Architecture & Planning

Every South Mountain Company (SMCo) project rests on a foundation of integrated architecture, engineering, and building. This integration brings clarity and integrity to a complex process. We honor the beautiful island we call home with celebrations of place that harmonize art, science, and craft. We engage you, the client, in a collaborative and transparent process driven by your goals and aspirations, guided by our expertise and experience.

You get a beautiful, high-performance building made with you, for you

SMCo’s integrated process works uniquely well because it keeps the responsibility and accountability in just one place. It’s very direct – just SMCo and you, working in collaboration, fully aligned with each other. This central relationship makes it possible for us to offer you beauty, performance, quality, durability, comfort, security, and service – all at once.

By practicing for decades in one small region, we stay connected to our buildings and clients, learning from both. Our experience has inspired principles which guide our work and allow us to explore a variety of often surprising (and always respectful) design paths.

Our staff of 36 includes six architects (more than any other firm on Martha’s Vineyard), two engineers, two interior designers, two project leads, one shop lead, and a large team of carpenters, woodworkers, and solar installers. All of the above are supported by a strong team of administrative/management personnel. The multi-disciplinary mix gives us a tremendous range of capabilities under one roof.

A better process. A better outcome.

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The architect’s role is to listen and guide. The client’s role is to articulate needs, desires and constraints.

You guide us so that we may successfully guide you. Together we can fashion places that support and nurture your health, productivity, and spirit.

South Mountain’s founders were influenced by the work of the Shakers, the California Arts and Crafts practitioners, the early New England timber framers, the 19th century Shingle Stylers, and the passive solar pioneers (of whom Frank Lloyd Wright himself may have been the most important).

We blended these with our handmade sensibility and environmental ethic to produce, over time, our own design language. These days, the mid-century modernists exert more and more influence, and South Mountain’s architecture department is staffed with a younger group of architects with a broader range of design inclinations.

Timelessness knows no style

Every building is fundamentally different, of course, and the power of design goes far beyond style. But we hope all our buildings will:

Feel timeless
Evoke a sense of shelter and comfort
Balance wonder and discovery with rigor and clarity
Be durable, flexible, and easy to change
Perform well and be healthy to live in
Produce as much energy as they use
Be artfully-crafted
Connect the natural environment to the built environment
Adapt seamlessly to site and community
Fulfill the needs and desires of our clients
Be loved

We are only successful if you are convinced your project is the best we’ve ever done.

Architecture

Design is an adventure. When architects and clients collaborate successfully, the experience can be as satisfying as the results. Our four decade practice has been an unfolding evolution. We have been involved with hundreds of projects on Martha’s Vineyard. With each, our design abilities grow, and our work embraces new dimensions.

The SMCo design department is led by our six licensed architects. Ryan Bushey co-manages architecture with our CEO and Founder, John Abrams. Matt Coffey, Beth Kostman, Greg Milne, Angie Francis, and Courtney Duffey, complete the team.

Our range is greater than ever and allows us to match clients with the right architect for their style and scope.

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Express your unique style and taste

Some architectural firms are known for their signature styles. You can recognize the building designer at a glance. At South Mountain we take pride in our ability to help you recognize and express your own unique taste. Our talent pool allows us to design in a range of styles – from high concept contemporary to historic renovation.

Architecture is a collaborative process

Successful projects require more than great architects and great clients. Our nationally respected engineering department applies rigorous building science to guarantee health, comfort, and efficiency. Our project leads bring decades of construction experience to ensure projects are well-crafted and economical. Our interior designers carry the original design intent through to the end. We truly integrate the entire process in-house: architecture, engineering, building, and interiors.

Over time we have also developed strong working relationships with a team of consultants: civil engineers, landscape architects, structural engineers, lighting designers, etc.

Design is a complex process of gathering information, expressing feelings, establishing criteria and priorities, testing hypotheses, and synthesizing practical solutions. Many voices, not one ego, lead to well-integrated designs. We conduct this process in pursuit of great buildings that reflect the passion of those who build them and attend to the needs and desires of those who will use them, long after our work is done.

“The deep-energy retrofit of the Carriage House at the Woods Hole Research Institute was designed and implemented by South Mountain Company, a firm widely respected for integrating handsome design with energy efficiency.

