David Stumpf Architecture

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We are a full service architectural firm specializing in the following: Architectural Design, Conceptual Planning, Consulting, Construction Documentation, Construction Management, Interior Design, landscape design, Real Estate Photography

Many people want an open floor plan. Almost nobody talks about the thing that makes one actually work.It isn’t the walls...
10/03/2026

Many people want an open floor plan. Almost nobody talks about the thing that makes one actually work.

It isn’t the walls you take out. It’s how the ceiling is designed.

In this house we kept the whole main level open, but it still reads as a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, each its own space. No walls doing it. We dropped the ceiling low over the kitchen to make it intimate, raised it over the living room to open it up, and let the sightlines pull you through. Lower a ceiling and a space feels cozy. Raise it and the next one feels grand. That contrast is what gives an open plan rooms.

Frank Lloyd Wright built his whole language around this. It’s the same move, a hundred years later, in a custom home outside Pittsburgh.

Full walkthrough is up on YouTube. Link in the comments!

09/26/2026

This building has failed twice. We are the ones bringing it back.

Out at Champion Lakes this week checking on a few of our projects, and one of them has a story worth telling. The event facility we are restoring started as a block cart barn. A fire destroyed everything from the window heads up. The next attempt was a pole structure framed on top, but it was supplied without engineering and it blew over. That is when the owners brought us in.

What we designed is an old-world agrarian event space. The timber-frame entry is installed, with stone to come across the face of the building, the columns, and the new wing walls. One detail we love: to give it that aged, grown-in look without harming the block, we are using a climbing vine that clings to the surface instead of rooting into the wall.

When you are playing the 18th and looking up toward this building, it is going to be something. We have already gotten a lot of compliments on where it is headed.

08/31/2026

This house is $4.2 million dollars, and there are details here I would not have executed this way.

It was our last night of vacation and this place is going up right near where we were staying, so I walked it. At that price point, the ex*****on should be flawless.

A few things stood out. The plan orientation gives up the chance at a proper front entry off the porch. The soffits box off at the edge, the same bird box detail I’ve flagged before, and it cheapens a house of this caliber. The window casings are flat and thin, about two and a half inches where three and a half with a backband would read correctly, and the sill has no curve cut. If the house is being marketed as historically correct, there should be a crown detail as well. They’re using Tyvek, which is a perfectly fine product in most places, but not what I’d specify for a marine environment.

The one that actually matters long term is the bathroom exhaust venting. Those vents are discharging hot moist air directly next to a soffit vent, which pulls that same air right back into the roof assembly. That’s a moisture problem the owner will pay for years from now without ever knowing why.

Details and ex*****on matter, and it isn’t about over detailing. Simple historic details, done correctly, are what elevate a build.

Want me to break down the floor plan next? Let me know.

08/26/2026

You can look at a house and feel that it’s beautiful. But could you explain why?

That’s the gap I wanted to close in this one. Almost everyone can sense when a home is beautiful, but very few can point to what actually creates that feeling. So I used four houses to show it.

The first, a shingle style beach house I found under construction on vacation, gets the details right. The curved roof was framed by ripping an LVL out of OSB and bringing the rafters back around to hold the radius. The porte cochere columns taper to a beam that matches the column dimension at the top. The trim is held proud of the fascia to cast a clean shadow line instead of reaching for a crown profile. Even the window casings stay simple but elevated, with proper top flashing and drip edge.

Then I walk three more houses nearby. Every one of them is well built and looks nice at a glance. But they miss the details. Windows without sills at the bottom. Casing profiles that read flat. Bird boxes, where the roofline comes down and squares off into a flat soffit, which tends to cheapen the whole look and read like a track home builder. Exposed rafter tails, like the beautiful house uses, would have read far better.

That’s the point. The difference between well built and beautiful lives in details most people feel but can’t name. Once you can name them, you see them everywhere.

Full breakdown on YouTube. Link in the first comment.

Seven months ago this custom home was just a foundation. Today the brick is on, the windows and doors are in, and it fin...
08/23/2026

Seven months ago this custom home was just a foundation. Today the brick is on, the windows and doors are in, and it finally reads as a house.

I was back on site this week for a construction administration walkthrough, which is the part of the process most people never see. It’s where I verify that what’s actually being built matches what we designed. On this visit that meant checking the brick sill and soldier courses, confirming the weep holes were installed correctly, catching a trim detail that got missed, working through a shower that started as a window and became a transom, and reviewing the rafter clearances for the elevator that has to reach the third floor.

Here’s the thing about weep holes, since they come up in the video. Brick veneer isn’t waterproof. Water gets behind it, and those small gaps at the base of the wall are what let it drain back out instead of soaking into the structure. Miss them and you’ve built a problem into the wall. It’s exactly the kind of detail that’s cheap to get right during construction and expensive to fix later.

