Our story
How a firm gets this way.
Mosher Dolan has built and renewed homes across Metro Detroit since 1979, alongside the region’s best architects, designers, and trades.
Doyle Mosher and Todd Dolan founded the firm in Birmingham. Today Dave Engel leads it day to day, alongside the project leads and superintendents who will be with you from the first meeting to the last.
The culture
Set on the first houses. Kept on every one since.
Mosher Dolan was founded in Birmingham in 1979 by Doyle Mosher and Todd Dolan. Their commitment to quality, and to getting things right rather than merely done, became the culture: build every house as if the family were already living in it. It is the first thing each new person here learns, from the people who learned it before them.
The care
Kindness is part of the work.
A custom home is a long relationship, and we treat it like one. We listen before we talk. We tell you the truth about cost and time, early and plainly. We treat your family, your neighbors, and the trades on your site with the same courtesy, because how a builder treats people shows in how it treats a house. Four out of five of our projects come from past clients or someone they sent.
The attention
One house at a time, every time.
No two houses get the same answer. Each one gets its own thinking and the same unhurried attention to the details you will live with, whether it is a whole new home or a single room. And when a question comes up years after the last walk-through, you call us, and we still know your house.
A note from the founders
Why we keep doing this.
Built well, a home gets richer with time: in memory, in patina, and usually in value.
“Four decades in, a finished house still moves me. Whether it begins as drawings or as a house with a life already behind it, it becomes the place a family will live. Proportion, light, the way a room receives you: get those right and the house is still right in thirty years. I have watched these houses raise families, first child to last graduation, and a wedding or two in the back yard. That is what still matters.”Doyle Mosher, Founder
“Every job has problems. The skill is catching them early, and not minding when you have to roll up your sleeves to fix them. Structure has always made sense to me, but the drawings only ever go so far. The rest is paying attention, asking good questions, and being decent to everyone on the way: the family, the architect, the crew. People do their best work for people who treat them well. That isn’t a nicety. It’s how a house gets built right, and stays right long after we’re gone.”Todd Dolan, Founder
Carrying it forward
The founders set the standard, and they are still here. The next generation carries it forward.
“Most of what I know about this work I learned by watching: my grandfather, my dad, and then Doyle and Todd, who taught me that a builder’s real product is trust. The job is to serve: the families who hand us something personal, the architects and craftsmen we build beside, and the team that makes it possible. Do that well and the house takes care of itself. Everything this firm is, it earned that way, and I mean to keep earning it.” Dave Engel, Project Executive
What we value
Six things we won’t compromise on.
Craft Before Schedule
We take the schedule seriously. But when an extra day of thought makes the work better, we take the day, and we tell you why. The day is forgotten by the time you move in. The work is there for as long as the house is.
Means: your home isn’t ready until it’s right.
Real Collaboration
A custom home is made by a team: architects, designers, craftsmen, the family, and us. The work is best when the drawings carry everyone’s fingerprints and no one is steamrolled.
Means: you’re heard in your own project, and so is everyone helping build it.
Plain Talk
Construction is complicated; communication shouldn’t be. We say what’s actually going on, including what’s hard, undecided, or expensive, the day we find it, options in hand.
Means: you’ll always know where things stand.
Lasting Stewardship
The phone number still works in year ten. We look after what we build long after a project closes, and treat houses built by others with the same regard.
Means: the relationship doesn’t end at the walk-through.
Reputation Over Revenue
Some jobs aren’t right for us. Some bids should be lost. The work we take has to be work we’re proud to put our name on, because in this business your name is everything.
Means: when we say yes to your project, we mean it.
Rooted in the Community
We’re part of a place, not just a market. We give back to the city and region that made us: local causes, local leadership, and the trades and people who make Detroit what it is.
Means: your home is built by people who live here, give here, and stay here.
The people
The team behind every home.
- Doyle Mosher Founder Michigan State graduate. First-generation builder, design obsessive, and serial entrepreneur. Doyle co-founded Mosher Dolan in 1979, and his eye for proportion, feel, and the details that age beautifully is the standard the firm still builds to. His is the kind of eye that notices what most people miss, probably by 1/8″. Co-founded Challenge Detroit in 2012, a design-thinking community fellowship that ran through 2026.
- Todd Dolan Founder Michigan State graduate. Engineer by training, builder by trade, and never above picking up a tool when the work called for it. Todd thinks structurally: how a building goes together, where the loads transfer, and what the drawings haven’t accounted for yet. Calm under pressure, and the kind of partner who finished the job because the job needed finishing. That discipline is built into the firm, and it still runs by it.
- Dave Engel
Project Executive
Hope College graduate, with a B.A. in Business Management and Political Science and a minor in Economics. Third-generation builder: his grandfather and father built and developed, and he grew up on their sites. 11+ years at Mosher Dolan. A lifelong love of design and architecture, from Lego as a kid to the houses he now helps bring to life. Equal parts relationship builder, detail manager, and translator between clients, architects, and the realities of construction. Challenge Detroit fellow, 2015–2016.
Reach Dave directly → · LinkedIn → - Raquel Santos Interiors Management Originally from Brazil, with a degree in Architecture and Urbanism from UNIVALE. Raquel guides the interior side of every project, coordinating designers, finishes, and selections so the details come together as imagined. Challenge Detroit fellow, 2023–2024.
- Jeff Brower Site Superintendent Michigan State graduate. On site every day, coordinating trades, troubleshooting in real time, and holding the work to the exacting tolerances that define a Mosher Dolan home. Knows the drawings cold and the trades well, with a steady, no-drama presence that keeps complicated jobs moving and the small details from slipping.
- Taylor Parks Site Superintendent Runs the day-to-day on site, coordinating trades, sequencing the work, and keeping the build on schedule and true to the plans. Detail-oriented, level-headed, and the kind of superintendent who treats every project like it’s his own, with a craftsman’s respect for the work and the people doing it.
- Gina D’Annunzio Accounting Macomb College graduate. Runs accounts payable and billing, from lien waivers to sworn statements, working closely with trades, suppliers, and clients. Detail-focused and a pleasure to work with.
- Tracey McCaghy Accounting Central Michigan University graduate. Oversees accounting, HR, and insurance, and keeps the whole operation in order.
- We’re hiring
Join the team
We’re always looking for thoughtful, skilled people who care about the craft. Connect with us on LinkedIn →
Tradespeople and subcontractors: introduce yourself here.
On privacy
Private by design.
A custom home is a private undertaking. So is everyone we build it with. We don’t post in-progress photos without permission or identify our clients, our architects, or the trades we work alongside. Many of the homes and families we’ve built for will never appear anywhere, and that is exactly as it should be. The relationships are private by design. The work is what’s public, and the work speaks.