Our services
Residential
We design residential buildings for both homeowners and developers. Our particular specialty is infill projects consisting of a mixture of restoration and new construction within the historic district. These projects involve considerable expertise in preservation, zoning regulations, and building codes. We also periodically design individual houses outside the historic district, if the project has interesting potential and a client committed to quality.
Our projects frequently begin with master planning and feasibility studies. This work is done in consultation with city officials and engineers to examine issues of zoning, historic preservation, parking, fire safety, and stormwater management.
Our construction drawings are exhaustively detailed, with great attention paid to appropriate moldings and trim. We often choose the paint colors and fixtures ourselves, other times working in collaboration with a qualified interior designer.
Our residential designs are highly responsive to the unique conditions of difficult urban lots, and have won numerous awards for their appealing and original designs, and sensitivity to historic preservation standards.
Commercial
We can design small commercial buildings in-house, and larger or more complex projects in collaboration with an architect specializing in that building type. We can provide consultation services to commercial architecture firms for façade design and other specialized elements on large projects.
Andrew Gould is not a licensed architect.
Sacred
Sacred design in the Eastern Orthodox tradition is our particular love and vocation. We specialize in the design of Orthodox churches and parish buildings. We have unparalleled experience and expertise in this field, and our work has attracted worldwide notice for its beauty and originality.
We know how to make a new church that feels historic from the day it opens – a church building that people will really love and care for. A big part of this is responsiveness to local culture, climate, and geography. Our churches look like they belong. Wherever we work, we identify the best qualities in the local vernacular building tradition, and we find a way to express these qualities through Orthodox architecture.
Our extensive experience, having worked with over thirty Orthodox parishes, gives us valuable insights into the opportunities and pitfalls of parish building projects. We can advise churches with regards to the entire course of a building project: committee organization; program development; master planning; design; fundraising; construction; furnishing; lighting; and iconography. We also specialize in the conversion of existing churches to Orthodox use, and in beautification schemes for churches that need improvement.
We do our best work when we can coordinate all aspects of a building project. Appointments like chandeliers, furniture, and iconographic murals, are not a transient or incidental part of Orthodox architecture. Rather, they work with the building itself to form a comprehensive icon of the Kingdom of Heaven. A singular coherent vision is critical for the success of this immensely complex type of building project.
Liturgical Art
We have unique capabilities to design and manufacture specialized furnishings such as Russian-style iconostases and Byzantine-style chandeliers. We work in close association with furniture makers, icon board makers, wood carvers, blacksmiths, silversmiths, decorative finishers, and many others, to produce custom work of the highest quality.
Our products have a number of advantages over imported liturgical art. Like all our design, our liturgical art is responsive to local circumstances. Our work looks American as well as Orthodox. It honors the skills and perception of local craftsmen. And we are able to customize our work to fit the needs and aesthetic of an existing church.
While we sometimes serve as liturgical designer only, our best work is done when we handle both the design and manufacture of liturgical furnishings. We produce these projects through our sister business, New World Byzantine Studios, which is a licensed manufacturer and retailer of liturgical art.
Disclaimer
We are not licensed architects, but most of the buildings we design are not required by statute to involve an architect.
For those that do, we are happy to collaborate with an architect of record.