Last updated on May 27th, 2024 at 06:38 am
Along the Cache la Poudre River, near the foothills of the northern Front Range, lies the city of Fort Collins in Colorado. Stunning views of nature frame the city, and Fort Collins has beautiful homes to match the sublime landscape. These homes range in style from traditional mansions to modern and contemporary houses, and every architectural style in between. Although Zillow lists the typical home value of homes in Fort Collins at $440,690, the area’s residential architects and designers are more than capable of building and designing magnificent homes for a wide range of budgets.
We decided to list the top residential architects and designers by looking through company profiles and examining their experience, the services they offer, the level of customer satisfaction they have achieved, the awards they have received, and the media features and coverage that they have generated. You can be sure that your discerning tastes and preferences will be satisfied, whichever firm on the list you choose to work with.
If you are thinking about building a custom home, we recommend checking each builder’s license with the local licensing board, speaking to past clients, and using our bidding system to get competitive quotes from at least 3 contractors. Getting multiple bids is the best way to ensure you get a fair price and that bids include the complete scope of work. On the other hand, if you want to learn more about the cost of building a custom home in Fort Collins, check out our cost guide article.
Aller Architects PC
2900 S. College Ave. Suite 3A Fort Collins, CO 80526
Aller Architects PC is a residential and commercial architect serving all of Northern Colorado. Formed out of principal Mick Aller’s desire to create a company dedicated to quality, customer service, and exceptional design, Aller Architects PC stands today as one of the premier architectural firms in Colorado.
For Aller Architects PC, what matters most is that each and every interaction with customers is authentic, collaborative, and tailored to the client’s needs. Every project is unique and each client has a different set of requirements and expectations. The firm takes great strides to ensure that the client is in the driver’s seat as much—or as little—as they choose to be. Aller Architects and the project team of experts are always available to provide as much advice and direction as the client requests.
David Hueter Design
5402 Roma Valley Court, Fort Collins, CO 80525
David Hueter Design specializes in what it calls the artful fusion of interior and exterior design. This philosophy has been integral to the practice of David Hueter, the firm’s principal, who has designed over 300 custom homes, several of which have won recognition.
For David, having grown up in the Monterey Bay Area and having spent summers in Lake Tahoe were what led to coastal and mountain designs influencing his initial love of architecture. His gift for design is matched by his passion for bringing visions to life for his clients. Having filled the unique roles of designer, general contractor, builder and homeowner helps David to identify—quickly and efficiently— the true needs of his clients. That eye and ear for the core of a project ensure that his designs for “extraordinary living” are successful for all involved.
Davis Davis Architects
Davis Davis Architects is a firm located in downtown Fort Collins, headed by the husband and wife team of Robert L. Davis Jr. and Laurie Perriello Davis. The company is dedicated to providing the highest level of residential design, offering personal, hands-on professional service to the residents of Fort Collins, Boulder, and Denver.
Since 1992 Davis Davis Architects has been implementing high-quality projects that embody the vision of its clients. Every structure the firm designs is customized to the site and requirements of the client, deploying natural light, elegant forms, and beautiful materials to provide a nurturing, harmonious experience. The firm has a passion for sustainability, with many of its projects achieving the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified status.
Greg D. Fisher, Architect
3070 Terry Lake Road, Fort Collins, CO 80524
Greg D. Fisher, Architect is a design and service-centered practice that has been focusing on simple, progressive, authentic, and responsible designs since the firm’s inception in 1993. Unique to other design and architecture firms in the business, Greg Fisher, principal, has remained a one-man firm by choice, due to his love of “the project” and desire to be involved with all aspects of every design.
As the sole visionary of his firm, Greg is committed to a highly collaborative design approach where clients, users, consultants, and builders become part of the design team working side by side with the architect and engineers. Greg has pursued a diversity of building types over the years with the belief that non-specialization leads to broader, more open-minded creativity. From large manufacturing facilities to single-family homes to non-profit facilities— all are given the same personal care by Greg, with many of his projects going on to receive awards. A special emphasis is placed on projects that wish to embed sustainable to regenerative practices such as those seeking Passive House, LEED or similar certifications.
John Dengler and Associates, P.C.
5336 Highcastle Court Fort Collins, CO 80525
Since its establishment in 1982, Fort Collins-based architectural firm John Dengler and Associates, P.C. has been excelling in the design of unique single-family custom homes along the Colorado front-range, as well as in mountain communities such as Steamboat Springs, Estes Park, Winter Park, Durango, Keystone, Flagstaff, Arizona, and Wyoming. Each home the firm designs is specifically tailored for the lot and the owner’s individual needs. These homes are living, artistic expressions of the owners’ personalities.
The firm has also successfully designed several affordable housing multi-family projects for CARE Housing in Fort Collins, Catholic Charities, as well as for other nonprofits with project locations throughout Colorado. Because of the stellar quality of its work, the firm and its designs have been featured in publications like Colorado Homes and Lifestyles, Mountain Living, Sunset, Residential Architect, Better Homes and Gardens, and on television, through HGTV’s Dream Home.
