2 Reviews on “Timeless Architecture”

• Richard Venable

  4 years ago

  Henry MacLean helped us plan not one, but two major renovations for our historic farmhouse. In 2004-2005, we added a family room and master bath over a previously separate garage, plus front entry and rear entry rooms. This project had complex challenges. Then, in 2013, he drew up plans for a remodeled kitchen, including removing walls to open up the kitchen, living room, dining room and breakfast room so that they flow together, plus needed major structural repairs to the foundation and ground floor. Henry is green-conscious, and so made many suggestions for conserving energy, utilizing sustainable energy resources and protecting the environment. Henry was creative, easy to work with and made good suggestions that enhanced the beauty, utility and aesthetic appeal of our home.

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• Rob Utzschneider

  4 years ago

  I have worked with Henry MacLean, owner of Timeless Architecture, for nearly 10 years on a number of architectural design and construction projects both large and small. Henry has exceeded my expectations every time. I will never work with another architect for any design and construction project related to my house.

  Henry is a good listener and he starts each project by spending the time to really understand what my wife and I are trying to accomplish. He is not afraid to keep asking questions to make sure that we really know what we want. Sometimes this process has helped us to change our understanding of what we want. Henry has a wonderful eye for good design and he creates plans that fit within the overall design and character of our house. He produces beautiful designs and he works with us iteratively to modify and improve the designs so that we are totally happy with his ideas before we start building. Henry pays a lot of attention to detail and sweats every little detail so that the final result is perfect. His use of computer-aided design tools makes it easier for us to understand what he is proposing and quickly modify his designs iteratively.

  Another important point is that Henry creates designs that take into account the complexity and costs of what he is proposing to build. He thinks like a builder and his designs are builder friendly. I have been working with the same general contractor for more than 15 years (one of the best in the Boston area) and he has always found it easy to work with Henry. The builder has told me many times that Henry is the best architect that he has worked with and the builder brings Henry into many of his own construction projects.

  Here are a few examples of projects that Henry has completed for us.

  Project #1 Design and construction of a two-story exterior porch and sitting room. This was an unusual project. Our house had a small second-story wooden porch that was rotting. Two doors from two bedrooms led into the porch. Henry helped is to reimagine the space and designed a beautiful and energy efficient two-story structure that looks as if it has always been a part of the house. The first story is a porch with screens in the summer and windows in the winter. It is one of our favorite rooms in the house. The second story is a sitting room/study that is connected to the two bedrooms. When they were in high school, our two kids used to argue over who could study in this beautiful room. This was our first project with Henry. I hired him after firing an architect who never understood what we were trying to do.

  The exterior of the entire structure is constructed from Azek, which means that we will never have to deal with rotting wood again. The structure is designed with a beautiful copper roof and gutters and is very energy efficient (thin, efficient electric radiators in the upstairs room, thick insulation in the roof, and energy efficient, aluminum-clad Marvin windows. Henry sourced the aluminum door and window system and worked closely with the vendor to make sure that the measurement, construction, and installation was done correctly.

  Project #2 Design and build new entry to garage. Our garage is a solid brick structure, but the doors were old and rotten. All of the wood framing around the doors was old and in poor shape. The end of the garage holding the doors had settled about 3 inches due to poor support. Henry helped us to redesign and rebuild the end of the garage. We had to pour a new concrete footing for a steel column and raise the end of the building about three inches. The project required a new LVL header and new framing to support installation of the new garage doors. The exterior trim around the new doors was constructed in Azek to prevent future rotting. Henry designed the exterior trim. We worked with Henry to select new copper lights that fit well with the overall design and scale of the new garage entrance and the new doors. A new bluestone and brick apron was installed to blend with our front walkway.

  Project #3 Redesign of master bedroom after fire. We had a fire in our house that started in the rafters of our master bedroom and burned multiple roof rafters in the room. Henry designed a new rafter support system for the roof to meet building code. He also designed a new built-in shelf and bookcase system for the room that incorporated shelves made from 200 year old Southern pine reclaimed from the original Custom house in Boston. As a separate project, we replaced a large set of windows in the room and Henry designed the moulding and casing for the windows and selected the vendor and materials for the project.

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