Architecture & Planning

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.

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.”

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 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.”

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.

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.