John Ruskin, the leading English art critic of the late 19th century, said   When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece. Masterpieces express a sense of grandeur and unity, but the building blocks of a masterpiece are thoughtful, finely crafted details. And, like masterpieces, details don’t come easy. The design, craftsmanship and planning it takes to execute fine details are often unseen and uncelebrated tasks—this is why paying full attention to the process of detail creation takes not only skill, but also commitment, integrity and passion. Even architects are often too preoccupied with schedules and screens to pay attention to the finer points of the buildings we walk through every day. But when we slow down, the rich…

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…