Custom Home Designer Creates Cashiers Residence with National Recognition
Legacy Magazine Article – Fall 2006 on Residential Designer
Fall Mountain Edition: The Rand Soellner Timber Frame House
Custom home designer Rand Soellner’s personal residence is featured below, which is conventionally constructed, but appears 
to be a hybrid combination of log walls and timber frame roof and post and beam support structure. As a designer of custom houses, Soellner said that there a couple of things to remember: first, appearance. Second, value. The combination of the two often leads this residential designer to hybrid solutions.
Hybrid means a combination of previously separate and distinct materials and systems, to result a new combination that is a blend of several materials and systems. This often creates a new appearance that can be desirable and it may cost less that the “pure” separate systems upon which they were based. This is the value engineering secret this licensed architectural designer uses to to “getting the look” for pennies on the dollar, that is elusive for many people. Soellner has value engineered millions of dollars from enormous world class projects over the years, including assisting the architectural and construction team save about $24 million on Jurassic Park in the Orlando area, during the design and construction document phases, which meant a project cost of $50 million instead of $74 million. It is this kind of world class expertise that Soellner brings to house design and residential value engineering on his projects for clients who want the “look” but not the price tag.
Note: the above photo was taken by Mark Hutchison
Custom home designer Soellner creates luxury houses for different locations and clients.
Rand Soellner Architect is a custom home designer that creates residential projects for a variety of clients. Some of his projects are on flat land in surburban settings like Orlando, Florida and even as far away as Kuwait City on the Arabian Gulf, and Seabeck Bay, Washington, the Glade Springs Resort in Daniels, West Virginia, or west of Chicago in northern Illinois. Other houses this designer creates are on steep topography in mountainous terrain, such as the residence you see here. Each project has different circumstances and varying environmental conditions. For instance, in the Cashiers, Highlands, Glenville and Lake Toxaway areas, there frequently exists steep terrain with bedrock either exposed or just below the surface of the the ground. This situation requires a knowledgeable custom mountain designer that knows how to deal with such conditions. This requires “pinning” the footings to the actual rock strata on which the house rests. This is a process whereby epoxy-coated steel reinforcing bars are secured into the rock, with epoxy fluid and mechanical attachment, left projecting up and the foundations poured over the projecting bars, like reconstructive dental work. The result are foundations that are bonded to the very bedrock on which the house sits. This is actually a simple thing to do for an experienced designer, and contractors in mountainous regions know how to accomplish this. Unfortunately, some builders from other areas have come to this area and built without this knowledge, and there have been disastrous results. It is always best for your residential architect to be involved with such matters.
“Being a custom home designer has always appealed to me,” said Soellner, no matter how challenging the project may be, it is always a labor of love.” Soellner said he is always grateful to his clients for allowing him to design in such interesting locations. His current work includes homes in northern Illinois, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Washington (Tacoma, Gig Harbor, Seabeck Bay areas), Tennessee and other places.
This article serves as reference for:
Custom homes and designers
Mountain homes
Mountain interiors
North Carolina mountain design
North Carolina mountain homes architect
Mountain lodge style architecture
Arts and crafts architect
Log homes architect
Timber frame architecture
Post and beam architect
Green Homes
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