“The old frontier that put the hard fibre in the American spirit, and the long muscles on the Americana back, lives and will live in these untamed mountains to give future generations a sense of the land from which their forefathers hewed their homes.”

— Franklin Delano Roosevelt, dedication of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, September 2, 1940

We practice in East Tennessee. It’s a region with a variety of contexts from dense urban centers with suburban fringes to sparsely populated pastoral countryside bordering the rugged terrain of the Smoky Mountains. This level of diversity extends to the built environment with these geographies supporting projects varied in type, scale, and complexity.

We seek opportunity in unexpected places and unexplored pasts. We inherit an urban fabric rich in history and embodied energy. As with most mid-sized cities, a dramatic loss of industry during the latter 20th century left a surplus of vacant or underutilized buildings throughout the urban core and environs. The 21st century has brought sustained growth to places like this, with success bringing the often competing ideals of preservation and progress. We operate within this gap – developing strategies that leverage modest interventions against the clearly defined constraints of this historic context. We propose new hybrids that are positioned between instinctive nostalgic historicism and the desire for a new future absent any reference to the people and places of the past. Our work lands at this intersection of past and present, of tradition and innovation. We seek to balance a specificity of place with what is common and understood – engaging but advancing those materials, methods, and systems familiar to our region in new and innovative ways.