South Mountain architects transformed the old Carriage House into a sterling gem of an office building.”

Bob Berry, Executive Director, Woods Hole Research Center

Site & Landscape

Understanding the land

Design work on any South Mountain project begins with a comprehensive site analysis consisting of the following parts:

Understanding the context of the property
Identifying zoning and regulatory constraints
Compiling climate data (sun angles, prevailing winds, annual rainfall)
Delineating important views (and views to avoid)
Locating utilities and infrastructure
Photographing site conditions
Recording existing building conditions

During this process, we engage civil engineers to create a complete base map. Once completed, our collaboration deepens with the addition of a landscape architect.

Discovering the promise of each site

In concert with our collaborators, we discover what the site offers and how to preserve and enhance its important qualities. We go to great lengths to protect existing trees, vegetation, and habitat, and we integrate native plantings and edibles in to each landscape.

The design process proceeds until we have found solutions that seamlessly satisfy the project goals and client interests in a manner that enhances the land. Outdoor rooms complement indoor rooms. Processions are intuitive. Landforms harmonize. Plantings belong.

Site and landscape are every bit as important as buildings. One of our landscape designers (now retired) said, many years ago, “Your building is only an element in my landscape.” Our aspiration is to weld each building flawlessly and comfortably into the landscape it is a part of.

Master Planning

We are placemakers. We create buildings, landscapes, settings, environments, and neighborhoods. Our job is to listen to the land and communities connected to it.

You, the neighborhood, the island, and the planet

We hold ourselves accountable to a succession of clients – primarily to you, but also to three others: the neighborhood, the island, and the planet. The needs of all must be considered, understood, and respected.

We engage in a variety of master planning endeavors – with local non-profits, with affordable housing organizations, with businesses, and residential property owners.

We work with organizations, regulatory agencies, and neighbors. We have cultivated meeting facilitation skills and can successfully work with groups so that all voices are valued in the planning process, information is collected and organized, and community consensus is reached.

Taking the long view

A good master planning process assembles resource, social, and economic intelligence into coherent long term plans which protect and celebrate the island we call home.

“The best developments in town are when someone who has been a long time renter decides to build a house, hires South Mountain and all proceeds calmly and well because South Mountain really gets it.”

Peter Temple, Chair, Aquinnah Planning Board

Development

Development is invention. Our first question is about need: are we proposing to invent something that our community needs? At South Mountain, our development efforts have primarily been focused on affordable housing.

Like many, our concern runs deep about the Vineyard’s affordable housing crisis and its effect on both the quality of peoples’ lives and the strength of our community. We think of affordable housing work as “community preservation,” as important to the quality of life here as land preservation.

Affordable housing advocacy, design, and building

For the past 40 years we have combined affordable housing advocacy, design, and building into an essential aspect of our work and one of the identifying characteristics of our company. We believe that affordable housing should be as thoroughly designed as the very best luxury housing – just smaller, less elaborate, more economical, and financed differently. We create comfortable, healthy, dignified places for people to live; housing that is easy to live in and is characterized by low energy use and low maintenance, which makes it affordable forever.

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Our affordable housing work is varied – from small neighborhoods and rental complexes to single-family houses like our M-Line Series.

We try, at any given time, to have at least one affordable housing project in design or construction. You can read about several of them here: Island Cohousing, Jenney Way, Eliakim’s Way, House Moves, M-Line.

There’s more to it than designing and building

Along with designing and building housing we have, over time, created and worked with a variety of housing organizations. We were part of the formation of both the Island Affordable Housing Fund (now defunct) and the Island Housing Trust (a community land trust, and the most important current housing non-profit on the island) and work closely with the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank, and the six island towns.

We are involved in the associated policy work and funding too. It takes more than good design/build practices to effectively make affordable housing.

“There is a serene easiness amongst the recently completed cluster of homes at Eliakim’s Way in West Tisbury.

Our neighborhood is a setting for dignified living and an unparalleled opportunity for home ownership. We take pride in place, aiming to live according to the same enlightened ideals that make this place exemplary.
To all those involved we offer our deepest gratitude and respect for your insight, care and dedication. Thank you.”

