[2] His lengthy career resulted in a wide range of building types, and, with the assistance of skilled draughtsmen such as Richard M Gunn, he adapted his designs to changing tastes and new architectural materials and technologies.

In 1892, having won the competition to design Belmont Church in Hillhead, he set up in full-time practice on his own account and rented an office at 223 West George Street, Glasgow.

An early example was Olympic House (1903), a plain rectangular speculative office development in Glasgow's Queen Street, followed by the Anchor Line Building (1905–07) on St Vincent Place.

Major commissions beyond Scotland included Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys (1927) in Leicester, and the neo-Georgian style Dining Hall and 'Cocoa Block' (1929) for Cadbury at Bournville.

Much of his early work, such as "Dunloskin", Dumbreck (1890), and Craighuchty Terrace, Aberfoyle (c. 1890) is in an English Arts & Crafts style and influenced by his railway architecture.

Between 1915 and 1923, he designed "Kildonan", near Barrhill, Ayrshire, for Captain David Euan Wallace MP, a very large property similar in size to Turnberry Hotel, and in a Tudor Revival style.