About Renown
A small studio with a long memory for craft.
Renown Home Builders was founded in 2004 on a simple conviction: that a home should be built by people who care about it as much as the people who will live in it. Two decades later, that conviction still sets our standard.
Our Story
From a workshop on Cedar Ridge to homes across the region.
Marcus Trent and Elena Marsh started Renown in a converted furniture workshop off Cedar Ridge Road, with one crew, one truck, and a refusal to cut corners. The first homes were modest — but they were built right, and that reputation traveled.
Today we're a team of twenty-six: architects, project managers, and tradespeople who all carry the same standard. We keep our project list short on purpose, so that the people who design your home are the same people who build it.
What We Stand For
Four principles, held without exception.
Stewardship of the Land
We build to belong to the site — preserving trees, topsoil, and the character of the place long before the first footing is dug.
Built to Endure
We specify materials and methods meant to outlast us. A Renown home should be as sound in fifty years as the day we handed over the keys.
Craft as Standard
Joinery, stonework, and finish detail are not upgrades — they are the baseline of how we work, on every project, at every budget.
One Accountable Team
Design, estimating, and construction all sit under one roof. One team, one standard, one point of accountability from start to finish.
Two Decades
A short history of Renown.
- 2004
Founders Marcus Trent and Elena Marsh open Renown in a converted Asheville workshop.
- 2009
Completed our first whole-neighborhood design-build, earning the first of many AIA awards.
- 2015
Brought all trades in-house — carpentry, masonry, and cabinetry — to guarantee our standard.
- 2021
Opened the Cedar Ridge design studio and dedicated full-time architectural staff.
- 2024
Celebrated twenty years and our 180th delivered home across Western North Carolina.
The Renown Standard
The difference is in the details you don't see.
Sound framing, properly flashed weather barriers, true and plumb walls, joinery that holds. The work that disappears behind the finish is the work that decides whether a home lasts. It's where we spend our care, and our reputation.
See the Results