Here’s a little bit about us.  And just in case you decide to keep on reading, there’s a bunch of other information here about the kind of company we strive to be, the kind of business we’re building,  our ideology behind the industry, and what it means to us to be crafting sustainability.

MIKE STONER

Mike got his start in the construction world as a boy, watching his dad, and then working with him to operate Dwelling Places, Inc., a respected rough framing company in Lancaster. Learning the ins-and-outs of the trades and targeting inefficiencies while honing his own style, craftsmanship and eye for detail, Mike developed the uncanny ability to take our ideas and turn each one into a home.

JESSE PELLMAN, LEED® AP

Jesse began his fascination with building and architectural design as a youngster playing with Lego® blocks. That love for new shapes and design never left, but the plastic blocks have been replaced with stone, stucco, board, and glass. Splitting time between the drafting table and tool belt, Jesse works to bring paper and pencil concepts to an artisan finish.

APPROACH

Well before this company started, when Longview Structures was just a dream, we were talking about green building.  Or more precisely, we were talking about what sustainable construction looked like when juxtaposed to the gaps, inefficiencies, waste, and generalized indifference to longevity that seems to dominate the mainstream homebuilding industry.  We were, and continue to be dedicated to the idea that big impacts don’t need to have big footprints, nor does a world class home mean degradation to the surrounding environment.  So we decided we’d change the very approach to home construction.

We streamline the process.  That means fewer opportunities for communication gaps between client, architect, builder, contractor, foreman, sub-contractor.  So we’re on the job, start to finish, concept to completion.  We took a look back at the earliest homes built and saw that the truly great ones were craftsmen built – craftsmen with an uncompromising eye for detail, aesthetic, and functionality who played a vital role in every aspect of the job.  The result is a design and plan – drawn by us or by your architect – that is fully understood by the homeowner and the guys hammering nails so there won’t be any missed details, miscommunications, or quality lapses.

We green the process.  We believe sustainable housing is a must, and that everyone deserves a healthy home regardless of budget.  So before a project begins, we assess the situation from a sustainability mindset and we do our best to provide the healthiest, most environmentally responsible housing we can.  We begin in the design stage, utilizing the existing home or the proposed lot and work from there, pulling a host of varying technologies and strategies to create the highest functioning, most appealing homes.  Whether your home will be a new, net-zero off the grid dwelling, or a more simple retrofit, all of our projects get the same sustainable, common sense approach.

We take the long view.  Hence our name.  It means we’re looking down the road and we recognize that the homes we live in today have not only an immediate impact on our own health and the health of the surrounding community and environment, but they also leave an indelible footprint and legacy for future generations.  So we apply the highest quality & environmental responsibility standards to all of our projects, and we do our best to be a positive local business.  We ask questions about embodied energy, sourcing, locale, durability, and end-of-life reuse (along with others) to find what works best for us today, and for those who will come tomorrow.

IDEOLOGY

We believe that sustainability goes beyond the individual homes we build, restore, and renovate.  That’s why we donate thousands of dollars every year to valuable organizations in our community and abroad – things like local bicycle racing teams and the Susquehanna Sustainable Business Network to disaster relief across the globe, and to clean water efforts in the developing world.  Why?  Because sustainable housing needs to be surrounded by a great and sustaining community.  We believe we need to take care of each other, as well as our natural and built environment.  So we provide our employees with great health insurance and vacation time in an effort to promote an equitable workplace.  We aim for open communication and transparency in our billing and finances with our subcontractors and our clients, often working with time and material contracts so that everything remains above the table – no secret markups, no fine print, and no surprises.  To us, sustainable construction is just one facet of a sustainable life.

WHY IT MATTERS

Relationships are the heart of our business, and the center of what we do  - we’re always more interested in cultivating a relationship than a contract, and we’ve seen time and time again that when those priorities are flipped, the end result leaves everyone with a bitter taste.  To avoid that, we subscribe pretty heavily to the concepts above.  Plus, sustainable building and green housing are rapidly moving from novelty to necessity.  Particularly here in Lancaster County where we’re based, its the beautiful, rural landscape alongside the hip urban centers that help make this place so appealing, and if we don’t take steps to maintain that natural environmental beauty, it will be lost and our grandchildren may never know what we were so privileged to experience.   So by moving ahead and not just building ‘green’ buildings, but smart, common sense sustainable homes, we can help protect our ecosystems and agrarian history, improve air and water quality, reduce waste headed to landfills, lower operating expenses for the home, and contribute to the overall quality of life here in Lancaster and all the places that are home.  Because the sustainable homes we build today can be the generational heirlooms of tomorrow.