"Jack Devitt offers an uncommon blend of technical expertise and calm, professional style. His patient counsel on form, function and cost guided us to the perfect final design of our retirement home. Jack listens and applies the client's desires, traits not always present in today's high-pressure, hard-sell world. Finally, Jack is connected. He was our link to a wonderful builder, with whom he consulted during the construction process. As they say in the movie review business, Devitt Design gets "two thumbs up."

John Wright -   Marshall, NC

"Working with Jack Devitt was an unusual and extraordinary experience.  Because Jack knows how to listen, he was able to translate our dreams and wishes into a home that distinctly embodied our style so that our home reflects who we are and how we like to live and entertain. 

In addition to all of this, Jack’s own laid-back personality made it a pleasure to work with him. Much of our initial design work was done via cyber-space and telephone as we lived in New York during the design phase of our project.  What more can one ask for!!"

Lynne Brofman -  Biltmore Park, NC

“We have worked with Jack on several new custom green home and green remodel projects. His designs are handsome and commonsensical, always with an eye to staying within the client's budget. He's laid back, easy to work and very responsive to questions or concerns. He's a person in the building mix who helps bring the stress level way down.” 

Mark Bondurant, President , Rare Earth Builders, Inc.  Canton, NC

"Jack's thoughtfully prepared questionnaire that we completed before he started on the design for our house helped us define our needs and bring our dreams into reality. Jack was patient, understanding, easy to work with and had great design ideas. The detail that he provided on our plans has proved extremely useful now that we are overseeing the construction ourselves. His knowledge of residential construction and passive solar principles has been of enormous value to us, and  we are delighted to see how the final product is emerging. We already know that “ Jack’s Sunroom" will be one of our favorite spots in the house. Several visitors to the site have commented on how well the house sits on the land."

Clive and Judith Morris  -  Brevard, NC

 "Jack Devitt has been the designer for the new house we are building in Gerton, NC. This building will serve as the community center for our eco-community, Hickory Nut Forest, and also as a retreat site for workshops, classes and events. It located next to the ruins of an old gristmill site along Hickory Nut Creek. We are calling it Laughing Waters, the sound of the waterfall located right behind the building.

 Our vision has been to design it as a sustainable, eco-friendly structure that blends in with the surrounding environment and uses energyand natural resources wisely.

 We came to Jack with some ideas and sketches for an historic looking building that would be powered entirely by renewable energy, would use green construction techniques, incorporate wood and rocks from the land, and be affordable. Quite a big challenge! Working with Jack has been a pleasure all the way through the design and building process. He helped us come up with plans to meet our objectives, and helped us come up with new solutions along the way.

 Combining micro-hydro power, solar hot water, radiant flooring, and re-using wood from our land has been an interesting learning process. We wanted to incorporate some of the larger trees that had been taken down during the clearing for the foundation. Our vision was to put these back into the great room as part of a timber frame design. Jack helped us come up with a solution that met local building code requirements and enabled us to use these beautiful trees as posts and beams in the great room. (you can watch a video of the crane lifting these trees into place http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT4RHbWiU70)

 Jack has also been easy to work with, readily available for questions, and very helpful in solving problems and design changes as we have moved along in the construction process. He is now helping us with foundation plans for erecting two 1840’s log cabins that we salvaged and brought to the site. One will be placed on the gristmill ruins to become a living museum with a working water wheel and grinding stones.

 I plan to use Jack again on future projects and would highly recommend him to other homeowners and builders for their projects."

 John Myers - Hickory Nut Forest  Member/Manager      October 2009

"I highly recommend Jack to all my friends who are looking to build a home. He is a joy to work with. He has real world building experience as a former contractor. He was able to save me money (and actually tried to) as we planned our home and built it. He was willing to listen to my ideas, but was able to suggest better and cheaper ways of doing things and told me when my idea won't work. He actually even came to our building site and laid out the house on the ground while we were doing the design work. Jack was also helpful in finding products to help me accomplish some of my off the wall ideas. And now that our house is done and we are living in it - It works and we love it. That's why I recommend him to my friends. "

Gene Keil   -  Weaverville, NC

 "Jack is extremely creative. He thinks "out of the box" and comes up with great solutions to problems we thought couldn't be solved. He is an expert at what he does and the results we received were incredible from the concept of our project to the very end...he made sure we were happy at all levels. Jack also has high integrity...he is reliable, consistent and very trustworthy. He is worth every cent that we paid him and more. I would HIGHLY recommend Jack and his work to anyone."

Lisa Zaslow  -  Asheville, NC

“Jack designed our project with brilliant problem solving and worked well to interface between my ideas and my wife's ideas. He was always punctual and proficient with changes and getting the projects thru to completion. He understood new design and materials with ease. (It was his first large structural concrete design.) I would love to work with Devitt Design more in the future. Jack has a well rounded knowledge of construction processes that makes him a better designer for more easily built projects."

Nelson Uzzell  -   St. John, US Virgin Islands

"Jack Devitt designed our house from the sketch of the layout we gave him. Our builder, on the basis of his previous experience, had suggested that Jack could do a very good job for us and produce a set of plans that were readily buildable. We found  him very easy to work with and he took our ideas and layout and promptly produced a set of house plans that reflected what we wanted. We were very pleased with Jack's work and the resulting house that was finished in August 2003.

Jerry and Vickie Lemonds  -  Weaverville, NC

“Jack has designed many homes for Fowler & Associates Home Builders over the years. All of our clients have enjoyed the process of designing there dream home with Jack. I can personally recommend Jack for any project."

Ben Fowler  -     Fowler & Associates Home Builders   Asheville, NC