Meet the Los Angeles Team Behind Ellery ADU Studio Los Angeles
We’re the crew that shows up at your property line in Los Angeles with a tape measure, a permit checklist, and the patience to explain why your existing garage slab matters for the foundation line item. Every person on this team has pulled a permit in LA County, passed a background check, and worn the same uniform to enough job sites that neighbors start recognizing the van. What ties us together isn’t a handbook. It’s the Haven Standard, Clause 1 through 7, and the fact that Nadia Ellery still reviews every written price before it goes out.
Our People
Marcus T. - Lead Technician, ADU Site Prep & Utilities
Marcus has been breaking ground on Los Angeles ADU projects since 2017, which means he’s tunneled under more existing driveways in Silver Lake and Echo Park than he can count without checking his permit log. He’s state-licensed for excavation and utility tie-in work, and he holds a specialty certification in sewer lateral compliance that saves our clients about two weeks of city back-and-forth on most garage conversions. Marcus is the one who texts clients photos of the trench before and after backfill, usually with a note about what he found in the soil. Off the clock, he restores vintage Honda motorcycles and has been known to diagnose a carburetor problem with the same patience he applies to a stubborn gas line relocation.
Dana R. - Senior Installer, Prefab & Modular Systems
Dana coordinates the crane days, and in Los Angeles that means knowing which streets in Venice can handle a 40-ton setup versus which ones in the Hollywood Hills require a telehandler and three parking permits. She’s factory-certified for install oversight on Abodu, Cover, and Mighty Buildings units, and she’s the person Ellery calls when a modular delivery window shifts by six hours and three city agencies need updating. Dana keeps a handwritten log of every prefab set she’s supervised, 147 and counting, with notes on wind speed and crane operator for each. She also breeds show rabbits, a hobby she’ll explain in exhaustive detail if you ask, and never mentions if you don’t.
Jorge L. - Service Coordinator, Permitting & Client Liaison
Jorge talks to the city so you don’t have to, which in Los Angeles means he knows the difference between LADBS plan check routes by heart and has a working rapport with inspectors in at least six local jurisdictions. He joined us in 2019 after four years at a general contracting firm that specialized in additions, so he came in already fluent in the language of setback variances and fire separation requirements. Jorge holds a California contractor license and a certification in green building standards that helps clients navigate CALGreen compliance for their ADU projects. He sends voice memos to clients when email won’t do, always from the parking lot of whichever city office he’s just left, and he makes a point of knowing whether your priority is rental income, family housing, or resale value before he drafts the first permit timeline.
Aisha K. - Apprentice, ADU Design & Drafting
Aisha is in her second year with the studio, rotating through every phase of the design-build process before she settles on a specialty. She’s already contributed to permit sets for fourteen garage conversions and six new detached ADUs across Los Angeles, from Mid-City to the Valley, and she’s the team member most likely to catch a dimension mismatch between the field measurements and the drafted plans before it reaches plan check. Aisha is working toward her LEED Green Associate credential and spends her Saturdays in a community drafting program that serves affordable housing nonprofits. She asks more questions in a site walk than anyone else on the team, which Nadia Ellery considers a feature, not a bug.
One Standard, Every Job
The Haven Standard travels with us to every Los Angeles job site, no matter which crew member is leading the walk. Clause 1 means Marcus writes the foundation price before the jackhammer starts. Clause 3 means Dana’s crane day photos hit your inbox the same evening. Clause 5 means Jorge’s permit timeline doesn’t shift because someone forgot to flag a utility conflict. Clause 7, the 365-Day Done Right Promise, means Aisha’s careful dimension check matters just as much on day 200 as it does at final inspection.
We’re independently owned and operated here in Los Angeles, not a satellite office taking cues from somewhere else. Nadia Ellery set up this studio in 2015 because she watched too many ADU projects stall when the designer and builder disagreed about who owned a problem. Our team answers to one contract, one written price, and one standard that applies whether we’re converting a garage in Koreatown or setting a modular unit in the San Fernando Valley. The live person who picks up when you call (424) 551-7706? That’s one of us, or someone who can reach one of us in under a minute. No voicemail queue. No callback that doesn’t materialize.
Written by Nadia Ellery, Owner at Ellery ADU Studio Los Angeles, serving Los Angeles since 2015.