01
COMMERCIAL
With over ten years of experience contributing to light commercial projects across leading architecture firms, our office brings a deep fluency in the full spectrum of commercial design — from tenant fit-outs and retail environments to small office buildings and mixed-use spaces. The projects shown here reflect that prior experience in design development, documentation, and project delivery.
Prior to Coexist Build
The Chapel at Liberation Pavilion, WWII Museum
New Orleans, LA
Designer, as part of the Voorsanger Architects PC team
HAP 5, Pleasant Ave Condominiums,
Harlem, NYC
Project manager, as part of WASA team
Design by Karim Rashid Studio
The Jim Henson Exhibit,
Museum of the Moving Image, Queens, NY
Project manager, as part of WASA team
Lispenard St Condominiums Adaptive Reuse,
TriBeCa, NYC
Designer, as part of Section F Design / JS2 Architecture team
Bushwick Gallery Adaptive Reuse,
Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY
Designer / Project manager, as part of AB Architekten team
American Airlines Terminal Upgrade, LAX
Los Angeles, CA
Architect / Project manager, as part of Rivers and Christian Architects team
02
RESIDENTIAL
Our experimental practice operates at the intersection of architecture, agriculture, and material innovation. Working from our research farm and laboratory in Pennsylvania, we developed proof-of-concept building materials derived from agricultural raw materials — most notably the Coexist Hemp Block, an insulating bio-composite designed for healthy, toxic-free construction. This work extends beyond the products: our work explores the circularity and synergy between farming and the built environment, positioning regenerative design not as a future aspiration but as a present and buildable reality. From custom homes to material research and public installations, our experimental work challenges conventional construction while pointing toward an architecture that gives back to the ecosystems it inhabits.
03
EXPERIMENTAL
Our experimental practice operates at the intersection of architecture, agriculture, and material innovation. Working from our research farm and laboratory in Pennsylvania, we developed proof-of-concept building materials derived from agricultural raw materials — most notably the Coexist Hemp Block, an insulating bio-composite designed for healthy, toxic-free construction. This work extends beyond the products: our work explores the circularity and synergy between farming and the built environment, positioning regenerative design not as a future aspiration but as a present and buildable reality. From custom homes to material research and public installations, our experimental work challenges conventional construction while pointing toward an architecture that gives back to the ecosystems it inhabits.
The TRAVELER kit
The Traveler is a DIY prefab cabin kit, born out of a pandemic-era desire for a quiet backyard office. Marketed as the first hemp-and-wellness-based DIY kit on the market, the Traveler is a 140-square-foot structure (10' deep × 14' long × 15' tall) featuring a timber frame built with mortise-and-tenon joinery and wooden pegs, insulated with three types of bio-composite, non-toxic insulation - hemp batt, hempcrete blocks, and wood fiber panels. The hempcrete, a blend of hemp, lime, and water, produces a building assembly that is naturally mold-, fire-, and insect-resistant, and continues to harden over time, making it exceptionally durable with minimal maintenance. The interior sleeps up to four, with two queen beds on the ground floor and a loft sleeping area, and features a 12-foot wide door/window wall that floods the space with natural light. All timber is sourced from FSC-certified forests and milled by local Pennsylvania craftsmen, while the hempcrete blocks are produced at Coexist Build's eastern Pennsylvania facility at a rate of up to 1,000 blocks per day. The kit comes with an illustrated instruction manual and labeled precut parts, and can be assembled by a team of two to four people using just an electric drill, screw gun, and mallet — typically within a few weekends. Drawing aesthetic inspiration from California and Scandinavian modernism, the design emphasizes indoor-outdoor living, natural materials, and warmth, making the Traveler as much a philosophy of healthy, sustainable living as it is a building product.
