The suburb of Rye is an ideal place to build the home you’ve been dreaming of thanks to the calming views of the Long Island Sound. Of course, its waterfront location and rocky terrain can be a challenge to build on. It takes someone who knows the area well to successfully and safely see your vision into reality.
Here are 12 custom home builders who specialize in building for Westchester and the neighboring counties of Connecticut. The list is replete with Home Builders & Remodelers Association (HBRA) of Fairfield County Home Building Industry (HOBI) Award-winners and long-standing members of the local National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) chapters.
Dawkins Development Group
206 Ferris Ave. White Plains, NY 10603
Although originally from Queens, Daniel Salem Dawkins II started building in North Carolina in 1997, moving to Atlanta after a few years, where he built relationships with different suppliers, subcontractors, and over 300 clients. In 2007, he found his way back to New York City, renovating two brownstones in Brooklyn. He decided to headquarter the company that is now Dawkins Development Group in his home state. Dawkins has since built homes throughout the Tri-State area.
This two-story home in Rye sits atop a steep hill and provides a warm welcome in its lamplit, stone-walled, lush green ascent. Entering the double doors presents an even grander welcome in the form of the elegant chandelier in the entryway and the intricate railing of the staircase that leads the second floor. To the right of the staircase is an archway leading to a formal dining room. Behind, the living room, which forms one end of an open floor plan with the rest of the shared spaces.
Georgio Home
43 Theodore Fremd Ave. Rye, NY 10580
Formerly in the designer footwear industry, Robert Georgio started pursuing his childhood dream of building homes that not only look good but are also a good fit for both their owners and their location in 2000 when he established Georgio Home. To provide Westchester and Fairfield county homeowners with the complete luxury lifestyle, Georgio also launched his own custom cabinetry division, making sure each room is as functional as it is stylish.
Georgio built this home in Rye in a shingle colonial style. Set against the large expanse of green, the sprawling structure has five full bedrooms and follows an open floor plan for its shared spaces, with a U-shaped white and dark-wood kitchen, two sunlit dining rooms, a relaxed family room, and a more enclosed formal living room with coffered ceilings. A lot of light streams into the home through broad windows. There’s also a stone terrace with a built-in grill, as well as a two-car heated garage.
Murphy Brothers Contracting
416 Waverly Ave. Mamaroneck, NY 10543
Building since 1979, the award-winning Murphy Brothers Contracting has completed over 400 projects throughout greater Westchester, lower Hudson Valley, and the southern Fairfield regions. This home in Rye sits on a two-acre lot on the shore of the Long Island Sound. Murphy Brothers built it with natural materials of stone and timber to blend in with its waterfront location. The centerpiece to the structure is two courtyard-like structures flooding all the living spaces with light and air. Each offers a good view of the Sound, the first being the open staircase in the atrium, the second being an internal Japanese garden between the kitchen and master suite. The project won the HOBI Award for Best Out of State Custom Home.
Brothers Chris and Sean Murphy are the visionaries behind the company. They continue to lead the firm as it builds custom homes in styles from Tudor to Coastal, with Chris serving as president and Sean as vice president.
Domus Constructors, LLC
Greens Farms, CT 06838
Domus Constructors, LLC won the Best Custom Contemporary Home HOBI Award for this home, which also earned a rating of 25 on the Home Energy Rating System Index for its tight insulation, solar panels, and deep overhangs. The free-form radius staircase, which seems to rise and fall along with the steep Westport lot, also won a Special Focus Award for Best Interior Home Feature. The air of mystery continues with another spiral staircase leading down to a cigar room through a secret door from the two-story library that features a steel catwalk. There’s also a glass-walled wine room and pentagon-shaped sunroom. The kitchen features a unique T-shaped marble island, and the spa bath has a wet-style tub set against wood-framed windows.
Chris Shea, NAHB Certified Green Professional, leads this award-winning company established in 1998 as it builds custom homes in Fairfield and Westchester. Shea earned his degree in Construction Management from Central Connecticut State University in 1983 and served as a project manager in several other firms before Domus. He is currently the chairman of Fairfield’s Historic District Commission.
JWH Design & Cabinetry
1111 Boston Post Rd. Rye, NY 10580
Having moved over 20 times between Westchester and Fairfield counties in the process of renovating their own homes, Jennifer Howard brings a personal relatability to designing and planning spaces for JWH Design & Cabinetry. Her husband Rob handles the construction management side of the business, for partial renovations and full design-build projects. The JWH Team specializes in custom cabinetry, produced by their own millshop, a prominent feature in all the homes they’ve created since 1996, many of which have been featured in local house tours and publications.
JWH brought this dream home to reality for a couple in Rye. The perfect Georgian symmetry of the façade opens to a wood-railed staircase that winds into the second floor, with one of the several statement chandeliers throughout the house at its center. Further down the hall, the eye is led to sweeping backyard views through a curved archway. Woods and painted finishes run throughout, from the center island kitchen countertop to the custom panel design on interior walls and cabinetry. Stone half walls and specially selected brick are nestled into the lush landscaping on the exterior. Learn more about their work at www.jwhdesigns.com/
DeRosa Builders
133 East Putnam Ave. Greenwich, CT 06807
Longtime Fairfield County residents Anthony and Michael DeRosa lead DeRosa Builders in building custom homes for Fairfield and Westchester Counties. The brothers each bring over 15 years of industry experience to the projects they take on. Anthony is the president of HBRA Fairfield County; Michael is the secretary of the Building Hope Foundation. The firm has won six HOBI Awards since it started in 2011, including being the youngest recipient of the Fairfield County Builder of the Year award.
