Everett Pollard: Design-Builder and Skier

Everett Pollard Design Build New Hampshire

A gig at a New Hampshire ski shop led Everett Pollard to his nearly 40-year career in the design-build industry.

Pollard had always wanted to be an architect, but the schooling was too expensive. He studied engineering, and briefly art, in college but ultimately majored in business. After graduation, he lived in Colorado for a while before moving back to New Hampshire to run Bob Skinner’s Ski & Sport shop in the Mount Sunapee area.

Pollard’s ski mechanic at the shop was a remodeler, and the two eventually decided to go in business together. They ran a design and construction firm for 11 years before Pollard branched off to start his own company, Northcape Design-Build, in 1987.

“I decided that I’d do all of the design work and project management, and did that for about nine years. I finally started to take on employees and got an office building,” Pollard said. “We’ve been doing great projects around the lake here for a long time.”

Northcape specializes in custom homes, additions and renovations in the Lake Sunapee area. In addition to design-build services, the company has an in-house interior designer who handles everything from helping clients shop for fixtures to selecting fabrics and furniture.

Q: Do you have a favorite style of home or architecture?

A: Personally, I like shingle-style homes. As far as the interior goes, I love timber frames. I happen to live in a shingle-style timber frame.

Q: Does Northcape specialize in a particular style or design?

A: We do a lot of what you might call New Hampshire vernacular lake houses. There’s a strong influence from both shingle-style and Adirondack. People around the lake seem to like open floor plans. They do like some timber-frame details, but maybe not a whole timber frame. They really enjoy a casual, campy, lodge-type atmosphere.

Q: Tell me about one of your favorite projects.

There’s one that we finished about four months ago on the lake. It was an existing home. It had a bit of a formal style inside, which is very unusual for a timber frame. I worked with a Realtor and his client to help them come up with a vision for the house. The vision helped them understand that they could purchase the house as is, even though they didn’t like some of the aspects of it, and we could improve on it.

It really turned out to be four different projects in one. The first project was to renovate an existing small cottage that came with the house. At the same time, we were doing the design work for a three-car garage and guest suite that would connect to the house. Also at the same time, we started work on the main floor and upper floor of the house. We went in and removed some walls, opened it up, took out some of the formal aspects and really turned it into a beautiful lodge. The fourth job was designing and building an enhanced walkout level where we put in a game room, a TV room, a complete home theater, an exercise room and a new bathroom.

Q: Are you noticing any new trends in building or interior design?

A: Something that I don’t necessarily like but seems to be the rage right now are those very dramatic rectangular glass tiles that people like to use for a kitchen backsplash. It doesn’t turn me on, but that’s a trend and people seem to like it.

Q: If you weren’t in this line of work, what would you be doing?

A: Oh, wow. (Laughing.) I’d probably be running Bob Skinner’s ski shop on Mount Sunapee.