KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Allen Halcomb

 
Allen Halcomb
President, MossCreek Designs
Knoxville, TN
Established 1983
 
Education: University of Tennessee School of Architecture, 1985
 
Professional Experience:

1983: Founded Designers Alliance as a four man firm to provide stylized design services to established architecture firms.

1985:  Hired staff architects and began to provide more
comprehensive services.

1989:  Added federal contracts to an already large private
practice. Offices in Atlanta and Knoxville yielded 74 employees and the largest all CAD architectural practice in TN.

1994: Awarded contract to be the North American architecture
firm for Honka Oy, the world's largest log home manufacturer. Assisted
them in analyzing the US and Western European marketplace for their
expansion program.
 
Designed the first Give Away Home for a newly formed HGTV in Jackson,
WY.

1996:   Discovered that designing high end mountain homes was
not only fun, but lucrative. Began phasing out all of our standard
practice work, created the nick name MossCreek, and began a 50 state
architectural practice designing log and timber frame homes by
referral from log an timber frame home companies. Realizing the
barriers put in place to inhibit multi state practice; MossCreek
dropped all its architectural registration affiliation and labeled
themselves simply Home Designers.

2003: By 2003 MossCreek homes were much more like fashion than
simple shelter, Allen began to reshape MossCreek to be much more like
a fashion design house of Lauren or Lagerfield, than that of a
conventional residential practice. Accordingly, he divided the product
into haute couture and ready-to-wear. MossCreek limited their practice
to 65 custom homes per year and three distinct lines of smaller
portfolio homes available through three timber frame and log home
manufactures.

2006:   The MossCreek brand is now the most recognized name in
mountain home design with twelve showrooms around the country; adding
more on a regular basis. MossCreek's designs are regularly featured in
both national and international magazines almost every month.
 
In Spring of 2006 Allen launches MossCreek Elements; a line of
historic mountain building materials that cannot be purchased at the
big box stores. Sales for 2006 exceed $1m. 
 
In Fall 2006 Allen launches MossCreek Interiors; a series of MossCreek
branded interior collections by national brand manufacturers, as well
as full ASID Interior design services through the Trimble-Kelly Design
Group.
 
Also in 2006:
- MossCreek opens a six person office in Bend, OR to handle their west
coast drafting needs
- three signature communities that bear the MossCreek brand
- two architectural practices (NC and TN) that have choose to
affiliate with MossCreek for brand recognition and design assistance.
- Allen travels to a new project site somewhere in the world to kick
off a new commission. Furthest site is Sochi, Russia for a 37,000 s.f.
home.
 
2007: Continued success in ongoing commissions and projects.
       - Launch of the Rustic Lake and Golf by MossCreek
series of homes
     - Strategic partnerships established with Bang & Olufsen, Habersham,
Lutron, and Handcock & Moore in order to create a set of standard
products that can be found in a MossCreek home.
 
2008:  Launch of Spa by MossCreek
 

Oh yeah, he is not all business:
1.      Jazz bassist, semi professional
2.      One wife
3.      Two kids
4.      Two dogs