In the seventies, Jock Gifford planted the seeds that would spawn Design Associates. He and a young architect, Bill Rich, AIA, received a prestigious commission, the design of the major expansion of the now world-famous Harbor House Hotel on Nantucket.
Gifford and Rich embarked on the project and put together the professional team of architects, designers, and technicians that later became Design Associates.

Jock Gifford’s design career spans twenty-five years and a lifetime living and working in New England. He has spent every summer on Nantucket Island, where he is a partner at Design Associates and oversees a number of his other enterprises, including the critically acclaimed Straight Wharf Restaurant, which he designed in 1976.