Les Walker has designed over 100 single family residences and over 500 home additions in the Hudson Valley and found that they all have provided widely different and interesting challenges. He begins each new house project with a diagram of all the external forces acting on the house site, such as driveway and septic location, prevailing wind direction, sunrise-sunset location, outstanding views, tree locations, streams or ponds, rock formations, and existing or proposed gardens. Next a diagram of the interior forces acting within the house is completed based on an owner-generated program or “wish list”. The house then sets out to design itself. The owner and the architect guide the development of the interior and exterior spaces to fit the owner’s priorities. The style is determined, the budget is set, and a building begins to take shape.

Woodstock Cottage: A home with two personalities, built by the architect and his wife, Karen Walker, a painter and avid gardener.  An Arts and Crafts-style cottage with English gardens surrounding the entry, contrasted by a modernist east-facing facade given to a natural stream and forest view.