Genteel grace, hospitality, casual elegance, and a deep sense of place and community inform everything we do. As avid historians, we dedicate ourselves to research and regional discovery, designing with local tradition and heritage in mind. The small and often uncelebrated pieces that add to the character of a place often tell the most authentic stories. Simple expressions of material and form allow us to regard less explored building types with all their idiosyncrasies as a stage for reinvention.

Historical Concepts is an architectural partnership established in 1982, providing award winning traditional architecture and planning to residential, developer, and civic clients.

HISTORICAL CONCEPTS was founded in 1982 by Yale alumnus James L. Strickland with the commitment to produce original works of architecture informed by the classical tradition and lessons of historic precedent.

Jim’s guiding standard has always been to discover in each design challenge the essence of its unique heritage and place. By imagining the history of a property and home, he considers how it would have originated, how various buildings on a property may have been used and changed, re-purposed, or added to over time. This fanciful narrative guides a refreshed design, creating magical environments that affect the senses, engaging the client with due measures of dedication and delight.

Jim enthusiastically continues his leadership as a mentor, passing on his imaginative approach to historic precedent and creative reinterpretation. Principals Terry Pylant, Aaron Daily, Andrew Cogar, Kevin Clark, and Domenick Treschitta lead design teams hand-picked from the nation’s top traditional architecture programs. Jim’s son, Todd Strickland, is Managing Principal, responsible for the firm’s operations and finances.

Our roots are Southern, and our designs have long captured the spirit of Southern living, imbued with genteel grace, hospitality, casual elegance, and a deep sense of place - attributes which resonate profoundly with our national clientele. These characteristics transcend region and embrace the various opportunities offered by terrain and climate. As avid historians, we dedicate ourselves to exploration and regional discovery, designing with local tradition and heritage in mind.

The small and often uncelebrated structures that add to the character of a place often tell the most authentic story. Simple, clean, honest expressions of material and form allow us to regard less explored building types as stages for reinvention, enlivening their forms and embracing their idiosyncrasies. We work with builders and craftsmen whose expertise and respect for the possibilities inherent in historically appropriate details and indigenous materials guarantee the end result will be a work of art, lasting far into the future.

BY GIVING US THE OPPORTUNITY to interpret what home, workplace, and neighborhood means to them, our clients remind us why we are passionate about what we do. We listen to how they imagine their futures unfolding and draw on these unique and personal narratives to make places that are gracious, intimate, and enduring, with all the conveniences of modern living.

Historical Concepts is a team of academics, designers, historians, and practitioners who come to work every day enlivened by the prospects inherent in each project. We are dedicated to a shared vision and it has given us the privilege of recruiting talent of the highest caliber. Our varied backgrounds and talents offer a wide range of creativity and knowledge to draw from, and our culture of mentoring and growing our firm from within strengthens our team, with each member invested for the long term. We encourage our staff of 37 employees to actively engage with organizations devoted to excellence in design, as well as continued education and volunteerism. We never lose sight of the fact that we are part of a larger community rich with opportunities to give of our time, knowledge, and shared civic commitment.

Our residential and commercial architecture has been honored with the Arthur Ross Award, the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art’s highest accolade for a body of work. We are also proud to have been recognized with the Congress for the New Urbanism Charter Award, the Addison Mizner Medal, and multiple Southern Home, Shutze, and Palladio awards. We have been featured extensively in publications devoted to architecture, interior design, and the building arts, and our book, “Coming Home: The Southern Vernacular House”, was published in 2012 by Rizzoli.