Signum Architecture

A practice built on trust

At Signum, the foundation of our practice is relationships—with each other as partners, with our talented and dedicated staff, with our clients and with our community.

"We are mindful of our responsibilities as architects. Through our work with local schools, on boards and with communities in need, we give back to our community in ways that are intentional and meaningful."

- Signum Architecture

• American Institute of Architects Redwood Empire
• Redwood Adventist Academy
• Leadership Napa Valley
• Active 20-30
• Napa Community College Board
• Napa Valley Community Housing Board
• Yountville Zoning & Design Review Board
• Campus Architect - Pacific Union College
• Pacific Union College Elementary School Board
• Hall Wines Annual Cabernet Cookoff
• Festival Napa Valley
• St. Helena Cooperative Nursery School

We are proud to have designed Hall Wines and CADE Estates, the first and second LEED Gold wineries in California. While these standards provide valuable guidelines, we believe there is more to sustainable design. Creating responsible architecture requires a deep understanding of the site and the community, as well as the specific conditions of each site and project.

01: Elevating everyday life

As architects, we are deeply inspired by our connection to our environment.

Our approach to sustainability is naturally derived, as we strive to create environments that elevate our clients health and well-being, working with them to bring their vision to life. We have the knowledge and skills to positively impact our clients’ lives in a holistic way. We strive to reduce primary energy needs while simultaneously elevating our clients’ experience of their environment.

02: Intentional design

Ours is a “yes, and” philosophy. We believe that form and function are equal players in the same story, and that creativity and sustainability go hand in hand.

Passive Houses standards enable us to create homes that are healthy and sustainable, with guidelines that draw upon on super-insulated and passive solar ideas from North America and "low energy" European building standards to increase buildings’ efficiency and improve internal air quality. Our buildings are meant to work with the natural landscape always striving to create a light footprint on the land and to distill the design to an elegantly simple solution. Jarrod Denton, a certified Passivehaus consultant since 2010, is a pioneering expert in the use of Passive House technology in the U.S.

03: Creating buildings that endure

The most sustainable and enjoyable design solutions are those that employ elegantly simple design principles to create buildings that endure.

Our design process is iterative, as we layer program requirements into the design. From the initial concept, we test the performance of our design concepts and refine for simplicity, bringing to the process our knowledge of local weather and topographic data gleaned through decades of regional practice, as well as principles gleaned from past cultures. Every product that goes into our projects is reviewed on the merits of long term performance, durability and contribution to indoor air quality.

In Latin, signum means design — a sign, a symbol, a signature.

For us, signum symbolizes synergy, a collaborative approach to design, and our commitment to building a practice that is greater than the sum of its parts.

When we formed our partnership in 2011, we had the opportunity to define a new design practice founded on trust, teamwork, inspired problem-solving and the long-term view. We nurture our practice and our culture through our dedication to design integrity and mindful decision-making. We support and empower our staff through mentoring and an inclusive approach to design. As partners, we dedicate ourselves to every project, and we continue to build an environment of creative confidence based on curiosity, collaboration and a willingness to push the language of architecture to achieve something greater.