The Eliakim’s Way Homeowners Association

“The Island Housing Trust contracted with South Mountain Company twice over the past five years; both of these projects came in on schedule and at budget. The success of these high performance homes was due to South Mountain Company’s expertise, experience, and hard work. South Mountain led an integrated design/build process that began with site planning and schematic designs all the way through to a homeowner orientation for eight families who were each provided homeowner manuals by South Mountain. Our satisfaction with South Mountain’s work is exemplified by the incredible gratitude our homeowners share with us for these modest, beautifully designed, well-built, energy efficient dwellings they now call home.”

Philippe Jordi, Executive Director, Island Housing Trust

Commercial & Institutional Work

Our work has always been primarily residential. That’s changing. These days, a significant portion is commercial and institutional – mostly for non-profits. Camp Jabberwocky, The Woodwell Climate Research Center, Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, and the Island Grown Initiative are all recent institutional clients. These are organizations we honor and support.

The work is exciting for us. Each project brings new learning and each is an impact-driven opportunity to bring our design strengths and high quality/high performance building to projects that might otherwise not receive those benefits.

In the past, organizations like these were difficult to convince of the value of our design/build project delivery method. Their fiduciary responsibility to their donors led them to believe that they must use a conventional architect + competitive bidding method. Several years ago, we developed a new contractual arrangement that has persuaded a number of organizations to become comfortable with design/build.

Systems Engineering & Consulting

We offer an integrated approach to mechanical systems, science-based building envelope solutions, renewable energy, and structural engineering. We guide the design process to assure that each dollar is spent to maximize value.

Our integrated consulting services and technical assistance to owners and design teams allows multiple challenges to be solved simultaneously.

HVAC, building envelope, and high performance consulting is primarily for our in-house projects. As resources allow, however, we extend these services to other architects, builders, and clients for residential, commercial, and institutional projects.

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Contracting & oversight

In other situations, specifically for HVAC and energy efficiency improvements, we can provide the general contracting and trade partner oversight. Once all improvements are completed, we test to quantify the effect of the improvement, help you to monitor over time, and make adjustments as needed to ensure proper operation.

We solve problems

Forensic engineering is another specialty. We solve problems with buildings. SMCo combines decades of experience in the unique Vineyard environment with diagnostics based on building science rather than myth. We measure and log temperature, relative humidity, material moisture content, mechanical system flow rates and operation hours, carbon dioxide levels – whatever we need to know to make informed recommendations to solve the issue.

Let’s discuss your situation – we can probably help you save money, energy, and heartache.

Designing for Resilience

When we design buildings, we specify a program – what the spaces and their functions will be – and a budget. At South Mountain, we also specify performance – how the building will function in terms of its health and safety, comfort, acoustics, and resource usage. Another characteristic of a high-performance home is “resilience.”

Resilience is the capacity of a system to retain or rapidly regain functionality in the face of stress, disturbance or change. Resilient buildings support us when natural events (hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, wildfires, ice storms) or man-made events (explosions, spills, infrastructure destruction, riots, toxic contamination of water, air, or soil) interfere with daily life.

During and after such events we try to satisfy our basic physical needs – clean water, food, shelter, heat, and sanitation – and supplementary needs like medical treatment, security, communications, and access to information.

Resilient design makes this easier to do.

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Buildings that respond well

Ordinarily, our buildings house most of our basic needs, so we need our buildings to support resilience rather than undermine it. Consider loss of power to a house after a significant event.

We may lose the use of the following:

Water supply and toilets
Refrigerator and freezer
Range (if electric)
Heating and cooling systems
Communications

In severe weather, we worry about the house freezing and the extensive damage that may come from frozen plumbing. In the summer, the cooling system won’t operate; in severe hot weather elderly and ill people may suffer without it.

In short term interruptions, a generator may suffice to keep the house operating. As the event stretches out, fuel to operate the generator may not be available. A recent specialty of ours is ‘bi-modal’ solar electric systems – systems that utilize battery storage for back-up power during a grid outage.

Strategies for resilience

How can we make a house support our resilience? Important strategies include:

Superinsulation – house loses heat very slowly, maintains temperature when the grid is down, and never freezes
Solar electric systems with back-up energy storage capability
Non-electric back-up heating
Passive Solar Water Heaters
Waterless composting toilets
Edible Landscape
Non-electric food storage

SMCo has implemented these approaches for years, and we can help you incorporate them into your project – building resilience into your home and your life.