Tajo One

In August, 2014, I retained Tajo-One ("TO") to build out my medical office from an empty space. 'TO" contracted with a local architect to draw up plans to build out the office with inclusions for electrical, walls, duct work. The architect took over 4 weeks to get the plans back to us and although her renderings were professional the placement of the business office, lack of adequate duct redistribution, electrical outlooks were turned out to be glaring. My thoughts are that this job was an after thought, the plans were computer generated and the fee was a total waste of money. I will admit that I approved the plans that were submitted to the city and I share in some responsibility for the deficiencies, however I am a surgeon and neither a licensed architect or licensed contractor and hence the majority of the responsibility falls on " TO". The first major delay came around Thanksgiving when the owner of “ TO" took off leaving the job to his underlings, whom, as anticipated did nothing. This of course caused another week delay in opening. Then we had to deal with an additional $2000.00 for sprinklers which were needed but of course missed in the original bid or rendering. Then we had to deal with the floors. "TO" claimed that he had a great deal on flooring for the treatment rooms and that the same floor was recently used by a lab. that he had just completed. The floor turned out to be a white speckled vinyl which, unfortunately, picked up every speck of dirt and has a true nightmare to clean, we of course changed out the floor ( my own additional expense one week after opening the office) " TO" was very accommodating with getting the paint requested, however since "TO"'s painter only used one coat of paint, we were left with nothing more then white washed walls on those walls which had been designated to have a light color on them. The office to this day is missing thresholds over both doors, the duct system produces a temperature differential of 40 degrees between my office were there is a duct and the hallway which does not, again, to whom does the responsibility lie? "TO", the architect, the tenant? I think that " TO" takes responsibility for these lapses. Finally, electrical. Again, I take responsibility for allowing the prints to be submitted without adequate electrical wiring in the business office, treatment rooms and doctors office. However it is undeniable the responsibility of the General Contractor to make sure that either the plans are redone to include these needed outlets or that they be completed after the inspection so that I didn't need to use extension chords or drill a hole from my office to another room . It is now 6 months since " TO" finished their work, although it took longer then I anticipated to pay them ( Mia Cuppa) I still expected the owner of " TO". to fulfill his promise and obligation to instill the needed electrical outlets that we were promised . It shouldn't matter whether the architect was unprofessional in her renderings or that it needed to be excluded to get in at a certain time. A man's word and promise is all he has and now that " TO" has gotten their money, they have no intention of finishing the work. I gave " TO" 2 stars instead of 1 because I believe Andy, the owner to be a genuine good person. However "Res ipsa loquitur"!