Meet the Team

I track, organize, and communicate to help move our projects forward. Basically, it is solving a puzzle. There is always a lot happening at once across multiple projects and timelines, and my job is to make sure we work as a team so that no detail is left behind. I love that our work connects us to landscape and to place, and that what we design is shaped by the environments we live in and by the stories each of us brings about home. My background is in theatrical design and management, which lets me dig into the design side while keeping track of what a client needs and the real limits of timeline, schedule, and budget. The people are what keep me here, and I am proudest of the team we have built.

Outside the office: My partner Corey and Clementine, my sweet anxious rescue cattle dog. I cold water ocean swim year round in Maine, which I recommend, since there is a great community of swimmers here. I also lived in Dublin as a student, studying professional acting at the National Theatre School of Ireland.

I handle everything behind the scenes that keeps the wheels rolling, from payroll to legal compliance to business development, CRM management, and HR. For most of my career I have been involved with people and improving their homes, and learning what each person actually needs, then giving them a solution that works for them and their family, is what keeps me coming back. My belief is that a home has to fit how you are going to use it day in and day out. Be honest about how you actually live rather than what everyone else expects, and you will end up with a home you love a great deal more. I am good at finding proof in the details and catching small issues before they bloom into larger ones. Bringing two good design firms together into Mottram & Maines is the work I am proudest of.

Outside the office: Emily, and Flynn, our crazy oversized German Shepherd. I have a long list of places I want to see, but Costa Rica is always top of mind, followed closely by anywhere sailing in the open ocean. I plan a mean trip, since half the fun is in the planning details.

I am the firm curmudgeon. When I am not being annoyed by technology, I find solutions to architectural problems: sketching, drawing, collaborating, documenting. Simplicity and intention go hand in hand, and that belief shapes most of what I put on paper. What keeps me here is the aha moment when the pieces of the puzzle finally fit together. If I have a strength, it is the power of observation and a sensitivity to unspoken data, which is to say I notice what people do not say directly about how they want to live. I designed the entrance addition to the Boys and Girls Club in Portland about twenty five years ago, and it still feels timeless every time I drive by.

Outside the office: Natalie, my wife, who I just celebrated twenty five years with, and Beau, a very anxious and needy Springer Spaniel. Sedona is my home away from home, since the landscape there is remarkably different and captivating. I am a pretty good cook and a terrible gardener.

Most of my day is spent modeling projects in three dimensions in a program called Revit. I create the geometry and assign material properties to it so the model represents the building brick by brick at full scale in a digital space. That model can then be captured from different angles, cut, and exploded to create all the working drawings for the project. I have an eye for the technical, so as a project moves from early design into the construction drawing phase, I add the more practical elements that make a space comfortable and complete. Living spaces are an extension of the individual. We cannot put someone in a box that does not reflect their eccentric, messy self and expect them to flourish. When all the disparate pieces come together into a full construction set, that is something I am proud of.

Outside the office: My wife Erica and my cat Athena. I am happiest out in the woods after a new snowfall. I race canoes, including a ninety mile race across the Adirondacks, and right now I am reading The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey.

I work with the architectural team and on interiors. Depending on what a project needs, I come in at initial design or a bit later, once space planning and interior architecture start to develop. From there I work closely with clients on cabinetry and interior details and on selecting fixtures and materials. My start in interior architecture gives me a perspective from the inside out, so I think about ergonomics, flow, and user experience very early. What does it feel like to prep a meal at your island? Can you reach everything you need? How are you talking with the guest across from you, and what do you see when you look out at the property you chose? My call to design traces back to the smell of sawdust. My dad built the house I grew up in, and he took me along to job sites and the lumber yard.

Outside the office: My five year old daughter, who is precocious and incredibly compassionate, and Nick, the yin to my slightly eccentric yang. We also have eight hilarious chickens. I have listened to Radiolab and This American Life for fifteen years, I can fillet a fish, and I am happiest in worn-in Carhartt overalls.