Fernau & Hartman Architects

We at Fleetwood would highly recommend the architects at Fernau & Hartman. They have incredible attention to detail and always make sure that each design is unique. We appreciate that they have utilized our products to highlight their beautiful designs. They are a talented group of people and are wonderful to work with.

Fernau & Hartman Architects is a company I would highly recommend. Their attention to detail is of the highest level. I love how they use products that fit the homes design perfectly. They certainly take the necessary time and attention to make sure every design is unique and beautiful in every way. They are amazing people and work very well together.

My family and I had a rough vision for what we wanted to accomplish and Fernau and Hartman immediately understood our aesthetic and created a fabulous plan. Our extended family loves it and friends and guests constantly comment about details that the architects appreciated and elevated in their sometimes subtle way. We would love to do another project with them.

Our collaboration with Fernau & Hartman Architects on their wonderful outdoor living house in Palo Alto was a real pleasure. It was clear from the beginning that they had a history and rapport with the client, which made the whole process flow smoothly. The way they handled the design of a house that had a small footprint, creating meaningful spaces that flowed seamlessly into one another, was an inspiration for us. We approached the project with the goal of supporting and enhancing the architecture. Their attention to detail and the palette of materials made our job easy. They were involved and helpful with our input and always respectful of our firm as a team member. We look forward to an opportunity to work with them on another project.

We just finished a project with Fernau and Hartman where we designed and installed the A/V and electronic systems. We really appreciate the attention to detail they demonstrated. The project came out beautifully.

Working, as a General Contractor, with Fernau and Hartman was one of the best experiences we've had in our history of building custom homes. Laura, Richard and their team are true professionals, in every way. Their construction documents are incredibly well thought out and detailed, and in addition they stay with the project long after the documents are completed. They approach the process as a true team member, working hand in hand with all trades on the project to ensure their vision is executed in the way they intended. They treat all team members with the highest level of respect, helping to create a project team that delivers a great product with a calm, professional approach resulting in a construction process their clients can actually enjoy!

My crew and I have had the opportunity to work with Fernau and Hartman Architects on a dozen or so projects over the past 13 years. As metal and woodworking craftspeople we always enjoy contributing to a well conceived design, but I always feel a stronger sense of collaboration as we work through details with this team. This collaboration between the architect and the builder elevates the potential of the finished product, and when I walk through a completed F&H project I can feel this collaboration from floor to ceiling.

The Montana Cookhouse project is the latest in the clients’ collaboration with the architects over a period or more than 15 years, comprising over 10 buildings. In many ways the Cookhouse represents the culmination of that partnership (but certainly not the final project!). We could not be more pleased with the result. More importantly, the small community of very critical (and very opinionated) ranchers, loggers, and other workers praise it. One townsperson said, “Looks like the family wanted to expand and built an attractive building that fits the land and appears to have always been there.” The project was especially challenging from both a programmatic and aesthetic standpoint. It was clear the building should have multiple uses that will inevitably evolve over the course of time – family and friends gathering place, launching and receiving place for outdoor adventures, second home, potential primary residence. Surrounding buildings, water, weather patterns, extreme climate, projected use, environmental and regulatory considerations, and the dramatic landscape made siting critical. Scale and orientation were front of mind. A building slightly too large would dwarf other buildings and be uncomfortable in which to live. A building too small would be swallowed by the vast landscape and make achieving desired programming difficult. A modest 3200 square foot, two story, simple rectangle was the answer – paying respect to and echoing surrounding agricultural buildings but incorporating modern materials and design so not to appear that it tried too hard to fit in. Temperatures at the site range from minus 20 to over 100 degrees. Winds can blow in excess of 60 miles per hour. The air is dry and the sun shines 300+ days a year. Yet it would have been a mistake to build simply a shelter from these elements. Rather, ingenious placement and designs of doors, windows, roofing, and porches create a natural conversation between the imposing yet alluring outside and the cozy but airy inside. It works exceptionally well and is incredibly hard to achieve. The inhabitants feel simultaneously protected and exposed. One is exhilarated in and around this space. Most architects in our region on projects like this try to shoot for the dramatic and without fail design giant two or three story glass facades facing the mountains. The client is left feeling like he lives in a ski lodge and also suffers the inevitable climate and light control, maintenance, and other obvious inconveniences. The architect wants him to be in one place – in the “great room” looking out the obscene windows and marveling at the architect’s taste and sense of grandeur (thus making the client feel more grand about his taste in architects and home design)! The Cookhouse was designed conscientiously from the opposite direction. In a relatively modest amount of indoor and porch space, there are dozens of places to work, read, cook, sleep, converse, or simply hang out, each one more natural, comfortable (and exciting) than the other. Why? Because moods, weather, family dynamics, time of day, activities, seasons, and inhabitants’ ages are all changing and always will be. Too hot on the front porch? Move to the back in the shade. Done with reading a book by the fire? Work on one’s mountain bike in the neighboring “equipment barn” (more on this later). Want to get away from Aunt Susan? Grab your boots in the amazingly clever little entryway and hike up the mountain out the back door. All this surrounded by equally calming and stimulating materials and design that exude knowledge of what the main attractions are. They are of course the human inhabitants and the surrounding land and its non-human inhabitants. Not the inhabitants as homeowners, but inhabitants as humans that interact, love, laugh, and produce. And not the landscape, which connotes primarily “views,” but the land itself and all that it supports. If a building’s success is based on how much time one wants to spend in and around it, the adjacent equipment barn defines this measure. My family and I will return from fishing, horseback riding, skiing, or a few days in the backcountry, deposit our gear, take a shower and change clothes, throw them in the washer, and linger to repair and organize equipment. Everything has a place. Yet it is not simply a storage facility. Humans want to be in this amazing space. Absolute synchronicity between client and architect, based on their love of and experience in the outdoors, intense listening and interpretation, appreciation for design, worship of practicality, and the necessity of a working within budget, makes this building and all buildings we have created together, succeed. While the client-architect and design ideas on this particular project evolved during a two or three year process, the result is really the product of nearly a generation’s worth of dialogue, debate, friendship, and most importantly, trust.