The Wally Farm Retreat
Tucked into the backwoods of Taghkanic, New York, on a 1,000-acre experimental farming and climate research incubator 100 miles north of New York City, Wally Farms' pair of hempcrete micro homes represent one of the most carefully documented natural building projects in the American Northeast — completed at a time when fewer than 20 buildings in the region had used the material. Designed by Brooklyn-based architect Kaja Kühl of youarethecity, the project used two hempcrete methods in tandem: prefabricated, pre-cured hemp-lime blocks from Coexist Build installed like standard CMU blocks, plus a sprayed hemp-lime layer applied between the structural framing by Americhanvre. Passive house principles — highly insulated envelopes, south- and west-facing glazing for solar gain, on-site well water, and solar electricity — round out the sustainability strategy. Carbon analysis confirmed the hempcrete cabin sequestered the equivalent of 330 tree seedlings grown for ten years, significantly outperforming a comparable cellulose-insulated cabin. The homes now serve year-round as guest accommodations and workshop spaces for researchers and educators exploring climate-resilient agriculture and construction.
The Terrapin Station
Nestled in the Pennsylvania mountains, this off-grid timber frame cabin is a study in intentional living — every material chosen for its honesty, every system designed to work in harmony with the land. The structure is joined with hand-cut mortise-and-tenon connections, the interlocking wood framework left to speak for itself, finished inside and out with pine tar, an ancient Scandinavian preservation method that weathers beautifully over time, deepening the grain and protecting the timber without a drop of synthetic chemistry.
The walls breathe. Wool insulation wraps the cabin in natural warmth, while hempcrete flanks the fireplace, its thermal mass quietly absorbing heat and releasing it long after the flames have settled. But the hempcrete holds more than warmth — embedded within it are glass bottles that encapsulate memories, their forms arranged in a swirling pattern visible from both inside and out, a quiet gesture that transforms a wall into a living archive.
Rainwater collected from the roof feeds the bathroom, a composting toilet closes the loop on waste, and a high-efficiency wood stove draws fuel straight from the surrounding forest. Tall windows pull passive light deep into the interior through every season, and in summer, that same height allows trapped heat to escape upward through a central skylight, the cabin cooling itself the way a forest does — naturally, without effort.
The roof is finished in light, reflective tones to turn away the summer sun, its generous overhang casting shade precisely where it's needed. When the heat breaks and the light softens, this is a place meant for gathering — for sitting together in a circle, breathing slowly, and letting the quiet of the mountains do the rest.
The Hemp House on Wheels (Hemp HOW)
The Hemp House on Wheels is a landmark project in American hempcrete construction, and the seed from which Coexist Build's entire product line would eventually grow. A collaboration between Coexist Build and Cameron McIntosh of Americhanvre Hemp Cast, the structure is a small hempcrete home built on a double-axle trailer, designed from the start to travel. Designed by Coexist Build and constructed on their farm in Pennsylvania, the frame is mounted to a rebuilt and restored equipment trailer with earthquake ties and lag bolts, and finished inside and out with lime plaster. It made its public debut in June of 2019 at the Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo at the Javits Center in New York City, appearing as a guest of the National Hemp Association, the PA Hemp Industry Council, and Canopy Growth Corporation. Since then it has traveled to hemp shows and architecture conferences across the country, giving people a rare chance to step inside a hempcrete structure and experience the material firsthand. Having logged nearly three thousand miles, it remains in fantastic condition — a testament to hempcrete's durability. For Oberholtzer and Konopitskaya, it was the excitement the Hemp House generated on the road that inspired them to develop the Traveler kit: "Our Hemp House on Wheels was an early prototype, and seeing how much excitement it generated, we decided to go for it".
04
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Through our on-site research farm and materials laboratory, we have developed a growing portfolio of bio-based building products derived from hemp and other agricultural raw materials. Our flagship product, the Coexist Hemp Block, is an insulating infill material engineered for residential construction — healthy, carbon-sequestering, and free of toxic compounds. Our R&D process follows a prototyping methodology, solving real construction challenges through hands-on material experimentation and iterative testing.
05
EXHIBITS
Through our on-site research farm and materials laboratory, we have developed a growing portfolio of bio-based building products derived from hemp and other agricultural raw materials. Our flagship product, the Coexist Hemp Block, is an insulating infill material engineered for residential construction — healthy, carbon-sequestering, and free of toxic compounds. Our R&D process follows a prototyping methodology, solving real construction challenges through hands-on material experimentation and iterative testing.
