architects new hampshire

See our blog for new projects, announcements, and all things TMS Architects & Interiors.

1984. Gas was $1.13, the Celtics won an epic game 7 against the Lakers to earn the title of 35th NBA Champion, and the original Apple Macintosh personal computer went on sale. This also happened to be the year that TMS was founded (the most significant fun fact, if you ask us. Who needs computers, anyway?).

41 years ago, William “Bill” Soupcoff and John Merkle joined together to create what is now TMS Architects & Interiors, a boutique home design firm servicing New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and beyond, to create wonderfully unique and luxurious homes.

TMS Founders John Merkle and Bill Soupcoff on the cover of the 1999 May-June Issue of Residential Architect.

TMS Group Photo, 2003.

From the jump, Bill and John shared a common passion for architectural design and both heavily valued ethics, fairness, and the insistence of superior work quality. Coming from different backgrounds (John graduated from NYIT; Bill from MIT), these two took their shared interests and unique educations and created a partnership that resulted in some of the finest architectural work in New England. Some projects you may recognize if you are local to the New England seacoast area include the Wentworth by the Sea Hotel restoration, the Music Hall restoration, and the Bridges House, as well as many stunning residential projects that pepper the coastal, lakefront, and inland roads of the region.

Wentworth by the Sea Hotel.

Portsmouth Music Hall Restoration Team Uncovers Original Ceiling Mural.

As the decades have passed, there have been monumental changes within the industry and the world in general, but TMS’ values have remained the same. Our mission is to fully embrace our clients’ visions and turn them into buildings that are beautiful, functional, and sustainable. Whether it’s a residential build, a pool house renovation, or commercial office design, communication and attention-to-detail are critical.

Residential Kitchen Design, 1997 Project.

Residential Kitchen Design, 2023 (Coastal Legacy).

Considering the growth of technology since 1984, our founders established the TMS name when architects primarily relied on hand-drawn sketches. We are now able to take clients on a three-dimensional tour of their future homes thanks to virtual reality. How times have changed! (although many of our designers still enjoy creating by hand). As technology and our business have developed, so have our skills, capabilities, and portfolio. We have worked to establish ourselves as both an architectural firm and an interior design firm, collaborating with clients in all phases of the design process. Whether in the initial construction phase or in the final decorating phase, we set out to not only meet our clients’ expectations but exceed them.

Archived TMS Hand-Drawn Residential Rendering.

Lakefront Residential Rendering, 2025.

Over the years, our work has earned us more than 40 awards for excellence of design. These projects have ranged from a 2004 National Trust for Historic Preservation Award for our work on the restoration of the Wentworth by the Sea Hotel (spearheaded by John Merkle, our initial historic preservation enthusiast!) to the 2025 Modern Luxury Interiors New England award for Best NH Architect. These awards and the variation of them display just how much time, thought, and energy goes into understanding what our clients desire for each project. and teaming up with them every step of the way to achieve just that. We are honored to have been serving our community for 41 years, and we look forward to the new projects we have yet to take on. Thank you to everyone who has helped make TMS Architects & Interiors into what it is today (employees, clients, family, community, etc) and here’s to the continuation of beautiful, unique, and sustainable building design!

Initial Rendering of Expanded Interior Design Resource Studio in the new TMS Office Space.

TMS Group Photo, 2025.

Like a painting in which more detail is added or a piece of clay taking shape on a potter’s wheel, it is wonderful to see the construction progress of a new TMS-designed home.  This residence, in northern Massachusetts, has been under construction by DiPiero Construction, Newburyport, Massachusetts, for a little less than a year and the homeowners are finally seeing the light at the end of the project…choosing colors, tile, fixtures, furniture and artwork for their new home as the abstraction of the floor plans become individual and specific rooms.

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If you could build your dream vacation home, which fun features would you add? That’s a question that has been on our mind ever since we shared this Family Playhouse under construction, which will eventually include a half basketball court and 9-hole mini golf course! When designing a vacation home — especially one in a rural area — many families are finding creative ways to keep the fun in-house. So what would we put in our ultimate vacation home? Read on for a little inspiration…

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Create the Outdoor Room Your Garden Desires this Summer

Outdoor rooms and gardens are the perfect way to extend your home to the outdoors. Whether you have an existing garden in which you plan to create a living space or you are starting with little to no landscaping, design options abound that will allow you to make the most of your outdoor space for relaxing or entertaining.