This home in Riverside earned DeRosa the 2016 HOBI Award for Outstanding Fairfield County Custom Home 4,000-5,000 square feet. A blend of traditional and modern design, the 5,000-square-foot structure has six bedrooms, a high vaulted ceiling creating a spacious master bedroom, and the rest of the rooms also have their own walk-in closets and full baths. The first floor follows an open floor plan from kitchen to dining and living room, with a lot of space to entertain guests. There is also a more private dining area, as well as an eating area on the back patio with its own grill. The home office has a built-in desk and cabinetry, and the basement houses a gym, a play area, and a guest lodging.
BPC Green Builders
523 Danbury Rd. Wilton, CT 06897
BPC Green Builders has been creating high-performance sustainable homes in Western Connecticut and nearby New York counties since 1998. Led by brothers Mike and Chris Trolle, BPC built the first Platinum-rated LEED for Homes project in Fairfield, the first and only American Lung Association Health House in Connecticut, as well as the first PHIUS-Certified Passive House in the state.
This Net Zero Energy Home in Trumbull is the second home BPC built for this couple, who decided to downsize from the first one built in 2014. It’s also a Positive Energy Home and the surplus of energy is fed back into the electric grid. The large windows on the open layout living room, dining room, and kitchen capture solar gain, and solar panels on the roof provide all the power the home needs, including charging the owners’ electric vehicle. All lights are LED, and all water fixtures are low-flow throughout the three-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom home, which also has a basement rec room. The home won the 2020 Department of Energy Housing Innovation Award in the Custom Home category, as well as the 2020 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Connecticut Sustainable Architecture Merit Award.
Significant Homes LLC
199 Elm St. New Canaan, CT 06840
Playing on its location near Milton Harbor, nautical elements dot the rooms of this beach shingle home in Rye. A boat hull is carved into the library mantel, and a widow’s walk appears between the chimneys above the gables that look like arms opening towards the back. Seen from the back porch, looking sideways, the rear façade reminds viewers of classic Americana towns. Descending the steps onto the lush greenery side by side the pool, there is a countryside charm, with a view of the stone cladding on the walls and columns. The classic details run through the interior, in the intricately molded arches and staircase, themes changing from the comforting blues and florals of the marble countertop kitchen, and sunlit sitting and dining rooms, to the more formal living room, attic office, and library, to the playful children’s and rec room, which features a basement sport court.
Significant Homes LLC applies the same bespoke sensibilities to all the homes it builds in Fairfield and Westchester, and even as far as Palm Beach and Aspen. Their work, be it Classic Revival or Contemporary, has earned multiple atHome A-List and HOBI awards since 2010, and has also been featured in Architectural Digest, Luxe, Vanity Fair, and House Beautiful.
Karp Associates
16 Cross St. New Canaan, CT 06840
The fruit of ten years of dreaming, Karp Associates helped realize this client’s vision for a waterfront home in Old Greenwich. Built on an 86-pile foundation, the structure follows a blue motif, matching the panoramic views of the Long Island Sound through the glass walls and balconies. Glossy white and dark Wenge hand-built kitchen cabinets complement the blues on the couches and paintings in the living room, together forming a Great Room with the wooden dining set at their center. A few steps up is a three-season office, featuring a corrugated steel and barn beam ceiling. In the backyard is the 2017 HOBI award-winning fire pit waterfall, which pours into a LED spa/pool. Also facing the Sound on the third floor is a tourist viewfinder, for even better views of New York City. The home also won the 2017 HOBI Award for Best Custom Home Under 3,000-square-feet.
Karp has brought the same precision in custom building to Fairfield, Lower Westchester, and New Haven counties for over 30 years, a mainstay not just at the HOBI Awards, but also on the Remodeling 550 Top 550 List and Qualified Remodeler Top 500.
Legacy Construction Northeast LLC
10 New King St. Suite 208, White Plains, NY 10604
Winner of the 2019 HOBI Award for Best Custom House 6,000-7,000 square feet and a High Honor Excellence in Design from AIA Westchester and Hudson Valley, the Tree Top Lodge by Legacy Construction Northeast LLC in Bedford is inspired by the woodlands around its five-acre site. Rising from the bedrock, different kinds of wood are used across the home, from the gable support of the sky-high vaulted ceilings to the kitchen cupboards and double vanity cabinets, dining tables, and accent bar top and coffee table. Complementing all the browns is the natural stone cladding on the walls and the outdoor areas, where there are multiple lounges, including hanging benches on the covered patio. Window seats and desks scattered across the rooms serve as sun nooks in the modern treehouse.
Brothers Chris and Tom Yaroscak founded Legacy Construction in 2005, and have since built custom homes in Westchester, Fairfield County, New York City, and Eastern Long Island. The sons of an architect father and grandsons of a skilled master carpenter, Chris has a degree in Construction Management from New York University, while Tom earned his from Purdue University and is an NAHB Certified Graduate Builder. Legacy has earned multiple honors for its work, whether traditional or modern.
Hobbs, Inc.
27 Grove St. New Canaan, CT 06840
Bringing a whole new meaning to the corner office, the glass walls on the rear façade of this modern home in Rye offer an unobstructed view of the Long Island Sound. Extended ceiling slabs provide shade for the rear-wide balconies, which, like the rest of the floors, are vertically displaced, creating a modular look. Modern materials were used to create a clean, minimalist structure: white walls, light wood flooring, and black, gray, and brown accents in the kitchen, living, and dining room.
Hobbs, Inc. has been creating high-end homes in styles from Traditional to Country, since 1954. Owners and Project Executives Scott and Ian Hobbs are the third generation of leadership in the family-owned business. The firm has won 12 HOBI Awards for its custom work, including Custom Builder of the Year in 2005.
