The I’On Builders Guild was created by the

The I’On Builders Guild was created by the developers of I’On, a traditional neighborhood development (TND) in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. The guild is a screening and educational system for builders and home designers in the 243-acre project. The building pace in I’On will be five times faster than Newpoint, a previous neotraditional project developed by Vince Graham, who is partnering with his father, Tom, in founding I’On. “In order to maintain quality, we felt that the builders had to be great from the beginning,” explains Geoff Graham, brother of Vince and project manager of I’On. The Grahams started with a list of 140 builders operating in the area, interviewing 35. From those interviews, they were able to pair the list down to 10 initial members of the guild. Three more have been added since. Just recently, 15 architects have become members. Only guild members are allowed to build in I’On. The choice of architect will be voluntary, but the guild members will be promoted. The builders generally are small, constructing four to 40 homes a year. The architects mostly are from the region, but a few are based elsewhere. The guild meets monthly. Sometimes speakers are invited to meetings, or tours are arranged (of historic homes in nearby Charleston, for example). “We’re trying to put excellent resources into the hands of builders,” says Geoff Graham.