Our Approach

More than pretty pictures or cool looking buildings.

We believe passionately that good design benefits humanity and that the well-designed places that we inhabit help us live better lives, recharge, and reconnect with nature. So, we strive to create spaces that evoke a quiet but emotional response. Slow homes in a fast-paced world.

Our objective with each new project is to maximize it’s potential within your means and site. No matter what the size, we’re looking to create special, satisfying, and replenishing places that provide lasting enjoyment for you. While we believe simple elemental forms and quality materials come together in architecture that has lasting appeal, we don’t have a particular style and are influenced by your aesthetic preferences.

Discover.

Before starting any design work for your project, we’ll take the time to get to know you and your wants and needs: how you want to live, how you want rooms to feel, your stylistic preferences, and your must-have home features. Our goal at this stage is to learn all about what is important to you and your family, so that we can maintain your vision throughout the entire project.

Imagine.

Taking what we’ve already learned about you, your site, and its municipal constraints, we’ll explore how your home can come together and be a wonderful project in it’s setting, presenting sketches and 3D model computer drawings for your feedback and our refinement. When relevant, we communicate our ideas with other key members of the project team, such as the structural engineer, interior and landscape designers, the builder, and key suppliers, to help ensure your project achieves its full potential within your budget.

Develop.

With your approval of the conceptual design, we’ll develop the formal drawings to be submitted to the municipality for permitting, coordinating our design with any other consultant members of the team. While we’re waiting on approval from the municipality, we’ll complete the more detailed construction drawings that your builder requires.

Assist.

During construction, we’ll support you and your builder with any queries that may come up and provide details as needed to support smooth build progress. We visit the site periodically to help ensure the design comes together as you had envisioned.

Kind words from happy clients.

Trace listens to your needs and wants and puts it all together in a wonderful way. The design functionality and detail will leave a lasting impression. People continually comment on how special our place is. We started with a bare parcel of farmland, and Trace played a crucial role in guiding us through the entire process: from planning the site, to how the driveway should go, to positioning and designing our house and shop to maximizing the views and sunlight. The design and building process were a great experience, and seeing his vision come together was truly amazing. His insight into optimizing functionality and incorporating important elements into our home will not be forgotten.

We have designed and built two beautiful custom homes with Trace. Both times we appreciated how Trace incorporated our ideas, yet ultimately gave us designs that were better than what we had envisioned. Having no building experience, we were thankful that he was always just a phone call away. His support during the build and in getting the details right was incredible. As much as we loved the first home Trace designed, our current one is even better. We would not hesitate to recommend Trace to anyone looking to build their custom home.

We used Trace to design an exterior and interior renovation on our home. We loved the way Trace incorporated out-of-the-ordinary surprises and interesting details into his design to make our home special to us. His attention to detail goes far beyond expectation and he was readily available throughout the project to ensure that every detail was properly attended to. If you’re looking for a special and personalized home designer, Trace will not disappoint you.

We met Trace about 20 years ago on a cold day on a bare piece of ground with an incredible view of the Fraser River where we had decided to build a house that reminded us of our home country of South Africa. All we told him was that we wanted huge windows to let in a lot of natural light, a lot of stone and wood in the interior and ceramic floors. To say he “got it” is an understatement. He captured exactly what we wanted. The design flows, the house is light and airy with its double volume ceiling in the living room and large windows letting in the light from the south side while showing off the magnificent view to the north. The artistic touches he suggested and implemented make it extra special, and he was often on site to ensure it all came together smoothly. We were and still are delighted with the finished product. To love your home is truly a blessing and we are so grateful that Trace was recommended to us. We would wholeheartedly recommend his expertise.

Although our initial wish list for our new house was long and detailed, we were thrilled that Trace designed us a home that went above and beyond what we had imagined. We appreciated the full-color renderings, and especially the overhead site plan, which clearly showed view lines and sun exposure at various times through the day – both of which were very important to us! Throughout the build process, Trace was available with suggestions and advice, and worked seamlessly with our builder and trades. Now that we’ve been living in our new home for nearly a year, we appreciate the design even more than we did initially. It is a beautiful, light-filled, and comfortable home for our family of 7, and we are very glad we invested in Trace’s expertise in designing it.

We had already been dreaming of the place for several years and were filled with ideas when we approached Trace to design our home and barn. When we reviewed the preliminary concept design, we were pleased to find it very nearly as we had envisioned it would be! He also provided wonderful suggestions regarding the driveway and the positioning of large trees on the property which we were happy to incorporate in the landscaping. We can say we’re still as happy with our home today as we were when we moved in and get frequent comments on how original the design is. We love that with the "new old house" look, it's impossible to tell what decade it was built in. We would absolutely recommend Trace to anyone looking to have a unique custom home design.

Distinctive design for beloved homes.