HAYNES & GARTHWAITE ARCHITECTS

The mission statement of Haynes and Garthwaite Architects says they work, "closely with clients and consultants to create architectural solutions appropriate to the requirements and opportunities of site, program, context, schedule, environment and budget." It says that H & G, designs, "work well and are built well," and that Byron Haynes and Andrew Garthwaite, "value clear, well detailed and beautiful design solutions that engage the past, participate in the present and imply connections to the future." We found all of this to be true. Our project began with a telephone conversation with Andrew Garthwaite in the spring of 2015. By December of the following year he and Steven Dumont had guided us through the myriad steps needed to move into our newly constructed duplex, modeled after a New England connected farmhouse. The "main house" was built as an authentic Cape, the "barn" has a more open plan with interior spaces that are versatile and efficient and, in between, the "carriage house" consists of a garage with a guest room above. Our home has an HERS index of 38 and has been certified by Efficiency Vermont for Excellence in Energy-Efficient Design and Construction. We are delighted with it. H & G were sure to consider and to recommend local builders and other professionals best suited to us and to the job. The staff at H & G worked closely with us, with our GC, and with our subcontractors to ensure that no detail was overlooked; after having now lived in the home for nearly a year, we are certain of that. What greater accolades can we bestow other than to say that our home is beautiful, well built, and energy efficient. It works for us, plain and simple.

My wife and I approached Andrew Garthwaite about two years ago about an extensive rehabilitation of my childhood home in the village of Norwich, Vermont. The house had been occupied by renters for nearly 30 years and was in need of fairly extensive revision and repairs. The project is now complete, and we are delighted with the result. Moreover, Andrew, Steve Dumont and the entire H & G staff were outstanding in all respects throughout the entire process, sensitive to both our wishes and our budget. They worked effectively with the contractor and several subcontractors as well as with us as clients. Their performance was absolutely first rate in every way.

Andrew and Steven were very professional and spent time upfront with us understanding the scope of our project, our budget, and what we envisioned for the end result. Through the entire project Andrew and Steven kept us informed of potential changes, and patiently discussed the pro’s/con’s to a change in the project and the ramification. When we had a meeting with Andrew and Steven, they were respectful of our time, and moved us through decisions efficiently. We, as well as the neighborhood, are thrilled with the results. I would highly recommend this team to anyone. Thanks

Andrew and Steven at Haynes and Garthwaite were wonderful to work with. They met every deadline and were responsive to all questions and any issue that cropped up. The project was completed on schedule and there were no unpleasant surprises. The result is gorgeous and functions beautifully. The entire neighborhood appreciates the beauty they contributed to our area.

We hired Haynes and Garthwaite for a major renovation of a 1930's vintage house in Hanover. The project was to modernize a home which had several piecemeal additions and modifications over many years without ruining the mid century appeal of the exterior. We hired them in May of '14, began conceptual work in Sept '14, spent the fall and spring on design and plans, began building in May '15 and moved into the house in November '15. Haynes and Garthwaite took us expertly through the entire process from beginning to end - developing many iterations of an interior floor plan, working to redo a number of tricky roof line and exterior details, providing and winnowing many options on finishes, narrowing the list of contractors, interviewing contractors and working throughout the build on a weekly basis as the point of contact. They were a pleasure to work with - and provided a great deal of value both in the execution of the project and the creative detail of the design. They are well connected and well respected within the building trade in the Upper Valley, which made the entire process even smoother. Our main contact was Byron Haynes, but all of the architects at the firm were extremely competent and professional. We could not have been more pleased with our experience, and would recommend them highly.

When I needed to replace my forty-four-year home lost to fire, my builder suggested we work with Andrew Garthwaite, of Haynes & Garthwaite Architects in Norwich. He was a great choice! He worked patiently with my desire to have a new home as much like my old one as possible, adding of course big improvements like an upstairs bath, senior-friendly adaptations, and state-of-the-art energy efficiency. Quite a few of my requirements went against the grain of accepted architectural practice; for instance, I was adamant that the kitchen be located between the dining and living rooms — "That's where it was in my old house. And I liked it that way!" Though it's a home of only modest size, throughout the process Andrew has given me the same thoughtful attention and skill as I imagine he would give a client building an vast, top-of-the-line mansion. I loved the computer-generated designs and was amazed at how quickly they could incorporate a major change (I insisted on lowering the roof by a foot!). The fly-throughs were mind-blowing and a great way to notice things I might want to change. Andrew came up with a number of features I hadn't asked for and didn't realize how much I would love: * a charming and useful covered entry porch, big enough for a chair and potted plants, and approached by wide steps as well as a gravel ramp for my wood cart; a nest of phoebes were its first residents. It's also a perfect loading platform; the piano-movers loved it. * a handsome sliding barn door to close a wide opening between kitchen and living-room. (Why?? In case visitors bring a dog hostile to my cat.) * a wide "rooflet" extending above French doors and large windows, all facing southwest. The purpose is to allow lots of light from low winter sun and very little from the high summer sun. What I love even more is that it enables me to leave the big casement windows wide open during a downpour. Thrilling! During construction, Andrew and the builder worked well together. They held weekly onsite meetings with me and the foreman to check on progress and solve any problems. They incorporated my brilliant last-minute brainstorms, like high interior windows between a staircase and two bedrooms to hold custom-designed colored glass art. (Andrew's assistant, Chris Snyder, suggested his former art teacher — also a longtime acquaintance of mine — to do the glasswork.) After each meeting, Chris emailed detailed notes including to-do lists for each of us. I was given clear deadlines and plenty of helpful suggestions for choosing appliances, fixtures, colors. Extremely attentive even after my house was finished, Andrew keeps checking to see if there are any problems and, with each change of season, makes sure that all systems are working. The best confirmation that my new home truly is as fine as I believe it to be came at Thanksgiving, which nine relatives shared with me here. A couple of decades ago when one of them, then fourteen, first saw my home, he had fallen in love with it. Because I had built the first part of it myself, on the cheap and with little expertise, it was pretty funky, with used windows and doors, home-made cabinets, green hemlock floors, and a roof of corrugated tin. It had a lot of personality. He visited often during high school and bound me to give him first refusal rights if I ever decided to sell. During college, he and his girlfriend happily house-sat for me for a summer month. A decade later, both of them, since married, were saddened to the core to learn that fire had taken it down. And now here they were, seeing my beautifully built new home for the first time — and they loved it! The gathered relatives all marveled at its charm, that it FEELS like my wonderful old house in spirit, but is far more comfortable, and so skillfully and thoughtfully crafted. I highly recommend Andrew Garthwaite if you want an architect committed to designing a highly energy-efficient home. He is willing to honor your most idiosyncratic notions, and able to make them work!

