Maxwell Residence

Sometimes it takes only a few simple design steps to transform a project into something beautiful. Often, these are not the most expensive things but those things that take advantage of something that is already there—view, topography, solar orientation. In this project we were able to capitalize on all of these to create a unique timber-frame home that cost no more to create than a typical suburban ranch-burger.

The Maxwell house wasn’t always going to look this way. The timeline for design was short and we worked hard until we felt that we had a scheme that met all of the parameters. We proceeded on to the construction documents and at some point while I was finishing up on the framing plans I thought of a completely different idea that I felt worked a lot better. I was nervous about changing the game so late in the process, (Especially since I was working on a fixed price basis) but since the new scheme was better and cheaper I called the clients in to see if they agreed. They did and we went ahead with the new scheme, finishing on-time and budget.