Farm Arcu System
An agricultural planning and farm-systems practice on Pittsburgh's South Side, working with farms and rural landowners across Western Pennsylvania and the Allegheny region.
The person behind the plan
Farm Arcu System is owned and run by Craig Marcus. Craig grew up around working land in Western Pennsylvania and spent years in farm operations before turning to planning full time: walking properties with owners, sorting out layouts that had grown up piecemeal, and helping families get barns, lanes, and drainage built in the right order instead of the expensive one.
Over time he noticed the same pattern. The farms that held up were not the ones that spent the most; they were the ones that thought first. A field system drawn around the actual ground. Water moving where it was meant to move. Buildings sited for the chores of every day, not just the day they were framed. Farm Arcu System was set up to give that kind of thinking a name and a desk to work from.
The practice is deliberately small. Craig handles every engagement himself, from the first phone call to the final walk-through, and takes on only as many properties as he can give real attention. When a project needs surveying, engineering, or agronomy beyond the practice's scope, he says so early and brings in the right people rather than stretching past his own knowledge.
Walk first, draw second
The method has not changed since the first season. Start on the land, not at the table. Walk the boundaries, the water, and the access with the people who work the property, and listen to how it is actually farmed before suggesting anything. Then draft the plan in plain language, with drawings the whole family can read, and cost it honestly in phases the farm can afford to build.
Plans from this practice are written to be used, not filed. They assume the people reading them will be standing in a field with muddy boots, and they are built accordingly: clear priorities, plain words, and no recommendation that the land itself does not support.
Most work comes from within a day's drive of Pittsburgh, from the river valleys out through the foothill counties of the Allegheny region. The practice serves full-time farm operations, part-time growers, and families holding rural land they want to see kept in good working order for the next generation.
Tell us about your property.
A phone call or a short note is enough to start. Craig answers both.