MOUNTAIN HOME ARCHITECT
Mon ,21/04/2008A mountain home architect will create special homes in unique places.
Residences by a mountain home architect are crafted for unique environments. It takes specialized skills to create these unique projects. Bedrock is often near the surface or exposed and you need to know how to secure your house to this to avoid having your foundations shifting and sliding. Windows are special (or should be) to avoid fogging at these higher altitudes and roofing, siding and sitework can all require expertise not found among the flatlands.
A Mountain home architect (a design professional actually living at altitude in the mountains), learns, through experience, how to handle these situations. Embarking on the design of a house in a challenging environment (or other type of project) in the mountains without an experienced mountain home architect is sort of like agreeing to a heart operation without a cardiac surgeon. You owe it to yourself and your family to hire a design professional well-experienced in the type of house you are considering having designed and built for your needs, hopes and dreams.
A mountain home architect will vary in his/her approach to house design.
Sometimes a mountain home architect can be very modern in a design approach, resulting in white metal rectangular houses with flat roofs and fixed plate glass windows, like Richard Meier or Gwathmey Siegal. Others have a more naturalistic design philosophy, in which they use the natural materials in the area of the project site. You should find the architect that has a design philosophy that results in residential designs that have the appearance that calls to you.
Mountain home architect using a natural approach.
One mountain residential architect using the naturalistic approach is Rand Soellner, senior staff architect with HOME ARCHITECTS ®. He appreciates the more contemporary architects’ approaches and even compliments them, but he personally enjoys creating more natural houses with the organic materials found around the site, like native boulders and rock, bark shingles, cedar shingles, timber posts and beams, 
copper, huge operable windows and doors that frame magnificent views found in spectacular environments. You may wish to consider viewing his firm’s website ( home architects ) before starting your residential project. There are also a few others, but not many; this is highly specialized work. Verify that you are using a licensed professional with an architectural degree from a major university and with decades of appropriate background experience. Do not be embarrassed to ask to see each design professional’s license. If they have one, they are required by law to show it to you and to have it hanging on their wall.
Your Mountain home architect and his experience, attitude and licensure.
Observe the attitude the architect you are considering using. Are they nice? Are they professional? Do they actually answer your detailed questions? Are they licensed in several jurisdictions, including higher altitudes, seismic states (that’s how many mountains got there in the first place)? Do you like the appearance of their previous projects? Do their floor plans make sense? Are their floor plans logically organized (garage placed next to the kitchen, for instance)? Are they certified by NCARB (the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards)? Are they a member of the AIA (American Institute of Architects) or ArCH (Architects Creating Homes)? Meet with the architect in one of his projects, or ask to see one or two. Hopefully he has the circumstances to allow him or her to live and work in one of their creations. Hire an architect experienced in the type of house you want. In the end, trust your instincts. If you like the appearance and functionality of the design the architect shows you, chances are it will be a good match.
Contact information for mountain home architect using the natural approach:
mountain home architect .
Resources and links:
timber frame architects
green home architects
mountain home architects
University of Florida
Cashiers homes for sale
log home architects
NOAA
Lake Country Log Homes