Team Leaders

Barbara Pickens is equally at home in residential and commercial architecture. As the  fourth-generation of her family in the building business, it’s in her blood. She’s comfortable at every level of design, from kitchen remodels to creating small towns.

Custom homes

Building a custom home takes you down paths you’ve never been down before, and Barbara is a confident guide. She takes the time to find out who her clients really are, helping them transform their dreams and desires into a home that will grow with their family through generations. No wonder so many of Barbara’s clients tend to stay in their homes for years, come back to her for other projects, and recommend her to their friends.

Difficult sites

Barbara excels in difficult sites and optimizing the land, adding significant value to the finished home. It’s a skill born from years of experience, and critical in an area like the Pacific Northwest, where there are so many steep lots and environmentally sensitive areas.

Sustainable design

Whether it’s green materials, energy efficiency, solar power or rain gardens, Barbara’s designs not only look good, they feel good. Her custom homes provide a long term investment without astronomical bills, so clients can afford to live in them for the rest of their lives. It’s not just a philosophy, it’s the way she’s always lived herself.

Barbara recently completed an intensive nine-day training in the principles and techniques of designing Passive Houses. (www.passivehouse.us).  The Passive House standard was developed in Germany in 1996 by a physicist, who was inspired by the superinsulated homes built in the U.S. and Canada in the 1970’s.  It is a performance based building design standard, which relies on proper solar orientation, an airtight building envelope, lots of insulation, mechanical ventilation and the reuse of heat. With this additional knowledge, Barbara endeavors to incorporate these standards into her designs, in order to make them as comfortable and cost effective as possible.   

Lighting design

Seattle’s long dark winter days feel brighter with Barbara’s enlightened designs, which deftly capture and play up every bit of light. She’s also a wizard with energy efficient lighting.

Custom interiors

A truly custom home showcases the owner’s interests and art in elegant, one-of-a-kind cabinetry and gallery spaces. For owners with a passion for detail, Barbara will satisfy their quest for perfection.

Commercial projects

Barbara also delivers quality, creativity and site planning on commercial projects. She has extensive experience in urban planning, environmentally critical areas (ECA’s), site analysis and code feasibility studies.  Her portfolio includes:

• Small, quality (type A) office buildings
• Condominiums & apartment complexes
• Industrial/factory buildings
• Hospitals
• Schools
• Olympic villages
• Art museum galleries
• Historic preservation

You’ll find Ben Mulder on the A-list of designers who work well with builders. He has an unerring instinct for what sells in larger luxury builder homes, and a savvy touch with efficient smaller homes.  His intuitive grasp of what builders need results in buildable designs balanced by enough complexity to make each home interesting and unique.

One-of-a-kind designs

Fueled by imagination, Ben draws on his considerable experience and understanding of market forces to create one-of-a-kind builder designs with strong visual appeal. Before he touches a computer, he efficiently draws each luxury home design in pencil. Like a painting, he considers the freehand massing sketches and layouts an art form. Once approved, these sketches are composed into a highly accurate CAD format that make up the construction drawings.

The designer that builders recommend

Builders and their clients come to Ben by referral. Many come back again and again, and several have been return clients for more than 25 years. Ben has also designed many of their personal residences, including homes on the shores of Lake Washington and as far away as Hawaii.

Street of Dreams award-winning designs

Homes designed by Ben Mulder have been part of the Street of Dreams almost every year since 1986, winning numerous awards, including several Best of Shows. Check out 4D’s awards. His designs appeal to a wide range of tastes, and are a showcase for new trends and big dreams.

Sustainable designs

Ben’s strong interest in sustainable design began long before built-green homes became fashionable. See 4D Architects’ green designs.

Luxury home designs for Eastside builders

The lion’s share of Ben’s work is in the Greater Eastside, although he’s worked on remarkable projects across the country, and as far away as Japan and Mexico.

Talent with a Dutch accent

Ben was born in the Dutch Caribbean and completed his studies in Holland. He has lived in the Seattle area for more than 30 years. Beneath Ben’s sane exterior lurks a crazy urge to build anything and everything. Examples of his construction experience include his last two personal residences, several additions, furniture, decks and treehouses. He also relishes unusual projects, such as a summer cottage for an award-winning display at the 2008 Northwest Flower and Garden Show. Read more about Ben’s awards.