Confessions of a Country Architect

After graduating from the Yale School of Architecture, Don Metz decided to take up a small country practice in lieu of seeking success with a popular commercial firm. His choice led to personal and philosophical fulfillment, as well as recognition as a maverick architect who could build honest, reliable, and sustainable homes. It only followed that he would go on to write several books on architecture. Metz is also a novelist, and in Confessions of a Country Architect, he adroitly blends his writer's craft with his years in architecture to detail a touching and waggish memoir of his career. With warm wry humor and slapstick pathos reminiscent of James Herriot's All Creature?s Great and Small, the feisty "flatlander" modestly recounts the ever-challenging and often-comical life of a country architect. A builder in his own right, Metz is also a practical -- but always creative and problem-solving -- hands-on architect. From his early years working with "a weapons-grade jackhammer" in a quarry to the construction of an earth-sheltered house, Metz details the panoply of noble goals and eccentric whims of his diverse clientele. Whether you are ready to summon up the courage to build a house, or content with an armchair with a view, Confessions provides a delightful account of the author's adventures as he navigates the awkward, intractable, and hilariously messy job of building dreams.

Don Metz of Lyme, NH A graduate of the Yale School of Architecture, Don Metz is a pioneer in the field of green architecture, including four decades of residential work throughout New England. He is the author of several books on architecture as well as two novels, Catamount Bridge and King of the Mountain. This book delivers an architect/writer's insights into the foibles and triumphs inherent in the close and sometimes perilous relationships between architects, builders and their clients.