ARCHITECT-ING

Jon Gambrill and Michelle Liebling, Co-Managing Directors of Gensler Denver, join the show to talk about their Swiss-army-knife-type experiences and career trajectories that brought them to running the Colorado branch of the largest architecture firm in the world. They talk about the practicalities of leading an architecture office, the benefits of a large corporate firm, the low and high points o...

Chris Gray and Steven Perce, Founders of BLDG.Collective, join the show to talk about each of their unique journeys that eventually led them to graduate school at the University of Colorado Denver and to founding their practice in the Great Recession of 2009. They talk about the lessons learned in leading an architecture firm as a partnership, and how they have methodically crafted their design an...

Alex Gore, Co-Founder of F9 Productions and Inside the Firm Podcast, joins the show as part of a podcast swap to talk about his life as a serial entrepreneur from his beginnings drawing spaceship fuel tanks, to studying only the courses he was interested in at North Dakota State, to landing a job with Daniel Libeskind, to obtaining a Masters in Construction Management, to founding F9 Productions i...

E.J. Meade, Principal at Arch11, joins the show to talk about how his car broke down in Boulder, and he never left. After gaining a philosophy degree, E.J. picked up a “How to Carpentry” book, and built his first home. A summer at the GSD propelled him into architecture school at the University of Washington and then CU Denver where he was mentored by the uncompromising Douglas Darden. From school...

Peter Blank, co-founding partner of milehimodern, joins the show to share why he is not a normal real estate broker. He talks about the genesis of his passion for design growing up in Brazil, his circuitous journey to mid-century architecture and founding milehimodern, his experiences working with some of the best designers in Colorado (I ask him who his favorite Colorado architect is, listen for...

Marc Swackhamer, the Chair of Architecture at the University of Colorado Denver and co-founder of HouMinn Practice joins the show to discuss discovering architecture at the University of Cincinnati and setting up a thesis at Rice that would plague/challenge him the rest of his career. We talk about issues of inclusion and equity within the profession and academia, winning the national search to be...

Christy Headlee, founder of Be. Studio and Be. Women, joins the show to talk about starting her firm and social platform during the pandemic, her beginnings in small town Kansas, discovering design at the University of Nebraska, developing her skills at Oz and Gensler and working to better combine family and children with the professional design environment. After the credits we swap advice about...

John Rowland and Sarah Broughton, founders of Rowland+Broughton Architecture, share their experiences running their Aspen/Denver based firm. They talk about their education at CU Boulder, working in New York, building a strong design team, engaging with the art and design community and receiving the AIA Colorado Firm of the Year Award. This episode is sponsored by Herman Miller and Modern In Denve...

Harry Teague, founder of Harry Teague Architects, joins the show to talk about his origins growing up in a family of designer, attending Yale in 1969 during the birth of post modernism, Black Panther trials and burning of the school, developing the architectural fabric of Aspen for the last fifty years and his advice to the next generation of architects. After the credits we have an extended conve...

In this first live, public recording of Architect-ing during Denver Design Week, Adam is joined by Stephen Dynia of Dynia Architects, Kevin Nguyen of Regular Architecture, and Joana Emhof and Hans Osheim of ArcDen Studio. This episode, which consists of an introduction by Adam, 5 minute Pecha Kucha-style introductions by each guest, panel discussion and audience Q&A, revolved around this brief...

Paul Andersen, founder of Independent Architecture, joins the show for a long conversation about his top five buildings in Colorado, the meaning of “good” within architecture, his beginnings at UCLA with Greg Lynn, his times teaching at Cornell, Harvard and UIC, how he started his own firm, and his experience co-curating the US Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale. After the credits we have an...

Rob Pyatt and Janna Ferguson, principals at Pyatt Studio, join the show to give a window into the life of their tight knit firm. Rob had a winding path to find architecture before studying at the University of Colorado and then starting Pyatt Studio. He was one of the early instructors at CU’s Colorado Building Workshop as well as the Executive Director of the Building Collaborative at the Native...

Ignacio Correa-Ortiz, Senior Architect and Urban Planner, joins the show to give us the stories of his varied experiences and talk about how he is working to make Denver a more equitable environment. Ignacio grew up in Columbia but studied in Belgium and then Wisconsin. He worked for firms such as CCY, SOM, HDR, and OZ before joining RTD in 2011. Beyond these offices, Ignacio engages in many commu...

