Custom homes across the Lowcountry

Kiawah Island · Seabrook Island · Daniel Island · Sullivan's Island · Isle of Palms · Johns Island · James Island · Charleston

These are homes designed by McDonald Architects for particular families on particular pieces of ground. A creek behind the house, a stand of protected oaks, a lot with 145 feet of width but only 48ft of depth to work with, a restriction on how much of the land could be covered, a view worth rotating an entire plan to hold — each project began with conditions that belonged to it alone.

The sites have ranged from marshfront lots on Kiawah and Seabrook to beachfront parcels on Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island, from infill lots in Charleston to wooded tracts on Johns Island and along the Ashley River — each with its own regulatory environment, its own ARB or Board of Architectural Review, its own relationship to flood zones and tidal water.

The results are homes that do not resemble one another, and they are not meant to. What runs through them is a way of working: reading a property closely, listening to how a family intends to live, and drawing on the traditions that suit both.

Featured Work

Completed homes across Kiawah Island, Charleston, and the surrounding Lowcountry.

On the Boards

Custom homes currently in design or under construction across the South Carolina coast

Conceptual Studies

Unbuilt work and site explorations — marshfront, beachfront, and Lowcountry properties

Each of these homes began with land a family had chosen and the aspirations they carried for it. What followed was a dialogue — a process of discovery, working to understand the property and the dreams attached to it, and to bring the two into agreement. McDonald Architects was named to Forbes' Top 200 Residential Architects in America. We would be glad to begin that conversation.