A full set of references is available upon request.
Richard Venable, Client: Wing to Historic Farmhouse Henry MacLean helped us plan not one, but two major renovations for our house. In 2004-2005, we added a family room and master bath over a previously separate garage, plus front entry and rear entry rooms. This project had complex challenges—100-year-old building technology, garage target slightly out of square, variance permit requirement. Henry plowed through them like 6” of snow on a New England country road. Then, in 2013, he drew up plans for a remodeled kitchen, including removing walls to open up the kitchen, living room, dining room and breakfast room so that they flow together, plus needed major structural repairs to the foundation and ground floor. Henry worked together with our general contractors to ensure the jobs went smoothly. He called in the services of a structural engineer when required. He managed the variance permit application to help win the variance approval. Henry is green-conscious, and so made many suggestions for conserving energy, utilizing sustainable energy resources and protecting the environment. Henry was creative, easy to work with and made good suggestions that enhanced the beauty, utility and aesthetic appeal of our home.
Fordie Madeira, Client: Victorian Addition. I met and hired Henry MacLean, from Timeless Architecture when I wanted to make some significant changes to my existing 1840 Victorian home in Dedham, MA. between 2015-16. His structural knowledge along with his years and vast experience as an architect made him invaluable to this project, as it required tearing down a portion of the house and rebuilding it to fit the style and feel of the rest of my antique home. Henry had the unique ability and vision to blend and attach this new space in such a seamless way to look and feel as if it had always been there!Keeping with the character and charm of the original home, he created beautiful new interior spaces that flowed easily between rooms with lots of natural light and detail. His knowledge and experience with Green technology also helped me choose solar panels which currently blend into my roof almost unnoticed and provide me financial and environmental benefit. Beyond his talent, Henry was warm, communicative, fun to work with as well as professional and always mindful of schedules, deadlines and staying within the budget. He has my highest praise for a job well done and I couldn't recommend anyone more highly.
Michael Malamut, Client: Wing to Colonial Craftsman. Henry was our architect for a major addition and home remodel. He was extremely creative in his approaches to achieving our desired results. It is an old house and therefore, there were a lot of quirky issues to address. The addition now looks like it was always part of the house, and it is a classic New England design. When others said that it couldn't be done with us living in the house during construction (we could not afford to rent for months to get the work done), he staged the project seamlessly, so as it did not take significantly longer even with us in the house. Henry was good at projecting and justifying costs. Sometimes they were higher than we budgeted for, but he worked with us on alternative approaches when cost was an issue. Now that the work is done, we don't know how we could have lived without it.
Brad Moriarty, Client: Deep Energy Retrofit, Future Zero Net Energy Home One of Henry's key strengths lie in the details associated with energy efficient building. He, in cooperation with our builder, was able to adapt our design ideas into a fully wrapped, tight envelope. He is also a skilled designer but willing to let us take the design lead when it mattered to us. The plans on his website of our house are his but he drew up the variation that we asked for and makes us happy, even though it didn't follow the rules. Adding insulation and stopping air leaks will reduce your energy bills and make you happy in the long run and Henry will help you make that happen.
Henry Vandermark, President at Solar Wave Energy and Client: Solar Wave Office Rehab. Henry MacLean designed the office space my company has been working in for the last 3 ½ years. My team enjoys the environment which allows comfortable quiet individual day-lit workspaces integrated with a balance of conference and common spaces providing an effective professional atmosphere. Henry was sensitive to our employee’s needs for privacy, comfort, and interaction with other team members. He is knowledgeable about sustainable material and energy choices which made easy our use of energy efficient lighting and construction materials. While no longer new, my team members still occasionally remarks about how happy they are working in his space and like to invite outside colleagues in to visit. I would gladly hire him again when the need arises. I have also worked with Henry on a few of his single family projects. While I was just providing some solar energy systems or monitoring, a saw several of his projects completed with excellent attention to sustainable principles and aesthetic design where the end products were beautiful homes with very satisfied clients.
David Bliss, Senior Project Manager at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger I enjoyed working with Henry MacLean on the design of the McKim Restoration of the Boston Public Library when we both worked at SBRA. It was a particularly simple, elegant design he developed from the concept to reality. There we find within a very tight space, a well detailed stair that rises graciously, with integral illumination of the surrounding Giallo Sienna marble walls. More recently, Henry and I reconnected over our shared environmental concerns when he presented his recent work on Whole Systems Tools to a large group of my colleagues at Simpson Gumpertz and Heger. His presentation resonated with many in attendance and I wholeheartedly recommend seeking his expertise on sustainable design and his dedication to systems thinking for our part of the planet.
Alex Wilson, President of the Resilient Design Institute Henry is a deep thinker who is highly committed to the sustainability of the built environment. I've worked most recently with him on a course he taught at Boston Architectural College and that I was a guest instructor for. Henry has done a great job with that course, both informing and inspiring students as they pursue sustainable design.
Andrew Kenneally, Communications Director @ WCRI, coordinator for Proposal for a Green City Hall with Boston City Council, 2008 I worked with Henry in developing a policy to GREEN Boston City Hall. During all our meetings Henry was a constant professional who displayed a great love for his work - architecture. He gave a lot of his free time to push the issue forward and organize others so we can further turn, as the Mayor of Boston has said, Beantown into Greentown with the greening of Boston City Hall. It was a pleasure to work with him and I would welcome the opportunity to do so again.
Richard Gilles, Managing Director, Barnraisers Group LLC I have worked over many years with Henry on a number of different projects. He has a wonderful eye for design. His unique approach to architecture brings out well balanced, approachable living spaces that are beautiful. Not only is Henry a great Architect with decades of experience, he firmly believes in creating a future where we live in balance with nature. He has dedicated many years to the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. Also, Henry has been involved in making sustainability a part of our reality for over two decades. I highly recommend Henry to anyone looking for a design or consulting services for a project where you would like the solutions founded on a deep understanding of architecture, a great design sense, and grounded in a well rounded understanding of sustainability in the built environment. It is always a pleasure to work with Henry.