My wife and I are the owners of the Santa Ynez House which was completed in 2011. Our experience (and friendship) with Richard Fernau and Laura Hartman began in 2003 when we first purchased the land in the Santa Ynez Valley and continues to this day as we contemplate a studio addition to the property. The design and execution of our house succeeds in every way to fulfill the requirements we set out from the beginning. Throughout the entire planning process and construction period the architects continued to adhere to them closely. As clients, we could not be more satisfied and happy. A strong and positive bond of communication with F+H was established from the very first meeting, where objectives and desires were encouraged and discussed. Throughout the collaboration of ideas, from the initial vision to culminating in the ultimate structure, we could not have envisioned a smoother or more affirming experience. While maintaining close communication through every step, the integrity of the architects’ outstanding design and their professional etiquette was never compromised. Attention to each detail was considered and sent to us for approval, and our questions or concerns were consistently answered. The end result is not only a house, but also a work of art. The buildings flow, settle into the site and function perfectly. Acting as a retreat, a second home and a family gathering place, the completed project provides a unique environment, surpassing our most ambitious expectations.

Fernau & Hartman Architects is a great architecture firm to work with. We had the opportunity to work with their team on a House in Palo Alto. Richard Fernau and Laura Boutelle were the principal and project architects. They understood the building process well, and introduced us into the project half way through the design process, which allowed us to give input on construction methods, value engineering suggestions, durability assessment…etc. It was very refreshing, as we were able to influence the construction details early to help control the budget. Their design documents were thorough at the outset of the construction and questions were diligently answered throughout the process. They gave the construction team a clear direction on what they were looking for, allowing work to be scheduled properly. As representatives to the client, Richard and Laura served them well. They were communicative in what the clients were looking for, whether it was about design, budget or schedule. During the construction process, It was evident that their creation of the design was to serve the client’s best use of space. As expected with an award winning architectural firm, they introduced “unique” elements into the project, challenging the building team. However, we must say the elements were imaginative creativity founded on executable building techniques. We, as a contractor, were excited to meet to their imagination. They made us better in our skills in transforming a vision into a reality. And not just any reality, but an outstanding and memorable one.

We are the owners of the Nicasio house you see on this site. We have been working with Fernau and Harman for almost 20 years now on four separate phases of building, which should speak for itself. The final phase is weeks away from completion, and one of the only downsides to that situation is that we will not have any more projects to work with F/H on! Throughout the design process, Fernau & Hartman have always: Respected the physical sensitivity of the building site (a beautiful but problematic parcel of native grassland); respected our personal tastes and were open to collaboration rather than imposing their own vision of the ideal house; listened to our wish lists and our projection of what the house should be and could be and then then, later on in the process helped pare things down to a doable scale. The compound that we now have is nothing short of remarkable. We have spaces that are both lively and serene, and a piece of sophisticated architecture that is also cozy and embracing. We couldn't recommend Fernau and Hartman more highly. Tess Ayers and Jane Anderson

Fernau & Hartman specified Kebony wood for the so called "Wedge House" in Palo Alto. They were amongst the first North American architects using Kebony for a residential cladding project and we are extremely happy to be chosen for this project. Not only has the Wedge House won the Citation Award 2015 by AIA Montana, but is is also a one of a kind home. It is modern, innovative and at the same time cosy and practical. In short, a brilliant home, designed by a very forward-thinking architect firm!