Est. 2012 — Denver, Colorado
A boutique residential builder working with a small number of clients each year, across the American West and Texas.
Atelier Homes began in 2012 with one project and a simple observation: the most interesting houses were being quietly compromised somewhere between the drawing and the building.
Our founder, Adrian Mercer, had spent fourteen years leading projects for architecture practices in London and Denver. Again and again he watched carefully designed details simplified on site — not through carelessness, but because the people building them had arrived too late to understand why they mattered.
So we arranged things differently. We join each project at the very beginning, work alongside the architect through every stage of design, and employ the core trades ourselves. The people who discuss a detail at the drawing table are the people who build it.
Since then we have completed thirty-one residences across Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, Texas and California. We still take on only four to six a year, and every one is led personally by a principal of the firm.
Philosophy
No two of our houses share a floor plan, a palette, or a story. We begin each project by listening — to how the owners live, how the site behaves across a full year, and what they hope to feel when they come home.
The house that results could only belong to those people, in that place. That is the measure we hold ourselves to.
Leadership
Founder & Principal
Adrian spent fourteen years leading projects for architecture practices in London and Denver before founding Atelier Homes in 2012. He leads every client relationship personally and still walks each active site once a week.
Director of Design
Trained as an architect at the University of Pennsylvania, Elena joined in 2016 to lead design coordination. She works between clients, architects and our workshop, translating intent into buildable detail.
Design coordination · Materials & finishes · Detailing
Director of Construction
A third-generation builder from Montana, Daniel oversees every site and the craftspeople who work on them. Since joining in 2014 he has led construction on more than twenty Atelier residences.
Construction management · Structural systems · Quality control
Every decision should be explainable. If we cannot say why a detail exists, it does not belong in the house.
We build with materials that age gracefully and methods that can be repaired, rather than replaced.
A small number of clients, each known by name to everyone on site — from the principal to the apprentice.
Plans change; standards do not. We adapt carefully, and explain every change before it is made.