WHY WE DO IT
WE ARE DOING IT WRONG
It is time to rethink how we build, how we work, and how we live. We are building too much substandard architecture in this country with too little thought given to how the built space impacts our relationships, the environment, and the future. The current megalomaniacal, throw‐away culture encourages constant growth and the thoughtless accumulation of more stuff, more space, more vehicles, more of everything.
And then we build more to store all that stuff. Newer building stock, both residential and commercial, is made from less‐than‐durable, low‐quality materials with dubious detailing and quasi‐efficient mechanical systems. We are building big, ugly, and often. And both the design and construction industries are to blame. Don’t even get us started on the DIY industry.
The consequential fallout comes when we have no time for connection or activities and the people we value because we are too engrossed in building, buying, cleaning, moving, mowing, and dealing with all the “stuff.” And then we buy more stuff because the old stuff doesn’t make us feel good anymore. We change jobs, move, build a pole barn or three‐car garage, buy a second home, or create more fully appointed office space. After that, the palpable feeling of emptiness seeps in again, and the cycle begins anew.
Typical developers are maximizing land use ratios in order to maximize profits, and cities and NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) groups are reticent to change zoning regulations to allow for smaller homes and multiple dwelling units on a site. This exacerbates gentrification, encourages unfettered sprawl, and limits purposeful density.
WHY US
CRAFTING CONNECTIONS
Our goal for every project is to create something better than the status quo, to help craft a particular and specific place for each of our clients and to create buildings that will last. We investigate and inventory our clients’ needs and then distill the program to the essence of those priorities in order to reduce the built and environmental footprint, and make the greatest impact on the spatial‐psychological needs of our clients. Our goal is to create an investment that can be shared, that is integral with the entirety of the site, that responds to the geology and climatic shifts, that ages well, and that has the potential to become a timeless heirloom or piece of inhabitable art in the landscape. Our goal is to build to enhance the well‐being of the users and the environment by crafting connections with others and the natural world.
Our development projects focus on the creation of smaller homes with adequate and well‐designed, integral common spaces and shared resources in order to promote community and intentional density. We craft connections.
We prefer to build towards passive house standards. And we situate the buildings on the site to take advantage of the natural elements. We then use the existing vegetation, wind and sun and to help cool, heat and light our projects.
We believe in reuse when and wherever possible. We love to save old buildings and repurpose them, and we will always try to incorporate salvaged materials into our work. This helps conserve and preserve resources as we, simultaneously infuse a new project with an old story.
Finally, we understand how to realize a project from start to finish—on time and on budget.
We believe in architecture and the joy, beauty, experience and safety it can create. Let us help you craft your own connections.