Adam Harding, principal of Roth Sheppard Architects, joins the show to talk about his uniquely Colorado career and the new path he has been plotting since taking over leadership at Roth Sheppard. We talk about his art-influenced background through his education at the University of Colorado. Out of school, Adam started at Roth Sheppard and has never left, becoming a principal in 2016. Adam creates...

Laurel Raines of Dig Studio and Ransom Beegles of R Design Landscape join the show for a special Landscape Architect discussion, inspired by the Modern in Denver article “In Praise of Place” (https://view.publitas.com/modern-in-denver/modern-in-denver-summer-2021/page/122-123). With ten slides in ten minutes, each architect introduces who they are, how they got here and what excites them. From the...

Renée del Gaudio, sole employee of Renée del Gaudio Architecture, joins the show to talk about her vision for an authentic Colorado architecture. We talk through her journey from Michigan to Washington to California to Peru and finally to Colorado where she has formed her own firm, literally out of the ashes of a forest fire. She purposefully works on few projects but all at an extremely high qual...

Rich Carr and John Cottle, two of the partners at CCY Architects, join the show to talk about their roots and what brought them to architecture and to their Aspen based firm. CCY is an architectural giant in our state being founded some 50 years ago. They constantly produce work of high quality that is critically rooted in its place, whether that be in the mountain environments of Colorado or spre...

Kitty Yuen, Principal and Denver Studio Leader at Ratio Design, joins the show to give a low down on the Colorado design scene. Kitty has been a mainstay in the Denver for the last two decades, moving up the ranks at firms like Klipp Colussy Jenks Dubois, Oz, Gensler, Burkett Design, EUA and now to the Studio Leader position at Ratio Design which was previously Humphries Poli. Beyond all this work...

Julian Lineham and Chris O’Hara, founders of the structural engineering and façade design group Studio NYL join the show to share their great wealth of experiences and stories working with international architects like Michel Rojkind, Peter Bohlin, Sasaki and Studio Gang as well as local architects like Brad Tomecek, Joseph Montalbano, Rob Pyatt and Rick Sommerfeld.  Chris and Julian are from two...

Katie Donahue, co-founder of K Works Studio, associate architect at Handel Architects, instructor at The University of Colorado Denver and at Parsons School of Design in New York, joins the show to talk about her passions and exploits within her busy architectural life. Beyond all her professional roles, Katie is also busy pushing for sustainable practices like Passive House and reuse of different...

Adam Steinbach and Jim Pfieffer, founders of UNUM: collaborative, join the show to talk about the struggles and triumphs of starting a young, progressive design firm. We talk about their shared origins in Philadelphia and their eventual move to Denver. Here they created UNUM, a four year old firm of eight people which is having a visible impact on our Denver fabric. Creating projects that have bra...

Kaci Taylor, founder of THE5WH and architect at Page Southerland Page, joins the show for a frank conversation about her career and experiences as the only black female architect in the state of Colorado. We talk about her beginnings in LA to her education at the University of San Francisco and Tulane and then her move to Denver. In Colorado, she worked through multiple firms, struggling with host...

Brandon and Tana Anderson, founders of LIVstudio join the show to talk about their shared backgrounds in Texas before finding each other and igniting their partnership during a semester abroad in Italy. The couple went on to work for many of the top Denver architecture firms as well as Lake Flato before forming LIV and crafted some of the best restaurant interiors in Denver such as Il Posto, Super...

Nicole McIntosh and Jonathan Louie, founders of Architecture Office and faculty members at Texas AM's Department of Architecture, join the show as a brief interlude from Colorado designers. However this episode is seen as a continuation of their recent lecture at the University of Colorado Denver. They talk through their unique origins (Nicole's at 7:30 and Jonathan's at 35:33), educational backgr...

Heidi Mendoza, owner of the interior design firm re.dezine, joins to talk about her rich and diverse path that brought her to design.  Growing up in Finland Heidi studied Marketing and Accounting before switching to Broadcasting which led her to TV voiceovers and singing in a band. While pregnant with her second child she completed a degree at the Interior Designers Institute in Newport Beach Cali...