Anderson Shirley Architects Inc.

John Shirley came highly recommended to us by a friend who is in the construction industry, and who has high standards. We are building a mid century influenced vacation house and apartment, and we were looking for an architect who understood our design aesthetic. From our first meeting with John, we could tell he listened carefully, got preliminary plans to us in a timely manner, and has been there for us as we had questions an challenges during our build. John has honored our need to stick to our budget, helped us design our home with passive solar gain in mind, and supported us in finding some more innovative building materials for our project. We highly recommend John Shirley as an architect who will collaborate with your to make your home become a reality.

Anderson Shirley Architects have provided the Design in many Design/Build projects we have been involved with in our 35 years of business. They are especially gifted in helping to bring "architecture" back to the residential realm from which it has been missing for way too many years. Specifically, the team at Anderson Shirley Architects listens to the client's needs and wants and develops a solution to the problems without "over designing". This results in a project design that is both thoughtful in it's approach but simple in it's implementation. Some projects have obvious solutions, some require a more in-depth analysis. In the end, the form follows the function while addressing the client's needs in a way that can be built efficiently.

We hired Anderson Shirley Architects to design our new residence for our retirement, and work with our contractor during the construction phase of the project. John Shirley was the firm's principal in charge of our project. We first met John and Karl when they came to our rural building site to check it out and talk to us about the site and its relationship to the kind of house we had in mind. They talked about the land, how to design a home that would work with the land and surrounding countryside, about designing a house with both indoor and outdoor rooms that would bring the outside in, and ways we could ensure a light filled house, a plus for Oregon's grey winter days. They were reading our minds on these issues. We concluded they were not only anticipating our concerns, but that they would be open to the kind of participation in the design process we wanted. We were not disappointed. We worked with them over two years on the design for a modern 2,800 square foot home, with lots of light and real integration with the land. We were as involved as we wished to be. The design process took two years because that was our timeline, working with John and Karl from another state before we moved to Oregon, and we wanted to go slowly. Construction took another year. Our time lines and budget were met. We really enjoyed working with John and Karl. They have breadth and lots of talent, and their people skills helped us work through the inevitable challenges that arise during the construction phase of a complicated building project. We very much recommend them to others. Photos of our home are shown on the Anderson Shirley website under Northwest Modern Rural Residence.