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Many thanks to Selectwood, a wonderful building supply resource center in Portsmouth, NH, for featuring a TMS designed home in the Spring 2015 Builder’s Price Guide.  The project, A Seaside Renovation, was a collaborative project between TMS Architects, CM Ragusa Builders and, of course, the homeowners!

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Sustainable homeowners are smart homeowners. After all, wouldn’t you rather spend your money on a weekend getaway or a fun day out with your family than waste it on your electrical bill? Upgrading to energy-efficient appliances in your kitchen can mean less waste, less resources consumed, more peace of mind, and more money in your pocket.

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Rooftops, pavings, and other hardscapes can negatively affect landscapes and the environment. An unfortunate side effect of these impermeable surfaces, rain runoff, can deprive garden beds of natural irrigation and prevent groundwater tables from replenishing. It can cause erosion, slides, and even flash floods. Stormwater can pick up contaminates and lead to increased pollution of streams, rivers, and oceans.

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Morey Stettner, a business reporter for The Portsmouth Herald recently interviewed William Soupcoff, a founder and principal architect of TMS Architects.  It was a very informative piece as we all learned some things about Bill that we didn’t know before….such as his first “real” job:

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Homeowners are increasingly committing to living greener more eco-friendly lifestyles, and that extends to how they build and remodel their homes. If sustainability is a concern for your home, you will want to look into eco-friendly insulation materials.

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If you are a fan of green building like we are, you are probably going to look for ways to incorporate your natural surroundings into your home as well. Many times, building or remodeling your home so that it is more in harmony with nature can boost both the way your home performs as well as the way it makes you feel. If your home has a close relationship with your surroundings, it creates a calming effect, and here are some ways to a build a home with natural elements in mind:

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Good natural light is a feature many people appreciate in a home. But good natural light can also help with energy efficiency to create a more eco-friendly and sustainable home. Besides helping to illuminate the home and offering scenic views, windows, skylights, and glass walls can also help generate heat to warm your home, helping you to save on energy costs.

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Spring is just around the corner, so it’s the perfect time to update or renovate your home. There are many smart options for building materials on the current market, so it can be understandably difficult to choose the right ones for your particular project. We love the way reclaimed wood adds warmth and introduces texture to a space. With reclaimed wood, you can make a huge design statement, so we have some tips and ideas to get you started.

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Looking for a way to give back to nature while receiving the benefits of flowers, plants, and vegetables? Growing your own plants and food is an important step toward leading a more sustainable lifestyle. Switching over to a sustainable gardening style goes a really long way in building a garden that you can then admire, eat from, and enjoy. To help you avoid getting lost on the way, we have some information to help grow your sustainable garden into a feature you can be proud of.

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Passive home designs work with the environment rather than against it. By taking advantage of location, orientation, and local climate, a passive home is designed to maintain comfortable temperatures while reducing energy consumption.

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The photo we pinned of the exterior of our project called the New Hampshire Hilltop Home has been pinned to multiple Pinterest boards. The well-liked pin has us pondering wooden shingles, and the way they exude both a historical and modern look.

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Congratulations to TD Garden and Bruin and Celtic team executives as they cut the ribbon on the next phase of their planned $70 million renovation of the 20 year old arena.  This phase involved a $4.5 million upgrade and TMS Architects, along with Cambridge 7, was delighted to be a member of the design team that created this dynamic new space.

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We just finished photographing this beautiful TMS-designed home and wanted to share some of the photos with you. This was a dream house for the homeowners, idyllically sited in a beautiful New England meadow.  The exterior massing of the house respects the style of the surrounding neighborhood as well as grounding the home to the site more naturally.  Large overhangs, material choices and low slung rooms help create horizontal datum bans that connect the massing of the home attractively to the site, overlooking the meadow as it rolls towards the rear of the house.

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TMS Architects recently had the opportunity to work again with  Rob Karosis to photograph an unusual architectural project that Shannon Alther, TMS principal, worked on recently.  The homeowners of this beautiful home and barn had lived in the area for years and were thinking seriously about downsizing…apparently all they really needed in a new locale was access to the internet and an airport.  However, the more they thought about leaving the area, the pull of family and grandchildren was hard to ignore so they came up with an ingenious solution in lieu of leaving the family home.

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In 1986, Tom Hanks and Shelley Long had audiences in stitches in The Money Pit, a film about a dream house that becomes a renovation nightmare. That story, of course, is just fiction – or is it?

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