About Us
Our Services
Team-focused residential design services, drafting, visioning, and consulting for renovations, historic preservation, additions, home improvements, and the occasional new construction project. SONJA MASON home DESIGN LLC specializes in "just enough" design services — helping the client get the most out of their budget, in terms of aesthetics as well as programmatic and energy-saving goals, and providing enough documents for the needs of the project. Design is a process, and with SMD it is a collaborative team process, in which the design team works together to find the best solutions. SMD loves projects small, medium, or large — anything from help designing an Ikea® kitchen to a whole house, we are here to help you have a better project, in whatever capacity is needed.
Our Projects
The first thing we notice about a home is where it is. Every home has a place. In architecture school, we call this its site. Site can have many components: neighborhood, trees and landscaping, neighboring houses, architectural style. When building or improving a home, place is an important design element.
Style is another important design element. At SMD, we work in all styles: Craftsman, Tudor, Queen Anne Victorian, Mid-century Modern, Transitional. We even had the pleasure of designing a Scandinavian cottage on an infill lot. Style is a tool, and finding the appropriate, harmonious style can come from the client, the existing house or neighborhood and surroundings, or usually a mix of these sources. We truly enjoy responding to the character of an existing house, respectfully modernizing it for how we live today.
Finally, there's people. It's rather simple: we build houses for people to live in. The unique needs, values, and desires of the client form the final design element for a project.
About Us
About us: design is not about SMD, but about you, the person who calls a place home. The client brings the site and their goals. A home should be comfortable and have spaces that support both the activities of life as well as the more imprecise, personal components of home—values, aesthetics, and enjoyment. At SMD, design is a team effort. The client brings the place, the goals, and the budget. SMD brings experience, architectural knowledge of styles, codes, and sustainable design practices, and of course the ability to use drawings to inform the design process. Images, sketching, drafting are all tools of communication that actively participate in the design process, and ultimately communicate the design so it can be built. Together we find the best solution for your needs, values, budget, and the site.
Sonja Mason has an M.Arch from the University of Minnesota. She did her apprenticeship hours with Tom Blanck, Architect. After Tom retired, Sonja quietly launched SMD. She lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota in an 1890s Clarence Johnston Sr-designed rowhouse with her husband, two kids, and one rather odd-looking cat. Yes, they have completely renovated the interior, but, no, it's not quite finished yet.