Oxbow Design Build Cooperative, INC

Oxbow Design Build Cooperative works out of a 10,000 square foot building at 122 Pleasant Street in Easthampton that holds its design studio, offices and fabrication shop, and serves residential and commercial clients across the Pioneer Valley. Its Massachusetts Home Improvement Contractor registration, number 197929, is active in the state registry under the company's own name. It is a worker cooperative. The company says it was founded in 2015 by Carl Woodruff, Chris Millette and Noah Modie and that, with the Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives, it "officially converted into a worker-owned co-op in August of 2019" — a structure it explains as one where "the employees are also the owners, sharing in the profits and decision-making." The unusual thing about how they work is that design and construction sit under one roof. The company says its staff includes a registered architect, a licensed general contractor, a historic preservationist, designers and fabricators, and that one team member acts as your project manager from start to finish. Those credentials beyond the HIC registration are the company's own account and are not verified here. The reviews bear the structure out. A homeowner writing in October 2025, a year after moving in, described a single-level home on their pond, inspired by a Finnish lake house and designed ADA-compliant so they could age in place, built to be highly energy efficient and net zero — and reported receiving a preliminary HERS and Energy Star efficiency report from an independent assessor. A 2023 reviewer described a kitchen renovation with a three-season porch integrated and winterised, praising Carl for going "to the mat" with third-party suppliers and noting they could not tell the custom-made cabinets and shelving from the ordered ones. Another 2023 customer used Oxbow for both architectural design and fabrication on a large commercial project and said the timelines and estimates held. The civic work is substantial for a firm this size. Greenfield Recorder coverage in April 2026 reported the cooperative awarded $500,000 to redevelop a vacant lot at 187 Hope Street into a duplex, with the land going to the Franklin County Community Land Trust to keep it affordable; a 2024 city committee approved a further $25,650 of the $170,000 requested. A LinkedIn post in April 2026 described Carl as builder-owner on a two-family Phius passive house project in Greenfield, mid-construction. Worth knowing: the published review record is small — seven comments against the twelve ratings Google counts — and five of those went up in one five-week stretch in early 2023. Good fit for a design-led addition, a new build with an energy target, or custom millwork. Ask which team members hold which licences before you sign.