Sheet 10 / About
One firm, forty-five years, two names on the drawings
Envision Design Build has designed and built custom homes and remodels across Houston and Galveston since 1981. The firm works Memorial Villages, Bellaire, West University, Tanglewood and River Oaks, and out to the coast. It is a small company on purpose: Jack Knowlton draws the house and Garrett Shaw runs the job, and both of them sign their name to it.
Sheet 10.1 / 1981 to now
From Design to Design-Build
Envision started as a design firm and became something else once Jack built his own house in the nineties and found he liked the construction side as much as the drawing. The company evolved into full-service design-build, and remodeling was added roughly ten years ago. The way the firm works has not changed since: one contract, one team, the budget checked against the drawing from the first sketch.
Sheet 10.2 / President
Jack Knowlton, AIBD, GMB, CAPS
Jack grew up in Houston’s Memorial neighborhood and has lived in the area more than fifty years. He was noticed for art and architecture as a kid, and his first job out of high school was at a residential design firm, where he worked up to vice president in ten years. He became a Certified Professional Building Designer and designed for some of Houston’s largest home builders before opening his own firm, The Purser Knowlton Partnership, in 1985, with a former co-worker.
Building his own home in the nineties changed the direction of the company. He liked the construction side enough to bring it in-house, and the firm has held both halves of the project since. He sits on the GHBA Remodelers Council board. Away from the jobsite he rides a Harley-Davidson, and most weekends he and his wife are at a historical home they bought on Galveston Island.
Sheet 10.3 / Vice President, Partner
Garrett Shaw, full partner since December 2025
Garrett earned a BS in Construction Management from the University of Houston in 2015. He started at Envision as an intern, was hired on, and has been managing projects for the firm for more than three years. He runs day-to-day activity on the jobsite: coordinating subcontractors, tradesmen and laborers so the plans and specs survive contact with the actual build.
In December 2025 the company announced a refreshed logo and, alongside it, that Garrett had become a full partner while continuing as Vice President. The letter that went out to clients was signed by both of them: Jack Knowlton, President, and Garrett Shaw, Vice President.
Sheet 10.4 / Credentials
The letters after the names, listed so you can check them
Jack holds design credentials and construction credentials, which is unusual and is the reason this firm can hold both halves of a project without handing off to a separate contractor.
Design
- American Institute of Building Design (AIBD)
- Certified Aging-In-Place Specialist (CAPS)
- Certified Professional Building Designer (CPBD)
Construction
- Graduate Master Builder (GMB)
- Certified Green Professional (CGP)
- National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)
- Greater Houston Builders Association (GHBA)
- Texas Association of Builders
- EPA Certified Renovator
Sheet 10.5 / Thirty years out
Aging-in-place work runs through a large share of what the firm builds
Between thirty and fifty percent of Envision’s projects include aging-in-place features in some form. Roll-in showers, special cabinet designs, flush thresholds, grab bars. On one two-story house the design stacked a closet directly above another so the space could be converted into an elevator later, if it was ever needed, without touching the structure. The pattern is the same each time: the house is drawn for the family living there now, and for the same family twenty years on.
Sheet 10.6 / In print
Covered a few times over the years
Houston Chronicle
Home Is Where the Heart Is
Living Magazine, The Texas Issue
Home Improvement Movement: Envision Design/Build, Quality You Can Trust from Start to Finish
The Metropolitan Builder Magazine
Envision's Knowlton Knows Design and Building
Sheet 10.7 / Talk to us
Start with a conversation, not a contract
Bring a lot, a floor plan, or just the thing that is annoying you about the house you are in now. There is no charge for the first conversation.