Verified record
Typical Greater Boston range for this kind of work, from regional averages — not a quote from AURORA ARCHITECTS + BUILDERS. Use it to sanity-check bids, then get the real number in writing.
Estimated range
$23,000 – $35,000
Typical remodeling project around $29,000
AURORA Architects + Builders is a Medford design-build shop built around big, complicated renovations — the kind where a house comes back to the studs and gets rebuilt around a family's actual life. The company says it was founded by Nathaniel May, an architect with more than 25 years of experience who later became a certified builder, and it describes serving communities north and west of Boston, including Cambridge, Somerville, Arlington, Newton and Lexington. The reviews that surface for AURORA describe genuinely large projects: a gut kitchen-and-bathroom renovation with a family-room addition, a full second-floor rebuild that turned a spare bedroom into a primary suite, and a Queen Anne home taken back to the studs with a new extension and rebuilt barn. Across five Houzz reviews from 2022 through 2025 — all 4 or 5 stars — the same names keep coming up: Nat and his team, praised for careful problem-solving in century-old houses and for staying communicative through complicated, multi-year jobs. Houzz also credits the firm with two NARI Contractor of the Year awards, for a 2021 historic renovation and a 2018 addition. The one sour note is a Google review from a prospective client who says AURORA did a site visit, promised a quote, and then went quiet for months with no response. That's worth asking about upfront — get a firm timeline for a proposal before investing time in the process, since the completed-project reviews describe careful, communicative work once a job is actually underway. This is a fit for a homeowner planning a serious renovation or addition, especially on an older or architecturally tricky house, rather than a quick fix. Confirm the quoting timeline and current license status before committing — Houzz lists a license number for the company that hasn't been independently verified.
“Contractor: Aurora Architects + Builders, aurorabuilds.com”
“**[AURORA Architects + Builders](https://linkedin.com/company/aurora-architects-builders)** · 2021-03-07”
“In 2005, he founded AURORA Architects + Builders, which he named after the boat The Aurora, where he honed his early building skills as a young boy and where his family lived for seven years, sailing from the Chesapeake Bay to Florida and the Caribbean.”
“This project, led by Aurora Architects + Builders, is a new construction single family home pursuing Phius CORE certification. Positive Trace is the High-Performance and Phius Certified Passive House Consultant for the project.”
Outstanding work. Completed a gut kitchen and bathroom reno, with an extension to our family room. Process was well managed throughout. Crew is highly skilled and professional, very detail oriented, and kept the job site tidy. We appreciated all of the thoughtful suggestions provided to us— some of those resulted in the nicest touches. Highly recommended.
Aurora did a big second floor project for us, turning a second spare bedroom into a bathroom for the primary suite, a laundry room, and his and hers closets for the primary suite. They also turned a 3-season porch off the primary suite into an all-season reading nook. We could not be more thrilled with the process and the result. Nat and his expert team delivered professionalism, excellent communication, exacting work, and a beautiful result. Our home is well over 100 years old so it had its quirks, requiring creative problem-solving and out of the box thinking. The team uncovered some problems with the house (like giant window banks with no headers!) and I feel like this project saved our house in some ways. Tons of thanks to Aurora, and we’ll have them tackle our kitchen soon. ;)
Aurora worked with us on an extensive renovation of our Queen Anne home, and we found them to be incredibly thoughtful, helpful and supportive throughout the process. The home was taken back to the studs throughout. We added a small ground floor extension, reworked the floor plan on each floor, added a greenhouse with an exercise pool, and demolished and rebuilt the almost derelict barn as a two car garage. The electrics, plumbing and HVAC were all newly installed throughout, including solar panels and a geothermal system. Original features in the home were salvaged, restored and reused where possible, some that could not be savaged were carefully replicated, and all new elements were carefully designed to bring a more modern functionality and feel, but blend stylistically with the historic design. Energy efficiency was taken into account throughout the project, including new insulation added beneath the new siding, and an energy efficacy evaluation was performed towards the end of the project. At each stage from design to completion, and for all the many elements, Aurora communicated well with us and their subcontractors and coordinated a very complicated project in a very professional manner. The work was not quite completed when we had to go into lockdown in 2020 and when it was possible to resume work they continued to show the same professionalism and care as always, arranging scaffolding to access to a first floor bathroom through a bedroom window so as to carry out work in the bathroom whilst keeping the area completely sealed off from the rest of the house. Since completion they have continued to keep in touch and helped us with periodic queries on specifications or maintenance questions. We love our new home and it was a pleasure to work with all of the Aurora team members.
Aurora did a full gut renovation of the second floor of our victorian house. It was a complicated project that included opening up the entire floor plan, moving a bathroom, a full kitchen renovation and rebuilding and reversing the direction of a back staircase. The new design totally transformed our space with tons of natural light and many thoughtful touches that continue to delight us. Nat and company brought a ton of experience and expertise to bear on the project and we felt like we were always in good hands.
I was in conversation with Aurora for a while--Nat and Adam even came it to do a site visit. They said they'd send a quote and then just stopped responding to me. I tried repeatedly over several months to get ahold of them with no luck. I'm assuming they no longer wanted my job but to just ghost me instead of saying so is so unprofessional.
Specializes in
Also offers
Service area
Languages
2 changes recorded — last scanned Sep 9, 2026.
Shed craftsmanship5.0
Porch and deck rebuilds4.8
Fixed storm damage for free4.6
Repeat customer3.9
19 permitted projects on fileNot yet rated