Building Within the Communities of the Plateau

The Highlands-Cashiers plateau is home to some of the most carefully considered residential communities in the South. Each has its own architectural traditions, its own relationship to the land, and its own standards for what belongs within its boundaries. Building well in any of them requires something that goes beyond technical skill: it requires genuine familiarity with what each community values, how its review process works, and what kind of home will honor the character of the place rather than merely comply with its rules.

I have been building on this plateau for over two decades. In that time, I have worked within most of the major communities here, developed long-standing relationships with their architectural review processes, and come to understand the distinct sensibility of each. That knowledge is not something a builder can acquire from a document. It comes from being present on the plateau, year after year, project after project.

Cullasaja Club, Highlands

Cullasaja Club sits at roughly 4,200 feet on the outskirts of Highlands, with a golf course and lake that shape much of its character. The community has a traditional mountain aesthetic that is deeply rooted: heavy timber, natural stone, steeply pitched rooflines, and a palette drawn from the surrounding forest. The Architectural Review Committee at Cullasaja is serious and experienced; they know what belongs at that elevation and what does not.

Building at Cullasaja means understanding those expectations before the first design sketch. It means selecting an architect whose work is sympathetic to the community's character and who has worked within its guidelines before. The ARC process there is not an obstacle to navigate; it is a collaborative review with people who care deeply about protecting the quality and consistency of the community. Builders who approach it that way have a very different experience than those who do not.

High Hampton, Cashiers

High Hampton has a history that predates most of the plateau's development. The property dates to the nineteenth century, and even through its recent transformation, it has maintained an architectural identity that is distinctive and worth preserving. The shingle-style traditions, the bark siding, the integration of structures into the landscape rather than imposed upon it: these are not arbitrary conventions. They are the visual expression of a philosophy about what a mountain community should feel like.

Building at High Hampton requires sensitivity to that history. The ARC there guards it carefully, and rightly so. A home that would be entirely appropriate in another community on the plateau may not be right for High Hampton, not because of inflexibility, but because of coherence. We have been building in that community long enough to understand the difference.

"The ARC process is not an obstacle to navigate. It is a collaborative review with people who care deeply about what they have built together. Builders who approach it that way have a very different experience."

Mountaintop Golf & Lake Club, Cashiers

Mountaintop is the newest of the major communities on the plateau, having opened in 2013, and it has established itself quickly as one of the most in-demand addresses in the region. The views from its ridgetop setting are among the most dramatic available anywhere on the plateau, and the architecture has developed a contemporary mountain character that is distinct from the more traditional communities: cleaner lines, larger glass expanses, a willingness to let the view be the dominant design feature.

Building at Mountaintop requires understanding that sensibility. The community has high expectations for quality and a clear aesthetic point of view. Homes there need to be conceived at that level from the beginning, not adapted to it after the fact.

Pinchot, Cashiers

Pinchot is a quieter community, more naturalistic in its approach and more private in its character. The lots there tend toward larger acreage and the architectural philosophy leans toward homes that sit within the landscape with minimal disturbance. Building at Pinchot is a different exercise than building at a golf community; the emphasis is on siting, on natural materials, and on a quality of restraint that is harder to achieve than it looks.

The Country Club of Sapphire Valley

Sapphire Valley is an established resort community with a diverse range of home styles and a long history on the plateau. Building there offers somewhat more flexibility in architectural expression, while still demanding the quality and attention to the mountain setting that the area as a whole expects.

What Knowing These Communities Actually Means

Every one of these communities has an architectural review process, and every one of those processes reflects the values of the people who live there. Knowing those processes, knowing the review committees, and having a record of completed work within each community changes the experience of building there fundamentally. Submissions go more smoothly. Design decisions get made with a clearer sense of what will and will not be supported. The back-and-forth that can slow a project down is shortened by the simple fact of established relationships.

But the deeper benefit is not procedural. A builder who genuinely understands Cullasaja is going to make different design recommendations than one who is working there for the first time. A builder who knows High Hampton is going to protect what makes it High Hampton in a way that a stranger to the community cannot. That understanding is accumulated over years, not acquired from a guidebook, and it is one of the things that a lifelong plateau resident brings to a project that a builder from elsewhere simply cannot replicate.