ABOUT CWS
WHO WE ARE
Founded in 1992 with a focus on building and preserving long-term relationships, CWS Architecture + Interior Design (CWS) continues to provide creative, thoughtful solutions to every client’s project. While responsive to a project’s budget, schedule, performance requirements and vision, CWS strives to listen and understand our clients’ needs, goals and aspirations. The result is great design. This is evidenced through our ethos: Nurturing Relationships – Harmonizing Design.
CWS endeavors every day to achieve its vision of elevating our abilities and the built environment. We do this by assembling collaborative teams to enable well-thought-out designs that enhance the places where we live, work, learn, and heal. As an owner-run small studio, every project is led by one of CWS’ five principals. This edict extends to all of our partner firms, allowing us to provide a full range of services from planning to design to documentation and finally, administrative services. Our staff of 19 work on projects of all scales and aim to ensure the result meets and exceeds our clients’ original dream.
Embedded in our culture is CWS’ mission of cultivating lasting relationships to design enriched environments and communities. We aspire to work with people we like who become more than clients on projects that enhance our world.
OUR CORE VALUES
CWS Architecture + Interior Design is guided by our Core Values. They are the root of every relationship and design decision we make.
RELATIONSHIPS
We believe that cultivating lasting relationships is fundamental to doing good business, and that great design is the product of building and preserving those relationships.
INTEGRITY
Honesty and transparency are at the root of everything we do. Through open collaboration, we strive to create and build trust with all of our business and client relationships.
KNOWLEDGE
CWS brings over 30 years of design experience to our clients’ projects. Shared goals and principals are aligned to ensure everyone has perfect understanding. We are proud to bring a rich depth of knowledge to each project.
COMMITMENT
Our team is committed to ensuring the result meets and exceeds our clients’ original dream. We achieve this by carefully understand our clients’ needs, goals, and aspirations and balance that with great design.
VISION
We are constantly seeking to elevate our abilities and the built environment. To do this, we assemble collaborative teams to enable well-thought-out designs that enhance places where we live, work, learn, and heal.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
CWS recognizes that our responsibility to the public good exceeds our own needs and aspirations. To this end, exceeding expectations in supporting the betterment and health of the world we live in is paramount to our business philosophy. We demonstrate this commitment in the following areas.
SUSTAINABILITY
CWS is a proud and committed leader in the integration of sustainable design and building practices into every effort we undertake, even in the simplest designs. We have received many high-level certifications due to the fact that we strive to design every project to be the best it can be.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
In addition to our extensive design work in the affordable housing field, CWS has been a leader in advocating for the needs of Maine’s affordable housing community and residents for over a decade.
PRESERVATION
CWS is a regional leader in the field of architectural preservation of historic New England and has been presented many awards and citations for our historic preservation efforts. Preservation efforts achieve two primary community benefits; a) retaining our historic fabric for future generations, and b) the most sustainable building is reusing an existing building.
VOLUNTEERISM AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT
CWS and its employees have a long history of supporting and actively engaging with many local organizations and charities. Learn more about the many ways we get involved.
OUR HISTORY
We have grown from simple beginnings into a multi-discipline, multi-service, award-winning architecture and interior design firm serving all of Northern New England. Our motivation then and now was to build and preserve long-term relationships, one project at a time.
See more of our story detailed in our company history timeline.