Vermont’s ‘DaVinci’: Mad River Valley architectural legend David Sellers dies at 86
February 27, 2025 | K. Fiegenbaum | VTDigger
Mad River architect David Sellers, pictured here in the second house he built on Prickly Mountain in Warren, died in early February. Photo courtesy of Michael Heeney
David Sellers — internationally renowned architect, serial entrepreneur, teacher, visionary and a longtime resident of Prickly Mountain in Warren — died earlier this month of heart complications while visiting family in Los Angeles. He was 86.
“A large planet in many people’s solar systems has set,” wrote Kate Stevens, one of Sellers’ many longtime friends, in an email. “He was inventive, endlessly curious, with a telescoping intellect, and infectious imagination.”
Sellers, raised in Chicago and educated at Yale University, was a pioneer of the design/build movement in which architects also physically build their designs, adjusting the plans (or lack thereof) as they work, like a sculptor. He built all over the world with a focus on sustainability.
“In the art form of architecture and designing things, it’s like an orchestra,” Sellers said in a 2014 interview. “It’s a constellation of instruments, you know — the stairs, the railings, the lights, the heat, the windows, the view, the air circulation, the porches. And you try to put them together into a symphony.”
Sellers was named one of the Top 100 architects in the world by Architectural Digest twice and awarded a lifetime achievement award in 2017 by the American Institute for Architects.
Long before that, in 1965, he and some friends moved to Vermont on a whim to start trying their hand at building, he recounted in a 2022 interview. They chose the Mad River Valley sight unseen with the thought of building a vacation house for those living in the “manmade mountain” of Manhattan. (The natural valley, Sellers said, was the same size and shape of an upside-down Manhattan.)
The friends managed to purchase 450 acres on an unnamed hillside in Warren with a $1,000 down payment, later calling it Prickly Mountain after architect John Lucas inadvertently sat on a raspberry bush, Sellers told VT Ski + Ride Magazine.
The Tack House, built in 1966, was the first house built on Prickly Mountain in Warren by Sellers and his friend and colleague William Reineke. Photo courtesy of Michael Heeney
The first house they built — the Tack House — was made entirely of plywood and found objects with no blueprints other than a rough sketch of the foundation. Soon, the vacation home plan was scrapped and Prickly Mountain turned into a longtime community of close friends and colleagues.
Don Mayer, a Prickly Mountain resident, met Sellers when he was studying at Goddard College. Sellers founded a hands-on architecture program at the college in which students designed and constructed buildings, eventually creating seven structures for the school.
Mayer and Sellers both had an interest in renewable energy and ended up traveling around the Midwest buying up old windmills and refurbishing them on another of Sellers’ successful whims. Despite little money and resources, they won a government grant to continue the project, which became North Wind Power (later Northern Power Systems).
Sellers went on to found or co-found numerous other enterprises — including Vermont Castings, the Mad River Rocket sled company, his Madsonian Museum of Industrial Design in Waitsfield — as well as collaborate on numerous other projects in the Mad River Valley.
David Sellers in his studio, which he called the ‘Temple of Dendur’ due of its inspiration from the Egyptian structure at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in 2015. Photo courtesy of Michael Heeney
“Above all, Dave was a connector and communicator: he would connect people to each other in a way that most people cannot do,” Mayer said in an interview. “He’s had a significant positive impact on so many people and in so many ways.”
Longtime friend Melinda Moulton, a pivotal force in redeveloping Burlington’s waterfront, met Sellers four decades ago. The two worked together on commuter rail advocacy — Sellers had a vision for creating town hubs connected by trains all across Vermont.
“He was super creative, coming up with great ideas and thoughts, and always with a laugh and a huge sense of joy in his demeanor and his personality,” said Moulton. Sellers, she said, “would hold court and have these wonderful stories. He had a great laugh, he’d throw his head back and laugh and was just such a joy to be around.”
Sellers taught students at a number of institutions, including Yale, MIT and the Yestermorrow Design/Build School. An Eagle Scout, he also volunteered on numerous town and regional boards and commissions including the selectboard and fire department.
The Pyramid House, built in 1968, was the second house David Sellers built on Prickly Mountain. Photo courtesy of Michael Heeney
Above all, Sellers was “just a lot of fun,” said his daughter Trillium Rose, who described her father as always finding the good in people and fun in the mundane.
“He was really playful: he always moved toward joy and laughter and I don’t think he let things bog him down very easily,” she said. “I never heard him complain about people or other things. One of the strongest principles in our upbringing was ‘don’t find fault with things or people or your situation: it’s easy to find fault, find the good.’ I think that was a guiding principle for everything — and he lived that.”
Rose described her father as always finding ways to solve problems and work toward his vision everyday.
“He was really good at life, like, good at living and enjoying every moment,” she said. “And that’s one thing I don’t feel sad about — he just didn’t waste any time.”
Rose also described Sellers’ great love for games and competition. She recounted how he got ahold of some curling stones and started playing the game with friends and family on a pond near his studio. Then, he called up the USA Curling News magazine and asked if there was a state championship in Vermont.
Rose also described Sellers’ great love for games and competition. She recounted how he got ahold of some curling stones and started playing the game with friends and family on a pond near his studio. Then, he called up the USA Curling News magazine and asked if there was a state championship in Vermont.
“They said, ‘No, we don’t really have any state championships,’” Rose recalled. “So then he just declared this would be the state championship for curling, invited some friends, and then called it into the magazine — and they published it!”
Moulton also described Sellers as a master of innovation, sort of a “Vermont Leonardo da Vinci,” always puttering around creating things.
“He was so human and made you feel very human in a beautiful way,” she said. “So I think, I think that’s the legacy: that we all should try to aspire to have that kind of lightness of being and seeing the world through the kind of lens that he saw, which was seeing things always with a curiosity.”