Welcome

Meri Tepper has operated her architecture practice in Madison, WI since 2013. She works with homeowners on new house designs, additions, remodels, and feasibility studies.

After twenty years in the industry there are three core values which motivate her designs:

– Beautiful and durable modern design with an understated simplicity

– Sophisticated floor plans that uniquely support one’s patterns of living

– High-performance design that results in dramatically reduced utility bills and a more comfortable and healthy interiors.

Services & Fees

Specializing in designing carefully crafted residential spaces, I offer a full range of architectural and interior design services catered to your needs.

CONCEPTS CONSULTS

 2 hour-long in-house concept consults to homeowners in Dane County.

A 2-hour long concept consultation is available to book Sunday mornings between 8am and 10am.  There is no commitment to work with me as your architect following the meeting.  I’m happy to share my professional perspectives about your project to help you find clarity and focus on the next steps.  These consultations apply to interior remodeling, additions, and site evaluation for new construction.  One my my strongest skills is working within the confines of a building footprint to create totally new interiors behind historic facades.

Read my reviews page to get a sense of what you can expect to get out of this meeting.

The fee for Concepts Consult service is $300. 

Roxul exterior insulation and Zola Windows

ENERGY CONSULTS FOR NEW CONSTRUCTION

My designs have always taken a holistic attitude towards energy efficiency that endeavor to result in spaces that are light filled, healthy, and comfortable. Following the lessons of the Passive House Energy Standard, my aim has been to create a thoughtfully designed house, suited to the unique needs of your family’s lifestyle and budget while cutting energy consumption.  If you are considering building a new house in Dane County I provide hourly consultations to educate and arm you with the information you need to ask your builder in order to have your house perform well above code.

The Fee for Energy Consults is $130/hr.

Reviews

New House Design 2023

Have we told you lately that we LOVE our house! Everyday we thank our lucky stars that we met you and that you agreed to design our dream home. It is just so beautiful in every big and little detail. We are forever grateful.

Concepts Consult Review October 2021

I learned about Meri’s work through a curious process of cross references (made possible by Houzz). I was immediately drawn to her approach, the sophisticated simplicity of her designs and the light filled spaces in her portfolio. My home is a typical two story/3 bds (built in 1906!) that although renovated, had the basic design structure intact. I needed advice on bringing natural light into the kitchen/ dining area (within the existing floor plan) and on minor kitchen updates. Meri came for a two hour consultation session and it is hard to summarize all she did in a limited amount of time and the impact of her advice. The first thing that stands out is how much she cared about this small consultation and how eager and passionate she was at her craft. She was ready to direct all her knowledge and energy to the task. She took a careful look at the entire house, focusing on the physical characteristics and how each space was used. She paid attention to my design style, asked excellent questions, assessed the structure, the surrounding houses, the garden, the orientation. She listened to my design ideas/budget considerations and with an impressive clarity and speed went over cost /design scenarios. She has an outstanding ability to consider cost and design options and a detailed knowledge of building materials cost-quality trade offs. We settled on a particular option and she provided invaluable information about particular manufacturers/styles of windows, doors, tiles, lights, etc. She paid attention to every detail. Meri’s design advice gave me all I needed to move forward with my general contractor. I can not thank her enough for agreeing to share her knowledge and for playing a crucial role in making older houses like mine functional and attractive. It was a privilege to work with her.

Concepts Consult Review March 2022

 I cannot tell you how astonishingly productive (and therapeutic!) today’s session was!  It’s like you helped us shift up stale and stagnant energy that’s been gunking up our thinking process/relation to our beloved home for years and years.  We are calling to book a survey first thing on Monday a.m.  We can tell you once we have that in hand, but in the meantime, if you can start to think about putting us in your work queue for a “feasibility study,” we’d be thrilled.  We are clear that we’d really like to take that next step with you.  

In any event, working with you today was unbelievably helpful, and we’d be thrilled if we could have your expertise, vision, and time for the next round.