The Partners
Todd Webb designs. Steve Howard builds. They learned each other's standards the only way that sticks — on real projects, where the architect's intent meets the builder's hand. Distinct Build formalizes what they already do.
The architect of the partnership. Todd Webb is a seasoned, award-winning architect with over 30 years designing residential architecture. He worked at several award-winning firms before starting his own practice, webb architecture + design, in 2020 — and holds that the most seasoned architect shouldn't just design a house but draw its hardest details and run its most complex parts, staying in it from first concept through construction.
Licensed in Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts & North Carolina · AIA, NCARB. Recognized in Architectural Digest, Interior Design, the AIA Distinguished Building & Small Project Awards, and the IIDA Red Award.
The builder the region's leading architects trust. For 35+ years, Steve has built the work the most demanding firms in the country bring to almost no one else. His builds carry a national AIA Honor Award and multiple International Architecture Awards, and have appeared in 25+ publications worldwide — the construction discipline that turns ambitious drawings into precisely built reality.
Recognized in Architectural Digest, Architectural Record, Dwell, Interior Design & Home & Design. Built for Olson Kundig, David Jameson, FAIA, Allan Greenberg, MODE4 & MKCA.
Licensed & registered in Maryland, Virginia & DC — MHIC #103840 · MD Home Builder #135315 · Montgomery County #BC4063 · VA Class A #2705167584 · DC #420218000143.
Recognition
Architectural Digest features only a handful of homes a year. Todd's architecture and Steve's construction each earned that page on separate projects, long before Distinct Build had a name. The pairing is the rare part.
Architectural Digest is one page of a much longer record. Steve Howard — 35+ years, 25+ publications worldwide (Architectural Record, Dwell, Interior Design, Home & Design), a national AIA Honor Award and multiple International Architecture Awards, building for Olson Kundig, David Jameson, FAIA, Allan Greenberg, MODE4 & MKCA. Todd Webb — featured in Interior Design (Logan Circle), the AIA Distinguished Building Award, multiple IIDA Red Awards, across 30+ years of residential design.
"I've worked with the best architects in the country. Todd is the most complete design mind I've built with — he can see space, design it, detail it, and run the project, and he still listens. Most architects at that level let ego take over; it becomes their way or nothing. Todd is the opposite. No ego — just passion, and the willingness to fold in the best idea wherever it comes from."
— Steve Howard
How It Works
The partnership started on a job, not in a boardroom. Todd first hired Steve to build a modern jewelbox renovation — choosing him for his hands-on involvement, his fluency with modern detail, and a rare willingness to get deep into the drawings before the first wall went up.
"Many architects and contractors foster animosity during construction," Todd says. "By the end, we'd truly worked together to create something special." They've built each other's work ever since — proof against each other on real, finished homes, long before they formalized it as Distinct Build.
Now they apply that same standard to homes they develop themselves — architect-grade houses, made without compromise, each one distinct.
From First Sketch to Front Door
The land first. What it wants to become, and the home worth developing on it.
Architecture developed in-house, tested against real construction cost and method at every stage.
The people who designed it are accountable for building it — to architectural tolerances.
A finished home, true to the idea it started from. Ready to live in.
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