Timber & Stone focuses on projects that make our community more unique, beautiful, and viable while having as much fun as legally allowed. This often brings us projects in the landmark parts of the city, renovations to historic homes, downtown buildings, or projects that bring something unique to Manhattan and the surrounding community.
You can also get to know us by what we don’t do. We don’t like to take on projects that detract from Manhattan's uniqueness, making it just like other communities. We aren’t a fan of cookie cutter houses. Not that these are inherently bad. To someone riding on a 18 hour family vacation road trip to the beach in the snack-strewn landscape of a 2006 Toyota Sienna, a McDonalds with the promise of a cheeseburger and some bathroom respite seems as much as an oasis to anyone.
What we do enjoy is crafting environments for genuine people who want their homes and businesses to be a UNIQUE reflection of them, their family, or their brand. We engage with our clients. Where another firm might say "Why not let me decide how best to create [blank]?" We say "Let’s create [blank] together.” and “How do you want to see [blank] happen?” We create our clients' architecture with our clients. Client-Led, Client-Oriented, Client-Participation. Creating an unique home fitted and tailored to them.
We in-turn, write their stories into architecture. We take a hands on approach to design and work with people who love Manhattan and love design. We write a story about our clients, and create architecture from there. We turn their stories into their building, their office space, or their home. There is great beauty that happens when we do. We love good design. I mean really love it. And love and passion is what makes things BEAUTIFUL.
Finally, we want to see things built well. VIABILITY is of utmost importance to us. This is one of the foundations to Timber & Stone and why Mike began the company in the first place! We love when things work well together. Work smarter not harder. Bringing sustainability into every project. This doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be all green, though there are many long term benefits when you do. It does mean though assessing what your needs are and building according to them. Not adding space for space sake, but making intentional decisions and being good stewards of resources.
So, maybe it’s a trick question. It isn’t what "kind" of architecture we do... the answer is "we do architecture”. Architecture is a practice by itself and not dependent upon some current industry. We "do" architecture. And as we do it, we want to see it beautiful, unique, and viable every time.