Our team approach

Architect Lee Merrill works directly with each client and is responsible for and attentive to the details of design, construction and green building practices essential to the success of all buildings designed by his firm. Our broadly talented and experienced team is comprised of associates and engineering consultants who provide comprehensive and effective professional design services.

Lee Merrill Architects encourages its clients to be involved in the design and building process to the greatest extent possible from initial budgeting, programming and design phases through to the building’s completion and use.  History has shown us that clients who participate fully in every appropriate aspect are likely to be most satisfied with the end results.

Our primary architectural intention is to envision, develop and see constructed buildings which best balance and realize the client’s fully-considered program and personal aesthetic delight in an artful, energy conscious and ecologically sustainable manner. The team identifies, selects and insightfully synthesizes the matrix of living pattern preferences, spatial ideas, material choices and technical systems comprising a building’s design or redesign into a well-suited, beautiful, affordable setting for a client’s purposes and enjoyment.

Lee Wilson Merrill (Licensed Architect) has been designing residential and commercial projects throughout Lexington/Rockbridge County and other Virginia communities since 1976.  Raised in California, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York, Merrill earned two degrees at Princeton University's School of Architecture and Urban Planning:  B. A. (Arch.) magna cum laude 1970 and the Master of Architecture and Urban Planning in 1973.

From 1974-76, Merrill was the City of Annapolis Maryland's Urban Designer where he developed scores of alternate site plan studies and reviews for municipal agencies and proposed private sector projects.  A major responsibility was designing and managing a diverse stakeholders Citizens Design Advisory Committee and its professional consultants in revising and reconstructing the historic downtown Annapolis City Dock area.

Residing in Rockbridge County, Va. since1977, Merrill began his Lexington architectural career through 1979 working with Hans Schweizer, AIA, designing residences, additions, remodels and a 5200 sq. ft. passive solar Roanoke, Va. day care center.  In 1980 Merrill was hired by Virginia's Energy Division in Richmond to deliver that agency's Solar Design Assistance Program.  As the Virginia Passive Solar Design Consultant until 1983, Merrill created and administered the first educational programs advocating passive solar energy and efficient design for designers and builders throughout the Virginia housing industry, and addressed scores of public and private sector audiences.  Merrill was also responsible for designing and computing the energy performance evaluations of all applicant plans to the Virginia Grant Program for Solar Houses, which awarded principal reduction grants totaling $2.1 million (up to $5000 per house) for new passive solar homes for low and middle income Virginians.

As of 2010, Merrill has designed 32 building projects for institutional/commercial clients, over 100 additions or remodels and over 92 new Virginia residences, almost all passive solar oriented designs. Merrill has served his community as a Trustee of Historic Lexington Foundation, a Board Director of Rockbridge Habitat forHumanity, originated the Lexington Tree Committee (now a Lexington City Board), and as a Director and President of the Rockbridge Area Conservation Council.

John Miles, a fourth generation Rockbridge County resident and Virginia native, has been working with Lee Merrill since 1992 primarily in design development, construction documentation and interior design.

Moving around, he grew up in the Northern Virginia and Tidewater areas and received his Bachelor of Architecture and Urban Studies degree from Virginia Tech in the mountains of western Virginia. He spent a year in Atlanta, Georgia, working for a 200 person architecture firm, and has now settled down along the Maury River in a barn he is in the process of converting into a home.

John is currently on the Board of the Boxerwood Education Association, serving as Vice President and Chair of the Land Use and Facilities Committee and donates volunteer hours to numerous other community organizations.

Leo Lubin-Stevens, Rockbridge County High School Class of 2011, is currently apprenticing with Lee Merrill Architects and is exploring ideas, computer appications and the implications of a career in the field of design.

Over the years, additional talented architects and designers have worked in the firm and some have established their own practices where they continue to work in sustainable design.