Complaint Review: Todd Von Stein

Anyone looking to potentially engage Todd Von Stein to design a building should be wary. He has been using the building designs of a former colleague, Shelley McCafferty, to market his current company New Era Design Company. Todd worked with Ms. McCafferty at a small company he helped established, DesignShoppe dba Designsmith. When Ms. McCafferty joined Designsmith, she brought with her former clients and continued to provide building design services in essentially the same manner as she did while working independently. Her projects were primarily multifamily residential buildings and historic preservation related. She resigned from the company due to the stress of multiple lawsuits filed against Todd Von Stein and Designsmith due to failure to pay expenses related projects to which the company provided general contracting services. (DesignShoppe dba Designsmith eventually claimed bankruptcy.) Ms. McCafferty returned to Nebraska after her resignation, but agreed to provide design services to her former Iowa City clients under Todds new company, PRG (Preservation Design Group). At that time, she felt it was necessary to have someone who could coordinate locally with the client, engineer, city officials, etc. Ms. McCafferty terminated her contract with PRG in August of 2010 due to the stress and frustration of communicating with and working for Todd Von Stein.

All multifamily projects designed under either the name Designsmith or PRG were designed in their entirety by Shelley McCafferty. Todd Von Stein did not contribute to the design in any manner of buildings designed under the Designsmith name. He provided some project management services for projects designed under the PRG name. Additionally, some of the historic preservation and single family residential project were designed entirely or partially by Ms. McCafferty.

Currently, Todd Von Stein is claiming that he personally designed those projects which Ms. McCafferty actually designed. Not only is he crediting himself with the projects she designed while working for Designsmith and those subcontracted to her by PRG, he is also claiming projects she designed before she was ever acquainted with Mr. Von Stein! He submitted two of her PRG projects to the American Institute of Building Design (AIBD) and was awarded two American Residential Design Awards (2010). These were submitted under the PRG name; however, Todd listed only himself as the designer. Furthermore, he recently made claims at the September 15, 2011 Iowa City Planning and Zoning meeting that he designed a number of buildings which are on the list below. This includes 301 E. Market Street at which time Todd did not even know Shelley McCafferty

If you are considering hiring Todd Von Stein based on projects he says he designed, please ask sufficient questions to verify that he actually designed the buildings to which he has made claims. None of the following buildings which Todd Von Stein may show you were designed by him. Ms. McCafferty designed all of the following buildings in Iowa City, Iowa; they WERE NOT DESIGNED by Todd Von Stein:

335 Clinton Street 336 Clinton Street 301 Market Street 24 N. Governor Street 923 Iowa Avenue 909 Burlington Street (Designsmith) 838 Dearborn Street (Designsmith) 315 S. Dodge Street (Designsmith) 525 Linn Street (Designsmith) 410 Market Street (Designsmith) 935 Market Street (Designsmith) 269 Oakland Street (Designsmith) 603 S. Dubuque Street (Designsmith/prg) 334 S. Dodge Street (prg) 916 Burlington Street (prg) 513 Bowery Street (prg) 225 S. Gilbert Street (prg) 328 Washington Street (prg)

At the time Ms. McCafferty terminated her contract with PRG, the construction drawings for 328 Washington and 225 S. Gilbert were not complete. So it is possible that Todd von Stein made some modification to the design of these buildings.

Todd Von Stein is likely to tell you that because his company assumed the contracts for Designsmith these are his designs; therefore he may credit them to himself. This does not mean the he designed these projects! He is more than willing to take full responsibility for the successful design work Shelley McCafferty produced while working at Designsmith, yet he will not claim responsibility for its colossal financial failures caused predominantly by his mismanagement and poor judgment. In this case, he is likely to say he was only responsible for sales.

Todd Von Stein is now operating under the company name New Era Design Company as well as PRG. Claims he may make in regards to design experience, particularly related to multifamily residential buildings and buildings located in Iowa City, may be fraudulent. Furthermore, I would recommend reading other reports on this website related to Todd Von Stein. Although he is a very likable, believable person, many of his claims regarding experience and expertise are gross exaggerations or fictitious. In contrast, Ms. McCafferty earned an Associate in Graphic Design degree, a Masters of Architecture degree, and has over 15 years of experience in architectural design, graphic design and preservation planning. Ask Todd Von Stein about his qualifications...you probably won't get a straight answer.