Andrew Garthwaite is helping us with an addition/renovation of our home in Hanover, NH. I hold Andrew in the highest regard. His creativity is superior, he has an excellent eye and pays careful attention to detail. Andrew is consistently professional, returns emails and phone calls promptly and always holds the clients' goals and interests as top priority. We cannot imagine a better architect.

We had the pleasure of helping Andrew and his team at Haynes & Garthwaite Architects to achieve a stunning design for a master bathroom suite renovation as well as the renovation of a guest house bathroom. The team at Haynes & Garthwaite are extremely thorough in their level of attention to details, especially on conceptual levels. Their comprehensive plan allowed our team to craft the components with confidence, knowing that all of the details were considered. I look forward to future collaborations with such a great team.

Andrew and his team custom-designed a beautiful, energy efficient home to our specifications. We started the design process in March, began construction in June, and moved-in in November. Everything was on-time, on-budget, and exactly as we wanted. Hard to ask for more...

Haynes and Garthwaite ("H&G") designed two significant outbuildings for an estate property in the upper Connecticut River valley ("Upper Valley") area of VT and NH. In the course of their work, H&G also introduced our fantastic general contractor and landscape architect who created an entire site plan. The simpler of the two outbuildings was a three-bay, shed-style 3-bay barn with loft for vehicle and farm equipment storage. The more complex outbuilding is a 3000+ SF two story artisan woodshop and home brewing facility. Both buildings included engineering strategies for open free-span space, including structural steel in the barn and in the beautiful 30x50 ft woodshop, an engineered Douglas fir truss system creating a vaulted ceiling and clearstory set of high windows for natural lighting. In addition to outstanding design taste (photos to come), H&G brought exceptional project management to this job. Regardless of whether I was in town or traveling, H&G convened and led weekly job reviews with the GC and relevant subcontractors as we dug into the unknowns (e.g. blasting bedrock) or planned project details. I received thorough weekly meeting minutes that highlighted new issues and those resolved since prior meetings. I appreciate that the H&G team always focused on the entirety of my project, not just what could have been their narrow scope. They have a great working relationship with my contractor and subs. They continue to be involved and helpful as I move into my new buildings. I consider them to be valuable friends in my new community.

I renovated my 1905 home in downtown Hanover, NH in 2009. The renovations included new bathrooms, but the challenging changes--and the ones most important to me--were the ones that transformed my kitchen and the adjoining dining area. I hired Haynes and Garthwaite to plan the project, do the drawings, and supervise the work. I worked closely with Andrew Garthwaite. I was, and remain, so pleased with what was done and how it was done that I am hoping to persuade Andrew to do the designs for my condominium in Cambridge, MA. The Hanover renovations achieved what I wanted them to achieve, stayed within the limits of the budget Andrew and I had established, and were more exciting than stressful to live through. Before the work, the first floor of the house was relatively dark. The spaces were cramped and impractical for whatever activity they were supposedly destined (cooking, entertaining...). The kitchen was an awkward L-shaped thing with dreadful cabinets, appliances in illogical places, and basement stairs in an unfortunate spot. The dining room was too small to accommodate even eight people comfortably. I showed Andrew the open-floor layout of a recently-built condo and basically said: reproduce this effect in my house--without destroying the character of the house. Amazingly, that was exactly what he did. A useless outdoor porch became part of my new dining room/kitchen. The basement stairs were moved to an outside wall, where they were out of the way (and also easily accessible, through a new outside door, to plumbers and electricians and other people with muddy boots). Lovely, well-designed cherry cabinets and drawers complemented grey-black granite counters. An island separates the kitchen from the dining area, where I recently fed ten people comfortably. New windows mean that the entire kitchen-dining space catches first the morning and then the afternoon sun; recessed lighting and attractive hanging lamps take over after sunset. I have two armchairs, a coffee table, and a large Bijar rug between the dinner table and the kitchen island. Even though the house has two studies, I now tend to work sitting in one of the chairs in the dining area, simply because the aesthetics of the space are so pleasing. Three old bathrooms--each with its own set of problems--are now thoroughly updated. Everything works, and the bathrooms look attractive. In the bedrooms, closets and built-ins have enhanced storage space without making the house look like a victim of identity theft. Thanks to Andrew's skills and dedication, we started with excellent and precise plans. But Andrew was constantly available during the project, watching for unanticipated possibilities as well as problems. The results were really terrific. I recommend Andrew and his firm without reservation to anyone embarking on a renovation project.