Michelle Ouellette

Michelle is a 2011 graduate of Pennsylvania State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Architecture with minors in Architectural History and English. Enthusiastic for the opportunities and serendipities available with found spaces, she’s a proponent of adaptive reuse and renovation. Her fifth-year thesis explores the potential for cinematic movement and narrative in architecture through development of a mixed-use Lowell, MA loft building.

In 2009, she represented PSU in Washington, DC as a member of the Solar Decathlon team, designing and building a solar-powered home. In 2010, she worked as a summer intern with DSA. Michelle is excited to return to DSA to apply her education and deepen her experience as she works toward professional licensure and registration. Her command of parametric modeling programs and facility with physical models supports design and documentation efforts on multiple projects at DSA.

Michelle enjoys good storytelling and spends her personal time adding to her book and movie collection and volunteering in the Moonlight Studio.

David Chase, LEED AP

Joining the firm in 2011, David brings design and management experience honed through his 12 years of residential and institutional practice with award-winning Boston architecture firms. He earned his architectural degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1999, and his LEED NC from the Green Building Certification Institute in 2009.

He sees each project through a lens attuned to the fundamental and holistic sustainability of the products and processes involved. He is especially interested in integrating the building life-cycle with broader design intentions to enhance the harmony and cohesion in our solutions for clients in living and working environments.

A garden room addition whose exterior massing and detail strives to be respectful to the original landscape of the antique 18th century farmhouse while providing a fresh contemporary sun lit space that captures views of the spectacular landscape. In addition to the garden room, the program included a breakfast room and a master dressing room overlooking the property.

Tricia Upton

Interior Designer

Tricia helps clients navigate their interactions with their new spaces, understanding how lifestyle can shape the details of intensely programmed spaces like bathrooms, kitchens, pantries and mudrooms, so that those spaces simplify and ennoble the daily rituals of living. Her expertise combines the Designer’s savvy and passion for space and spatial narratives with the Craftsman’s understanding of the particular and idiosyncratic demands of every fixture, fitting, material and finish and brings all those things together with the Project Manager’s imperatives of orchestrating lead-times and coordinating vendors and sub-contractors.

Tricia joined DSA in 2011 after collaborating with us as an independent Interior Designer on the “Winter Wainscot” project featured in the “On the Boards” section here, and working with Tim and Justin on the “Wainscot Greatroom” and “Elemental Retreat” projects. Before joining DSA, she served a Groton Design+Build Contractor as an Interior Designer and “Selections Manager” for several years.

Tricia is an avid cyclist and has completed the Pan-Mass Challenge five times.

Designed for a 2+ acre parcel recently sub-divided from his parents’, this one-bedroom bachelor pad is expected to become guest quarters in a larger house for a future family of our young client’s own.The interior is scaled to grant a grace and grandeur to often otherwise overlooked space above the garage bays. Triple french doors face due South to heat the house with low Winter sun, and are sheltered from the Summer Sun’s high rays by a roof overhang of almost four feet.

Expected completion date: Summer 2011

Proposal for new six bedroom house with garage and pool house. The design draws from the long tradition of gambrel-roofed, shingle-styled homes along the east coast. The water-facing elevation replaces the traditional shingled exterior wall with a glass curtain wall for maximum views of the water from the central gathering room. The inland elevation is layered with horizontal v-grooved boards and cedar shingles. The roof is punctuated by cross gables, bay windows and a long shed dormer.

Proposal for new six bedroom house with garage and pool house. The design draws from the long tradition of gambrel-roofed, shingle-styled homes along the east coast. The water-facing elevation replaces the traditional shingled exterior wall with a glass curtain wall for maximum views of the water from the central gathering room. The inland elevation is layered with horizontal v-grooved boards and cedar shingles. The roof is punctuated by cross gables, bay windows and a long shed dormer.

The plans include a structural reinforcement of the roof and window walls, upgrade of the insulation for roof and exterior walls, a new side portico entrance and a shed to cover basement access. The work is being done by Colonial Barn Restoration, a local timber-framer.

Construction begins Summer 2011

This simple painting studio includes living quarters for an artist and frequent weekend guests. A familiar vocabulary of traditional forms and materials slants gently toward the sun and views up the Slocum River. The cantilevered roof and upper storey shelter the glass from summer sun. The concrete floor absorbs energy from low winter sun during the daytime to release it at night. Walls of exposed studs inside are wrapped and sealed with a continuous plane of insulation applied outside the structural sheathing.

Expected commencement date: Fall 2011