WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT
Our clients are serious about living. And we are serious about providing design to that aids in healthy, positive living. Our bottom line is quality of life and connecting ourselves to our environments.
Gerald Forsburg Associates is a full service design firm. The clients we serve are interested in having a seasoned and talented professional guide them through the design and construction process from start to finish, trusting us to bring their dreams to reality. With 25 years in architecture and design, we bridge the gap between vision and reality. We act as the intermediary between you and the craftsmen and craftswomen to bring the design to reality.
We believe a well designed home, exterior and interior, is about love, hospitality and quality of life for all who enter. This doesn’t happen by chance, and rarely from a set of plans alone. Truly bespoke homes are a collaboration of many, from homeowner and designer, to builder and craftsmen. Dream homes and projects happen with clear communication of dreams, expectations and goals, an even more rigorous design process and a relentless eye during construction and installation. We take the trial and error out of it through our vast experience of client projects.
We are about protecting your investment. Our business model is to be there for you and your project from start to finish - not to increase our bottom line, but rather the ensure that you get the project you expect. Many offer design. Few are unbiased. Unlike product showrooms, or even design-build contractors, we offer Design Services, and therefore are limited only by your imagination, not by a commission on the sale of product or how much profit margin we can squeeze out of your project. We help you review your budget throughout the project. We help you make informed adjustments when needed. We provide you the information needed to make educated decisions to get what you truly want.
And we have an eye for the details. We have learned that the difference between good design and great design is about setting priorities and knowing what to leave out of a design to make it truly sing. This is what makes for elegance.
From the first meeting, through conceptual design and refinement, to the last worker sweeping up and turning over the keys to you, Gerald Forsburg Associates will stick by you through the thick and thin, not leaving a single detail to chance, or to the builder.
This is what makes us different.
Gerald Forsburg Associates is a full service design firm. The clients we serve are interested in having a seasoned and talented professional guide them through the design and construction process from start to finish, trusting us to bring their dreams to reality. With 25 years in architecture and design, we bridge the gap between vision and reality. We act as the intermediary between you and the craftsmen and craftswomen to bring the design to reality.
We believe a well designed home, exterior and interior, is about love, hospitality and quality of life for all who enter. This doesn’t happen by chance, and rarely from a set of plans alone. Truly bespoke homes are a collaboration of many, from homeowner and designer, to builder and craftsmen. Dream homes and projects happen with clear communication of dreams, expectations and goals, an even more rigorous design process and a relentless eye during construction and installation. We take the trial and error out of it through our vast experience of client projects.
We are about protecting your investment. Our business model is to be there for you and your project from start to finish - not to increase our bottom line, but rather the ensure that you get the project you expect. Many offer design. Few are unbiased. Unlike product showrooms, or even design-build contractors, we offer Design Services, and therefore are limited only by your imagination, not by a commission on the sale of product or how much profit margin we can squeeze out of your project. We help you review your budget throughout the project. We help you make informed adjustments when needed. We provide you the information needed to make educated decisions to get what you truly want.
And we have an eye for the details. We have learned that the difference between good design and great design is about setting priorities and knowing what to leave out of a design to make it truly sing. This is what makes for elegance.
From the first meeting, through conceptual design and refinement, to the last worker sweeping up and turning over the keys to you, Gerald Forsburg Associates will stick by you through the thick and thin, not leaving a single detail to chance, or to the builder.
This is what makes us different.
OUR PRINCIPLES
Our firm was built on the following foundation of principles we use to guide us every day:
Our goal is simple: BEAUTY. We start with a Listening Ear. We draw from Form, Function, Precedence and Proportion. We bring our Enthusiasm, Expertise, Integrity, Innovation, and Sophistication. To this we add just the right amount of Texture, Pattern, Color, and Detail. The end result is Artful, Appropriate, Personal, Client Specific, Comfortable and Elegant. |
OUR PROCESS
Gerald Forsburg Associates is a full service design firm. Our primary focus is residential exteriors and interiors, but we enjoy a mix of historic, equestrian, winery and specialty projects as well.
We approach design with passion, and as a team with our clients, builders and craftsmen and women. Our process emphasizes collaboration and requires the client(s) to be active in the decision making. We believe in the craft of creating beauty - and serve the great people who aspire to exceptional living. The relationships we build with our clients often last many years. Today, Gerald Forsburg Associates continues to grow in its pursuit of the design of beautiful spaces based on time tested principles of the Masters that have gone before us. We also believe that good design need not be expensive. What is important is the exploration of personal taste, and protecting your investment in your personal expression embodied in the final built project. |
PRINCIPAL Gerald N. Forsburg was born in central Pennsylvania and moved to Virginia at an early age. He received his Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Urban Planning from the Catholic University of America, and took first place in a school-wide design charrette in his final year. With over 20 years in architecture, preservation and planning, Gerald maintains an extensive list of artisans, craftsman and consultants with whom he collaborates as the projects require. "Gerald Forsburg Associates' primary goal is to create Sustainable Value by designing places of exceptional quality, charm and timeless elegance for generations to come. Communication with our clients is key, and collaboration with competent craftsmen and women is what sets us apart. Our primary role is protecting our clients' investments in the built environment."
As a sole practitioner, Gerald works closely with his clients to provide high quality and classically accurate designs to meet both their expectations and dreams. Gerald, his wife Tara and their son, live in Mount Jackson where they enjoy the surrounding mountain views, hiking, gardening and rural living with easy access to clients around the country. |
Q: What structure most inspires you?
A: The Lincoln Memorial (Henry Bacon), mostly because it was the primary structure I would see on a regular basis as a young child, and inspired me to study other structures, and ultimately Architecture. To this day, I have a fondness for Beaux-Arts Architecture. Q: Who most inspires you?
A: Claude Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806) working in the French Neoclassical. LeDoux was classically trained, yet his designs seemed oddly modern, I think because he often worked with pure forms. His works are extremely refined and taut, yet still playful. Q: What is your design process?
A: Everything starts, of course, with a dialog with the client to determine their desires. Some clients are free to express their dreams; for others, it takes time to develop a trust. The initial ideas often comes fast, but it then takes effort to focus the design so that it's refined. I primarily like to work in pencil, developing quick sketches to get the ideas out on paper, then refining designs to form more coherent and real-world objectives through media such as watercolor. In addition to listening to the client's desires, it is as important to "listen" to the site for a new build, or to the existing structure for a renovation or addition. The existing environment often "speaks" very frankly to where it wants to grow, or change, and often how. |
Study of a French Chateau (Using handmade, locally-harvested Black Walnut Ink on Paper)
Member of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art
and the National Civic Art Society
WASHINGTON, DC: 202.670.2164 VIRGINIA: 540.477.2377
and the National Civic Art Society
WASHINGTON, DC: 202.670.2164 VIRGINIA: 540.477.2377