Design and function based on practical training, the colloquial know-how of life experience and a natural eye for balance and beauty where the wild meets the tame
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James Steen has a deep knowledge from involvement in the built landscape. Growing up in a colonial Massachusetts home built 1810, he helped on the upkeep of the home, tapped sugar maples and helped in the garden. From age 19-22, he served as the assistant manager of a 20 acre certified organic peach farm run that also raised 5 acres of melons, okra and aubergine (eggplant) He then went to college and took a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and Forestry. At age 26 he started a small dairy farm on a homestead in Marshall North Carolina before getting into construction and design. Since 2010 he has worked on countless homes and learned nearly every building trade in a diversity of style and crafts. Another layer of expertise he has been doing since 2016 is helping property owners develop agro-forestry systems on their farms.
Landscape Design
There is a subtlety to making a building feel connected the land it occupies. Besides the site design and location of a building, its landscaping and hardscaping are an essential next step for tying it to the land.
James has a natural and working relationship with plants, earth, stone and water, having used his own hands and machinery like excavators to move and manipulate these elements, having surveyed and dug roads, designed parking areas and built ponds.
