Meet the Glendale Team Behind Ellery ADU Studio Glendale
Our Glendale crew shows up in Ellery uniforms, license numbers visible, ready to talk slab thickness or setback variance in plain English. We’re the team that handles your ADU from the first site measurement through final inspection - design, permitting, build, and the utility tie-ins that trip up most projects. What unites us is simple: we’ve all sat with a homeowner who got burned by a low bid that ballooned, and we don’t do that here. Every project runs under one contract at one written price, Haven Standard Clause 1, period.
Our People
Nadia Ellery, Owner & Principal Designer
I started Ellery ADU Studio in 2015 after watching a friend’s garage conversion in Atwater Village go sideways - two contractors, no permit, $40,000 over budget. I’d spent the previous eight years as a project manager on multifamily housing in Los Angeles County, and I knew there was a cleaner way. Today I sign every written quote myself, and I still walk the first site visit on most Glendale projects. My specialty is spotting the hidden cost before it becomes your change order: the sewer lateral that won’t handle a second kitchen, the oak root system that dictates foundation depth in the Chevy Chase Canyon hills. I’m licensed, insured, and my number sits on every page of this site. When I’m not on site, I’m usually updating our prefab specs - we just coordinated a Dvele unit through Glendale Planning that saved the client four months on the typical stick-build timeline.
Marcus T., Lead Technician & ADU Site Supervisor
Marcus has run our Glendale job sites since 2019, and he’s the reason our photo records actually mean something. He shoots every footing pour, every rough electrical inspection, every shear-wall hold-down - not glamour shots, evidence. Before Ellery, he spent six years with a commercial concrete crew in Burbank, so when he tells you the existing garage slab is 4 inches and borderline for a conversion, he’s speaking from a hundred pours, not a manual. He’s certified in Cal/OSHA 30-Hour Construction and holds a C-61/D-49 license for machinery operation. Off hours, he restores vintage Honda motorcycles in his own garage in Glassell Park, which he converted himself in 2021 using the same process he runs for our clients. He’ll tell you that job taught him more about drywall mudding than any commercial site ever did.
Sofia R., Senior Installer & Systems Specialist
Sofia handles the mechanical and finish systems that make or break an ADU’s livability - HVAC sizing for 400 square feet, tankless water heater venting through existing rooflines, the moisture barriers that fail in Glendale’s summer heat if you cut corners. She joined us in 2020 from a Santa Clarita HVAC contractor and brought her NATE certification and a stubborn attention to duct leakage rates. She’s our prefab liaison on Abodu, Cover, and Mighty Buildings installs, which means she’s flown to factory floors in California and Arizona to understand how module connections perform in seismic Zone 4. Her human detail: she lives in a Junior ADU she helped build behind a 1923 bungalow in Adams Hill, and she’ll show you the exact mini-split placement that keeps her bedroom quiet. She once caught a factory defect in a Boxabl module’s electrical subpanel during pre-delivery review - saved the client a three-week delay.
Darnell J., Service Coordinator & Permitting Liaison
Darnell is who you talk to when you call (424) 325-4322 - and yes, a live person answers, even at 10 p.m., because he’s structured our intake so someone’s always on rotation. He’s been with Ellery since 2017, starting as an apprentice installer before moving to the office when he realized he could prevent more problems on the phone than he could fix with a hammer. He knows Glendale’s Planning Department by first name, which matters when you’re navigating the R-1 zone’s 45% lot coverage rule or the Hillside Ordinance’s extra scrutiny in Glenoaks Canyon. He holds a CSLB B-General Contractor license and completed UCLA Extension’s Construction Management certificate in 2022. What he won’t put on his resume: he’s a competitive barbecue cook, and he approaches permit submittals with the same patience he applies to a 14-hour brisket - low and slow, no shortcuts, check every two hours.
Aisha K., Apprentice Installer & Documentation Specialist
Aisha joined us in 2023 through the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building Trades Council apprenticeship program, and she’s already logged more ADU foundation inspections than most journeymen see in five years. She runs our photo documentation on smaller jobs - the Junior ADU conversions and interior reconfigurations - and she’s developed a system for tagging images by inspection milestone so clients can follow progress without deciphering contractor shorthand. She’s working toward her C-54 tile certification and handles most of our waterproofing details in bathrooms and kitchen wet walls. She rents in downtown Glendale and walks past three ADUs we’ve built on her route to the Gold Line, which she says keeps her honest. Her first solo documentation job was a garage conversion on Isabel Street where the original 1920s foundation had a 6-inch variance in level - her photo record caught it before framing started, and the engineer’s fix added two days, not two months.
One Standard, Every Job
The Haven Standard isn’t a poster in our break room. It’s the contract language Nadia reviews with every new hire, the checklist Marcus runs on every site visit, the reason Sofia knows exactly which factory photos to request before a prefab module ships. Clause 1 means the written price you sign is the price you pay - no “unforeseen conditions” ambush at drywall. Clause 5 locks the scope at signing; our crew doesn’t upsell, because they can’t. The 365-Day Done Right Promise lives in a signed document, not a handshake, and Darnell keeps the warranty file on his desk, not buried in a server. Across 900-plus ADUs since 2015, that standard has traveled with us from our first Glendale project to every garage conversion in Montrose and every detached unit in Sparr Heights. The team changes slowly - we’re not a revolving door - and the standard doesn’t change at all.
Written by Nadia Ellery, Owner at Ellery ADU Studio Glendale, serving Glendale and surrounding communities since 2015.