There is a pleasure in good architecture. A timelessness that transcends passing fashions and critical fancies. The art in architecture is achieved when a balance of volumes and spaces, and proportions and forms is met in a visual harmony that is human in scale, environmentally enriching, and delightful to all senses. Architecture is also a vocabulary of building blocks-wood and stone, concrete and plaster. It is these various materials and the craft of putting them together which, when done well, improves the human experience.

At the same time, form in architecture is based upon needs: functional considerations, economic realities, technological constraints, symbolic implications. A successful design solution is the result of a process that recognizes and quantifies each set of issues. Good architecture grows from collective knowledge for which previous experience in a variety of design tasks, an architect can bring to each new project the benefits of innovative architectural options.

Thoughtful and enduring architecture is the function of a successful match between imagination and practicality, and is the result of a well-communicated collaborative effort between architect and client.

…Claude Emanuel Menders