The builder on this one is good and moves fast. On a custom home, the architect on site is the layer that makes sure fast never means a detail gets buried.

Full walkthrough is up on YouTube. Link in the first comment.

08/21/2026

How do you get a zoning variance approved? We just walked one through, so here’s how it actually works.

Our client purchased a property with an existing house. The house was torn down, and in the meantime the town updated its zoning laws, which left the lot nonconforming. On a nonconforming lot, you can’t simply apply for a permit and build. You need a variance.

A zoning variance is approval to build when the physical lot can’t be changed to meet the current requirements. To get one, you appear before the zoning board of appeals and demonstrate two things: that the lot itself cannot conform, and that everything you intend to build meets the rest of the zoning code.

We came in with a clear plan, made that case, and the board approved it. Our client can now move forward with his dream home.

If you’re facing this, the most important thing to know is that the board is made up of your neighbors, everyday people deciding what happens in their community. Showing up with a solid plan and an architect who knows the code and can clearly explain it makes all the difference.

07/31/2026

We took this 100-year-old house down to the studs, and the framing told on itself. 👀

We took this historic home down to the studs to convert it back into a duplex, and found double 2x10 headers sitting on nothing. No column, no support, just floating there for who knows how many decades.

That wasn’t even the only surprise. The board and batten walls are actually structural, and you can see the exact seams where the original house stopped and two additions got tacked on over the years.

Here’s the lesson: an old house never tells you the truth until you open it up. Survey the bones first, and you can bring it back to life the right way. Skip that step, and the house decides your budget for you.

What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever found inside an old house? Drop it below 👇

Thinking about renovating or converting an older home? Message me. I’m an architect who leads from the construction side, and I’d love to hear about your project.

Follow for more old-house teardowns, framing breakdowns, and the real work behind historic renovations.

Most custom homes in Buffalo play it safe. This one doesn’t.Renderings are done and we submitted for building permit tod...
07/29/2026

Most custom homes in Buffalo play it safe. This one doesn’t.

Renderings are done and we submitted for building permit today! Scroll through to see the interior.

The Thomas Residence is a modern, design-forward custom home built to a level of material craft you don’t see often in this market. The exterior pairs slate composite siding from Cupa Pizarras with crisp white stucco, aluminum-clad Pella Windows and Doors, and warm thermally modified wood accents. It is a restrained, high-end palette that lets the architecture speak.

Inside, we maximized the buildable space and added a full master suite: a sitting room entry with the bedroom and bath on one side and a custom walk-in closet on the other. The living, dining, and central entry are fully open, and rather than chopping those spaces up with walls, we shaped the ceiling to define distinct zones and paths of travel. Leave a comment and let me know if you think we pulled it off.

Like always, I’m on this one through construction administration, start to finish. Can’t wait to break ground and share construction progress.

07/26/2026

This home blends traditional and modern architecture. The carriage house doors and brick read as traditional, while the horizontal panel orientation on the doors pulls the design in a modern direction. It is a small detail that changes how the entire facade reads, and it is exactly the kind of decision that separates a true custom home from a production build.

This is the kind of custom residential work that rewards a construction-first architect who details every material and transition with intent, from the motor court approach to the way the brick meets the siding.

David Stumpf, AIA, NCARB, is the founder of David Stumpf Architecture, with offices in Pittsburgh and Buffalo and a practice spanning custom residential, historic restoration, and multifamily development. High-Rise Rigor. Boutique Craft.

The full build series, from clearing the land through construction, is on YouTube (link in the comments).

07/26/2026

David Stumpf Architecture is restoring a 1920s bungalow at Champion Lakes Golf Resort in Bolivar, Pennsylvania, converting a former rental into a historic guest house.

On this site visit we walked two active projects on the same campus. The carb barn restoration continues to progress, but the focus was the house across the street: a 1920s craftsman bungalow the resort purchased and is now transforming into guest accommodations.

The design approach was simple and classic. The existing white exterior stays, the dated green accents come off in favor of black trim, and the original wood door is preserved. We reworked the floor plan and added two guest rooms on the rear of the house.

The architectural reference is low country design, the elevated, historically detailed style found in Savannah and Charleston. Applied to a Western Pennsylvania bungalow, it produces a building that reads as authentically historic rather than simply renovated. This is the kind of historic restoration and adaptive reuse work that rewards a construction-first architect who details every material and transition with intent.

The clubhouse restoration on the same campus is also underway.

David Stumpf, AIA, NCARB, is the founder of David Stumpf Architecture, with offices in Pittsburgh and Buffalo and a practice spanning custom residential, historic restoration, and multifamily development. High-Rise Rigor. Boutique Craft.

Full project walkthrough on YouTube (link in the comments).

Address

New York, NY

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 4:30pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Friday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Saturday 8am - 5pm
Sunday 8am - 5pm

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412-592-6970

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