Design & Home
Architect Michael Heacock Shares His Design Inspiration
All photos by Emily Hagopian Photography“Design is timeless when it’s authentic,” says Mill Valley architect Michael Heacock, who founded his own firm in 2004 and was an early pioneer in green building. In 2018, when he helped transform the town’s 1892 lumberyard into a vibrant and popular commercial hub, the firm maintained much of the property’s original historic character. “It was a functioning lumberyard for more than 100 years,” Heacock says. “When you see the railroad crossing sign, that’s literally where the train stopped.
“Design is timeless when you can’t tell when it was built,” Heacock continues. As an example, he cites the work of Los Angeles architect John Lautner, whose iconic glass and steel homes were featured in early James Bond films. “The movies show their age,” Heacock says, “but if you walked in the homes today, you wouldn’t know when they’d been built.
“It’s the opposite of the modern farmhouse,” Heacock adds. “Every flipper paints the house white with black trim and calls it a farmhouse. Once the neighborhood gets saturated, people want something different.”
Heacock defines his own style as “regionalist,” an architectural term for buildings that reflect the context in which they’re built. “It’s a design sensibility that comes from the land, the people and the other buildings around it,” he says. “It’s an expression of place and spirit in architecture.” In 2014, Heacock renovated a Mill Valley house designed by famous regionalist architect John Marsh Davis and built in 1969. Davis constructed the house with redwood and other local materials. “The first time I walked in the house, my jaw fell on the floor. There’s a feeling of connection with nature,” Heacock says. “An intimacy with the land and natural environment.”
In the late ’90s Heacock worked for Sausalitobased architect Sim Van der Ryn, considered one of the most important green building pioneers of the 20th century. Since founding his own firm, Heacock has worked on more than 20 LEED-certified projects, including five of the first LEED Platinum pilot projects. “I was into organic architecture and sustainability before people called it green building,’ ” he says.
Every project Heacock designs, whether homes, schools or commercial, incorporates many sustainable elements, such as renewable energy, water efficiency and green materials. It is not unusual for Heacock to mill his own lumber from naturally fallen trees or reclaimed wood. Given the option, Heacock prefers to remodel existing building. He says that ultimately, the ecological footprint is the embodied energy of constructing the original building followed by the operational energy of running the building. “Above all,” Heacock explains, “the most sustainable thing we can do is to build a beautiful building. Beautiful buildings are cared for and maintained, greatly extending their life and reducing our ecological footprint.”
