Nice to Meet You, My Name is Vadim
EXPERIENCE
For the past twelve years, I have been helping people design and build buildings. I have a thorough understanding of the design and construction industry and know what it takes to champion a client’s needs.
Whether you’re planning a renovation or building ground up on an empty lot, I can help you with your property selection, initial design ideas, qualifying engineers, run permits through the city, pass design review boards, find contractors, and more.
ABOUT ME
I am grateful for my wife Diana and our two boys, who keep me on my toes and put a smile on my face on a daily basis.
My origin story began in 1989, when my family immigrated from Belarus to Chicago, IL. I was three and a half years old. In the mid 90’s my parents bought their first house in the suburbs of Chicago. Every two years after that, we moved into the next tract home, ticky-tacky development, with each house getting bigger and bigger and the last one teetering on Mc-Mansion status.
I hated school. Especially high school. I also hated these ticky-tacky homes. The only class I liked was one that taught ArchiCAD and Microstation. I thought, wow, I can draw my own house?! It was around the same time the SIMS game came out. Since that moment, at the age of 16, I told myself by the time I’m 30 I’m going to be an Architect, not knowing what was even involved. During High School, I was in the Dean’s office every week and eventually the decision came down that I shouldn’t be enrolled in this High School anymore. My parents shipped me off to a Military school in Howe, IN, among the Amish.
After a few years in junior college I landed an internship at Legat Architects, thanks to my then girlfriend Diana (now wife), and shortly after I got accepted to UWM. After a year, I hated it and dropped out. Around the same time Diana and I got back together and decided Chicago was no longer a good fit for us. In 2008, we got rid of our cars, packed up our stuff, said our goodbyes and moved to San Francisco. The economy crashed a month later. We were not yet employed with tons of student debt and just our savings. My wife found a job as a Paralegal fairly quickly and has been at the same law firm ever since.
I applied to the University of San Francisco to pursue a 4-year degree that I was already 2 years in with my junior college credits. At this point my mind was set on getting licensed and I did everything in my power to get this done. I hustled freight remotely for a friend in 2009 and in 2010 started an internship at a local firm. That ended quickly because the idea of an intern coming in once a week isn’t a great setup for a firm. In 2011, I landed a great job that I would keep for seven years.
Fast forward to 2016, married with two small kids and five years in of working at the same firm, Meeks, Coates + Eaton Architects where I was mostly involved in working on complicated hospital projects. I was on the cusp of getting my California Architects License - on my own terms, without an accredited degree and I had just turned 30 a few months prior. Two months later, I was licensed and established my own firm, Vadim Podrobinok Architect. I was soon approached by a developer interested in designing a new restaurant and retail building. This was only the first of many projects to come. I was still with the same firm at this time, working on my own projects at night between 7pm-2am and doing my business development during any free second I could find. I wrote proposals on my iPhone, joined a local Architect Yahoo group and began to get more work through there. Small residential remodels here, a Pilates studio there and by the middle of 2017 I had about six ongoing projects, while still fully committed and performing at my 9-5 job. In September of 2017 I left the firm and have been on my own since.
Now serving Hawaii - located at 1110 Nuuanu Ave Honolulu, HI 96817