Knobb Hill offers drafting services for purposes of historic documentation in addition to design services for new construction.  Our scaled, three dimensional drawings are often used in conjunction with written documentation by those seeking grant assistance.  These drawings also serve as blueprints for restoration projects.  As with much of our joinery work, we have been accustomed to doing things the ‘old-fashioned’ way.  It took a bit of convincing for us to shift our drafting work away from the drawing board and onto the computer.  The advantages of the three-dimensional design are undeniable but we still have a soft spot for hand drawing and are glad to do so upon request.

We offer design services for the construction of new residential structures and outbuildings.    We have often been called upon to work in collaboration with homeowners to help define goals and uses of space in addition to drafting the joinery and architectural style of the new structure.  Although we specialize in pre-Civil War styles of architecture, we are not afraid to bend the rules of specific architectural styles or create entirely unique structures.  Our approach to architecture is informed by old traditions of mathematical proportioning.  We often draw directly from the five classical orders of architecture as well as the neo-classical interpretations of the orders as found in New England’s historic vernacular architecture.  Over the past few years, we have been exploring the almost forgotten art of daisy wheel design and found that many of the earliest structures in Vermont use this simple method to define their proportions.  We often use the daisy wheel to define the footprint and basic proportion of new structures and then apply either proportions of the classical orders or to a lesser extent, attributes of the romantic styles of architecture to define fenestration and other embellishments.

Many of the drafts in the gallery below correspond to frames found on the projects page of this site.