a project begun almost 25 years ago, and still in the works. What if you took a little barn with the humblest of beginnings and made it everything a little barn could be...

We began in 2007 with the mandate to, without starting completely from scratch, turn it into a hacienda befitting its new expatriate Peruvian owners. This was one of those dream projects that maybe only comes along once in a career.  I was not only responsible for design, of both building and landscape, but also execution. Normal Construction Administration became almost day to day Construction Supervision.  I also became responsible for all finishes selection and some of the furnishings selection.  I also designed and built several landscape features.  

A house for a young family in a remote part of New Mexico.  Pure shapes and volumes intact but connected.  A contemporary expression and definition of space but wrapped and grounded in local and vernacular materials.  The spaces in-between, in the Navajo Language-"kisombi", become the most powerful.  

A most thoughtful and insightful caregiver for the mind looks inside her own mind to gain a new language for expression in painting.  To create a space that might foster that inspiration is always a great challenge.  A new way to enclose a space seemed necessary and perhaps the experiment paid off.

Jacob built one of the first, maybe the only, cast-in-place concrete houses in southeast in 1913 for his new bride Annie.  Annie soon kicked him out and he moved another little abode 12' away, with their front doors facing each other.  Observed from afar for years, the owner finally purchased and began the transformation of the little buildings into a compound of spaces inundated with grandchildren today.  The supreme directive--make it look like it could have been there always, use old and recycled materials with very few exceptions and none visible to the exterior..well except the cement pond.

A tricky addition to a potentially historic building.  A mid-century modern townhome abutted on both sides and a part of a potentially historic group of homes that in the beginning were of a very singular and simple ethic and execution.  At best you don't compete and you don't copy.  The worldwide accepted ethics of historic preservation, addition and adaptive-use say do those things you need and want but maintain the integrity of the form, scale, fenestration (openings) and materials of the original. There should be contrast between old and new--so that there might be no questions as to which is which.