MODERNIST
About
THE PRACTICE
A Design & Development Studio
Studio Modernist is the parent practice behind Upstate Modernist — a real estate design and development firm founded on the conviction that architecture, construction, and development belong under one roof. We were established by two partners whose backgrounds span registered architecture, sustainable design practice, real estate, and business development.
Our work is concentrated in the New York Hudson Valley, where through Upstate Modernist we have designed and developed a portfolio of architect-designed modern homes across Dutchess and Columbia counties. We also take on select commissions in urban and other markets through S3 Architecture, our New York City-based architecture studio.
The practice was built around a simple premise: that the best buildings happen when the same people who conceive them are also accountable for building them.
FOUNDERS
The Principals
Doug Maxwell
Co-Founder · Managing Partner · Licensed Real Estate Broker
Doug leads business operations, marketing, and sales for Studio Modernist and Upstate Modernist, and is a licensed real estate broker in New York State. He also contributes actively to interior and exterior design across the portfolio, bringing a design-informed perspective to both the business and the built work.
An entrepreneur who has built and managed businesses across creative and technical fields, Doug brings a blend of business acumen, design sensibility, and technology fluency that has shaped how the firm operates and how it brings its work to market.
Doug's role in the practice is to ensure that the design excellence produced by the studio is matched by the commercial intelligence and client experience that surrounds it — that buying or commissioning a Studio Modernist home is as considered and refined as the home itself.
Christopher Dierig
Co-Founder · Registered Architect · S3 Architecture
Christopher leads the design vision of Studio Modernist and is the founding principal of S3 Architecture, a Sustainable Architecture, Interior and Urban Design firm based in New York City, which he established in 2005. A Registered Architect in New York State and member of the US Green Building Council, Christopher has built a practice defined by rigorous modernist design, sustainable building methods, and a deep commitment to contextual architecture.
Under his leadership, S3 Architecture has grown to encompass residential, hospitality, and urban development projects — including the landmark Sylvan Rock development in collaboration with Aston Martin Design, and the Brooklyn Heights Farm multiple dwelling project in New York City.
His approach to architecture is grounded in the belief that modern design and environmental responsibility are not in tension — that the most compelling contemporary buildings are also the most sustainably conceived ones.
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
The Upstate Modern Aesthetic
The aesthetic that defines our work — what we call Upstate Modern — is a response to a specific place and a specific moment. The Hudson Valley offers landscape of extraordinary beauty and topographic richness, within reach of one of the world's most design-literate cities. Our architecture tries to be worthy of that landscape.
We build with natural materials — weathering steel, board-formed concrete, blackened wood cladding, local stone, warm-toned hardwoods — because these materials belong to the place and because they improve with age.
WARM MODERN
We resist the cold, all-white minimalism that has become shorthand for modern design. Our homes are modern in geometry and plan but warm in materiality and feeling.
CONSERVATION FOCUSED
Every project begins with a preservation-focused site plan. We protect natural features, maintain sight lines, and disturb as little land as possible.
SUSTAINABLY BUILT
High-performance wall assemblies, all-electric mechanical systems, passive solar orientation — sustainability is embedded in our process, not appended to it.
WORK WITH US