What makes us different

If you are considering hiring an architect to design a new home or figure out a renovation we would like to help. Rather than being a sideline as it is in most architecture offices, the design of new houses and the renovation of older ones has been our principal business as Maine architects for over 30 years.

We can organize the process for you, starting with which piece of land to buy, where to put your house on a property, or which of several older houses can best be renovated to become your home. In designing your building we merge our design skills with knowledge that only you can have about what kind of a home will work for you. This results in a house that is a reflection of you, but will make sense in its environment and will retain its value. We always model the building in 3D and show you how it will really look with animated walk-throughs and renderings as well as the more traditional 2D drawings. When the design work is done we’ll help you find a contractor and figure out a construction contract and we’ll watch the building during construction to try and ensure that you get what you are expecting, and get it for what you are expecting to pay.

We get paid for our creativity, but also for absorbing the hassles, so you can enjoy the excitement of building a new home in a beautiful place.

New stuff

A major renovation on the shores of Penobscot bay starts to take shape

We just finished the shell for this house. Owners will camp out for a few years and finish later. More shots later

Year-round house ready for our clients' retirement. All done except landscaping. We'll get more shots next year---stay tuned!

An island house begins to show its colors. We should have more shots later this year.

A small pavilion --a screened porch to live in for a while in the the summer. The clients will build it mostly themselves. This will be the starter piece for a slightly larger home later.

A new Net Zero house. See more pictures in the Gallery.

A new year round house on the shores of Penobscot Bay, just finished this summer. More pictures in the Gallery.

A lakeside home in Illinois, just finished this summer.

An oceanfront bungalow stretched out to maximize the view.

House Gallery

Here is a gallery of homes that we have done in recent years. Each house is a result of a particular set of circumstances created by the site, the client's program and budget and just as importantly, our client's dreams. While the stylistic response varies, we think all these houses are a success for their clients and for their environment. We'd like to do one for you.

Lucia's Little Houses

I have been designing houses of all sizes since the late 1960’s but the house type I find most satisfying and challenging is the good small house. Here on the coast of Maine the demand has increased steadily for the little and efficient home that takes advantage of sun, site and design to reward people with modest housing needs.

We have selected 20 designs that have grown out of my experience of giving clients a sense of place and light and fun. These house designs vary in size from 636 square feet to close to 2,000 square feet of heated floor area. Each was designed for a specific client with individual programs but can be modified to suit your specific needs.

Click here to learn more about Lucia's Little Houses.

Latest thoughts

What about a "deal"

November 2, 2009

This winter, custom home construction will be extremely slow in our corner of country (far northeast). Almost every builder I talk to is actively looking for work. Those that have enough work for the winter are counting their blessings, and many builders who haven’t missed a day in 15 years are looking at an empty winter.

How can you (somebody who wants to build or remodel a home) take advantage of this.

For many years we have steered our clients away from using fixed price bids for a number of reasons--but primarily because it was a bad climate for bidding. The good builders were busy enough that it was unlikely they would really “sharpen their pencils” and give you a good price.

That has changed, so the economics of bidding some kinds of projects may make sense again. Generally these would be projects that can be clearly defined (like a new house) and are big enough to make the additional cost of bidding worth it. We usually estimate that our fees increase about 20% on a bid job,
and there may be a hidden cost to you. For bid documents we try to figure everything out in the drawings. And we are working without the input of the builder. We make the decisions, the winning bidder executes them. Hey, we’re good at this, but we aren’t out in the field getting the feedback from the work every day--the builder is, and as such it’s better to have a builder on board during the construction document phase so we can build that experience into your drawings. Doesn’t happen in a bid process, and I think that can hide significant inefficiencies in the project.

(Check out the article I wrote on this a while back)

So bidding makes more sense today then it did a year ago, but if you like the idea of a more collaborative process, how can you do that and still get the advantage of a more competitive marketplace?

I would go to the builder you want to do the project and say “Larry, I don’t really need to build this winter, but if you can show me some really good reason to do it--- I will.”

I like this better than haggling, which creates the wrong kind of atmosphere where you feel like maybe you didn’t get as good a deal as you could, and the contractor feels beaten down.

If I was Larry, I would go out to my subcontractors and suppliers and say. “Boys, things have changed. I want work this winter, and I’m cutting my overhead and profit amounts so I can stay busy. So are you. I want better proposals. When we get a backlog of work again, we can put those rates back up, but for now I need to see better numbers.”

Then Larry our hypothetical builder can come back with a better price. If it’s good enough, he’s talked you into building now, if not, you wait. But the onus is on him to get creative and get his subcontractors and suppliers to do the same.

How much can you expect things to come down? That’s the subject of a longer article, but I would say the short answer is probably not more than 20% unless you can look out the window and see lots of guys standing on street corners with apples for a penny, and fortunately we aren’t there YET.