A Quick Sketch

Skia Design was founded in 2001 with one goal firmly in mind: to make superb residential design more accessible and more affordable to more people. The founder and designer, Marc Manley, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1985. From then until 2001 he cut his design teeth in mostly commercial and institutional architecture, obtaining in 1992 a license to practice architecture in the State of Washington.* In addition to working for various architectural firms, he free–lanced residential work, took some time to attend a seminary in Portland, Oregon, and lived in Belgium, helping a faith-based group establish a media center.

While living in Portland Marc met his wife and started a family there. In 1999, looking for a place to settle down, they relocated to the bucolic New River Valley in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia. For two years Marc worked with a Blacksburg architect (again mostly commercial work) before starting Skia Design.

In pursuit of his goal Marc let his architectural license fade away. He read a statistic in a trade journal that only about 1% of all homes built in the United States are designed by licensed architects. Most of these homes no doubt fit in the “Luxury” class. These are the homes you see in the magazines, the money–is–no–object million dollar or more homes. From these homes to the 99% cookie–cutter plan book others stands a huge gap. Marc's goal was to work in the gap.

Whether you desire a Luxury home, a "gap" home, or a bare bones home, Skia Design will provide you inspirational house plans for much less than you would typically pay a licensed professional. And you will feel “at home”. You will enjoy the balanced proportions, the play of light, the advantageous views, the highly functional spaces, the cozy nooks.

You will discover as you navigate this site that Skia Design does not have a plan book, though most of the plans of homes shown are of course available for customization. While there are many great stock plans, difficulties usually arise in trying to find just the right fit, in conforming the plans to current local building code requirements, or especially in attempting to wed a good stock plan to an incompatible site, and vice versa! The house site, even a lot in a subdivision, is unique in every way, as are the demands of the owner who will inhabit that site and home. And while stock plans do pose difficulties, Marc is more than willing to help you overcome those difficulties, having learned very early on in architecture school that "Problems are simply opportunities for good design!"†

So, if the home plans found online or in plan books don’t quite catch your vision, you want to avoid the high fees of a licensed professional architect, or you don’t want to lose market flexibility by using builder-designed plans, then contact Marc at Skia Design. He is at your service.

* Marc no longer practices as a licensed professional architect—see the Q&A  page for more information on some of the legal issues involved.

† For more insight on this topic, see "Stock House Plan Modifications" on my Services page.