What does sound have to do with the design of a home? Architectural inspiration can come from unusual and surprising sources. Staying attuned to these elusive clues is at the heart of meaningful design. There is a family lodge in the Bitterroot Mountains of Western Montana that was designed around the sound of a creek cascading through a remote pine forest. As I walked the remote forested property with the clients and took notice of the various views, tree locations, rock outcroppings, and sun access, the one constant that was unique to this site was the mesmerizing sound of cascading water as it flowed around boulders in its trek toward the Bitterroot river a few miles downstream. The sound was…

Frank Lloyd Wright often said a building should be “of the site,” and this ethos was further promoted by his pupil and my own mentor, E. Fay Jones. In all of our architectural projects and designs, I strive for a symbiotic relationship between the site and building with the intention of making both greater. Most buildings that are constructed today don’t honor their sites or contexts. We are so used to seeing buildings out of harmony with their site that we can forget the site has its own character that can inspire a unique vision for the building or home. Popular “model” homes offer several plans repeated throughout developments with slight color or material changes, each more or less like…