I spent 20 years working on big buildings — hotels, hospitals, office buildings, and schools. In 2000, I started a solo practice in residential design by designing and building a house for my family.
The house turned out great and my wife and daughters are still speaking to me.
MY APPROACH TO CLIENTS AND THEIR PROJECTS:
Many people have horrible experiences with their builder or architect or both. Often the architect just doesn’t explain things clearly. Or the builder doesn’t understand what the client really wants. Big decisions based on poor communication can lead to big problems.
I want my clients to be satisfied all the way through…from design through completion, and beyond.
I educate them on every part of the project – the design process, the building process, materials, fixtures, mechanical systems – so they can make decisions based on the best information available.
And I make sure the client and I articulate and document each decision clearly. That comes out of my time in commercial architecture and construction, where any miscue can have a catastrophic impact on cost and schedule.
No misunderstandings, no unpleasant surprises.
MY APPROACH TO ARCHITECTURAL STYLE:
I like the word one of my professors used to describe high-quality architecture: “appropriate”. Not a sexy word, but it describes my work. My goal is to design a house that is appropriate for the client, appropriate for the site, and appropriate for the environment.
Each project is a rational response to the client’s needs, budget, and site. Every aspect of the building form, every choice of materials, every feature is deliberate.
No design approach was made purely to fit a particular style. I can get more “contemporary” and I can get more “traditional” than the projects you see in the portfolio. But “English Country” and “French Baroque” are not in my vocabulary.
MY APPROACH TO SUSTAINABLE DESIGN:
A good house is a healthy house, that consumes a minimum amount of resources…both to construct it, and to live in it for many years. There are a number of words to describe such a house: “sustainable”, “high-performance”, “green”.
Sustainable doesn’t necessarily mean solar panels and wind-generators added to a preconceived design. The key is to make smart decisions early in the design process by respecting the site characteristics, the solar orientation, the prevailing breezes, and so on.
Once the building plans and massing respect these conditions, then you can enhance the basics with appropriate material choices, well-insulated and air-tight wall and roof systems, energy-saving appliances and optimized mechanical systems.
MY APPROACH TO SERVICES AND FEES:
When you hire me as your architect, you have affordable options that most of you might not know about. When I meet with prospective clients, I talk with them about whether they need a little help or a lot.
Some only need an architect to help them brainstorm, and then produce basic schematic plans and elevations to hand over to a builder.
Other clients need the architect’s detailed involvement in every phase.
I’ve done it both ways and in between, based on the client’s needs and budget. The key is to talk over the options up front and let the client decide what works best.
