, and he said, “That guy is pregnant too.” He had a newspaper clipping photograph of a bunch of crazed apes. He often pointed at it and said, “That’s the DOB.”

  I was always mortified when I went in there, and I seriously debated throwing out my $3000 and starting over. But by then I had tens of thousands on the line. I paid deposits to a contractor and I rented an AirBNB. I would have lost most of my savings right before giving birth. I felt I HAD to finish my job.

  After months of tweaking a drawing with input from my building engineer, condo board and the LPC, Scott filed a completely different drawing with the DOB without my permission. He never told me why or explained anything. I came to pick it up, beyond thrilled that it was finally approved, and when I saw that he omitted and changed so much, I had a panic attack and almost fainted (I was 8 months pregnant).

  I had to make his office staff fix and resubmit the drawing the week of Thanksgiving, when we were supposed to start construction Dec 1st. After the building permits are approved you still need a week to file work permits so this was a delay of at least a week.

  Scott lost his DOB seal before closing out my building permit so even though we finished the work (two weeks before my son was born, and he was born two weeks late) I had to hire someone else to close the permit. I’m paying all over again, so it’s costing me more than double.

  Scott never notified me that he lost his seal. I was home with my newborn son, when I opened a letter from the DOB: I was totally blindsided. Actually I became sick to my stomach, because the letter said I would need to hire another architect, and I had already paid Scott in full at that point. He basically stole $6,500 from me. I didn’t have money left to hire someone new.

  I emailed him and asked for my money back, he was utterly unapologetic, and reacted like a little child. He said “God help me and my family I’m ruined!” And I was like, what about your clients? Then he pretended he might get his seal back, threatened to sue me for defamation, and asked me to contribute to his gofundme so that he can sue the city all in the same thread. It left my head spinning.

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