Architect in Tolland, Connecticut

Tolland is about twenty-five minutes west of the Woodstock Valley studio, which makes it among the closest work the practice takes. Peaslee Architect, P.C. serves Tolland and the surrounding towns of Vernon, Coventry, Mansfield, Willington and Ellington.

The county holds an unusual mix: a genuinely intact colonial centre, a good deal of mid-century and later suburban building, and the pull of the university at Storrs. Each asks for something different.

Additions and old houses

Much of the residential work here involves adding to houses that are two hundred years old and were never designed to be added to. The problem is always the same — where to make the join, and how to keep the original reading as the original. It is solved with schematic design and patience, not with a bigger gable.

Design development and working drawings carry the resolution down to sill details and flashing, which is where these projects are actually won.

New houses on rural land

For new construction, the sequence runs site selection, programming, design, then construction documents and administration. Septic, well, wetlands and ledge set real limits on Tolland County parcels; better to know them in week one.