Kenney Lee Architecture Group
209 East Fourth Street, Loveland, CO 80537
Kenney Lee Architecture Group is a firm that offers a wide range of planning and design services including, but not limited to, site design, building design, construction documents, cost estimating, bidding, negotiation, and construction administration. Diverse as these services may be, the firm strives for uniformity in quality and timeliness in project delivery.
The company believes that collaborative effort between client, architect, consultant, and contractor enhances the process from project conception to project completion. With an emphasis on the use of natural and ordinary materials, the firm is able to create architecture that complements the surrounding environment and sustains project budgets. The firm, through its principal Kris Lee, keeps up with the current trends and technologies. Kenney Lee Architecture Group continues to grow the successful business it had started almost three decades ago.
Rentfrow Design
3200 S Lemay, Fort Collins, CO 80525
In 1995, Jon Rentfrow—out of his passion for architecture—founded a residential architecture firm by the name of Rentfrow Design. The firm is based in Colorado but designs homes across North America. Over the years, Rentfrow has been the recipient of design awards, the most recent ones including Colorado’s Most Trusted Custom Home Designer from the 2021 Leading Designers Awards and Best Multi-Family & Custom Home Architecture Firm in Colorado from the 2021 Corporate America Today.
The company’s design philosophy focuses on ‘creating homes for the way your family lives.’ The firm puts a lot of emphasis on functional utility—how a client’s family uses or will use any given space. Rentfrow Design enjoys asking the ‘why’ questions when discussing a client’s new home, not just asking “how many” or “how big.” The firm desires that a client’s home fits their everyday needs and lifestyle, and fits perfectly. For its design excellence and stunning work, the firm has been featured on the pages of Architectural Designs Magazine, Luxury Home Quarterly, Designer Dream Homes Magazine, and STYLE Magazine.
Tomlinson Designs
141 S College Ave, Ste 102, Fort Collins, CO 80524
Sean Tomlinson founded Tomlinson Designs in March 2007 with the simple goal of helping clients design a home that caters to their lifestyle. Sean’s passion for architecture began at an early age when he experienced the remodel of his family’s home. After moving to Fort Collins in 2004, Sean worked for local reputable architectural firms and earned a certificate in construction management from Colorado State University.
Sean’s community relationships and background in sustainable design, planning, and consulting allow him to design personalized homes with his client’s desires and future generation’s needs in mind. His practical experience, prior to entering grad school, includes working in the construction industry as a framer for a high-end luxury home contractor in Lake Tahoe and working for a leading residential architectural firm in Seattle. All this experience comes in service of building up the firm’s reputation as one of Colorado’s premier design and architectural firms in operation today.
Urban | Rural Design
252 Linden Street, Fort Collins, CO 80524
Urban | Rural Design provides a holistic, integrated design approach to create unique, efficient, and contextual buildings. For the past seventeen years, the firm’s projects have included office buildings, schools, restaurants, community buildings, and single-family custom homes. Its approach to design is based on techniques of modernism with an infusion of the local vernacular, where form follows function and maximizes spatial opportunities. This approach starts with data-driven programming, designing the building from the inside out or within the confines of the specific project requirements, and is followed by collaboration between the design team and clients to create a very functional and timeless building.
Brian Majeski, the firm’s founder, has an extensive background when it comes to rendering design services along with his partners and fellow architects, Merl Haworth and Heidi Habbinga. Brian is currently an Associate of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and served on the City of Fort Collins Urban Design Working Group, which is part of creating the city’s new master plan. Brian also serves on the Colorado State University Institute for the Built Environment’s (IBE) LENSES Program. With Brian at the head of the firm, Urban | Rural Design has built a practice that has gone on to flourish and continues to thrive after seventeen years of service.
VFLA Architecture + Interiors
419 Canyon Ave., Suite 200, Fort Collins, CO 80521
Vaught Frye Larson Aronson Architects (VFLA) is a full-capacity architecture firm with locations in Fort Collins and across the Wyoming border, in Cheyenne. The firm offers comprehensive architectural services including architectural design, interior design, land planning, graphic design, and construction phase services. VFLA was founded in 1986 and grounds its practice in award-winning sustainable design.
The firm started as a friendship between two first-year students—Frank Vaught and Joe Frye—at the University of Houston’s School of Architecture in 1966. The two soon took on architectural ventures together, which led them down the path to form VFLA with fellow partners Justin Larson and Chris Aronson. Today, VFLA is excited to continue to grow and evolve at the forefront of architecture. Under the four principals’ leadership, VFLA has gone on to win awards and has been featured on the pages of Colorado Homes & Lifestyle, International Bowling Industry Magazine, and Home + Design Magazine.
About Our Rankings
This list takes a range of ranking criteria into consideration, including but not limited to: work history, customer satisfaction, awards and recognition, geographic area of work, cost, building permits, and clientele. We spent over 40 hours researching local contractors before calculating the final ranking for this post. If there is additional information about your business that could affect these rankings, please fill out this form and we will take it into consideration.
Get Bids For Your Build
If you are thinking about building a custom home, we recommend checking each builder’s license with the local licensing board, speaking to past clients, and using our bidding system to get competitive quotes from at least 3 contractors. Getting multiple bids is the best way to ensure you get a fair price and that bids include the complete scope of work.
