Fifteen Years
And with the close of 2025, we just finished up our fifteenth year in business. When we opened the doors in 2010 in the middle of The Great Recession, we really weren’t sure where we were headed. We just knew that we had a license and most firms were shedding employees, not adding. So, we followed our dreams and started working for ourselves. That first year, we had 26 projects, and even fewer clients. It was a rough first year, but we persevered. We’ve learned so much and grown more than we ever imagined.
Our Growth
From a humble starting point, a man, two beagles, a computer, a license to practice, and 26 clients, a lot has changed. For one, we do at least ten times the number of projects every year, often more. We’ve also increased the size and variety of work. That first year was mostly residential, and of that, it was mostly small additions and renovations. Now, we do mixed use buildings, commercial fit outs and shells, churches and mosques, and even an addition to a school. We’ve also grown in geographic footprint. We started with a license to practice in Delaware and Maryland. Since then, we’ve obtained reciprocal licenses in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia. In addition, we’ve done some work in additional places with licensed partners such as Missouri, Nebraska, and Georgia.
How did we do this? Like any success, some of it was good luck. Some was the people around us who helped us succeed. In 2012, we accepted an invitation from a contractor friend of ours to visit and then join a local chapter of Business Network International. We stayed in that organization for a decade and did not just we receive the benefit of direct referrals and growing our network. We stepped up into leadership positions and learned a ton from our experiences about leadership and business. It was a great opportunity at the time and while we’re not currently members, it was definitely a part of what helped us grow.
All that growth has changed the complexion of the firm. One man can’t do everything. From our first hire in 2014, we’ve continued adding additional designers, drafters, and assistants. They help handle details and overhead, and other items to allow the firm to get larger and more complex projects complete in addition to increasing overall capacity for the small ones. Nowadays, it’s possible to get through a project without meeting our founding principal more than once or twice, something that seemed impossible in the early days
Our Work
The complexity, scope, and number of projects have greatly increased as we gained experience and connections. We started mostly doing residential additions and renovations with three new homes (two built) in those first 26 projects. In the last fifteen years, we’ve embraced more complicated projects with stricter regulatory requirements to settle. We’ve embraced new forms of construction and new technologies.
One thing we really took to heart as a goal for our firm was to embrace more sustainable design. We’ve definitely accomplished that. We started with the Lewes Beach House, our first Insulated Concrete Formwork structure of many we’ve now done over the years. We’ve designed green roofs on a couple of residential projects. We’ve specified more efficient mechanical and structural systems, worked with our engineers to improve building performance. We’ve worked with Structural Insulated Panels. We designed the first shipping container home in Sussex County. We even did a passive solar design (sadly unbuilt) and have ideas we’re excited to try and push forward when the right project and client come along.
We’ve embraced structural challenges on many fronts. Although not a structural design engineer, our founder minored in structural systems in college and taught classes on structural design basics to students at Delaware Tech for a decade. We’ve applied that original knowledge to our work and assisted our clients. When it comes to residential structures, we can often offer solutions quicker and cheaper than the local engineers. We do know our limits, but we have partners we can work with as well for jobs just outside of our expertise or area of practice. We’re also not afraid to push the envelope for a client who wants something interesting. We love taking on a challenge to create the space they are envisioning and learning about new materials and methods so we can apply them and offer them when the project is right.
Lastly, over the last few years, our founding principal has served on the Delaware State Board of Architects, including two terms as chair. This has been a great opportunity to see behind the curtain of how regulation really works. It’s also been great for meeting architects and officials in other states and networking and learning. It’s exposed us to a lot of information about Artificial Intelligence Tools and how they’re developing. It’s also exposed us to the fun changes in how architects will be licensed in the future (there’s an old post about how to become an architect that’s about to be completely out of date.) We’ve served on the committee that designs the Architectural Registration Exam for several years and had influence on its development and look forward to continuing that work.
Our Community
We’ve been fortunate to get involved in the community and to become a reliable resource for our friends and neighbors. We’ve been serving on the Milford Planning and Zoning Board for years, and again, it gave us a unique perspective on planning decisions that we’ve been able to use to advise our clients. We’ve assisted many members of the community with projects large and small, including major work for My Sister’s Fault and Splash Laundromat within a stone’s throw from our office. We’ve been involved with Downtown Milford, Inc., including time by one of our staff on the board.
The Future
What do our goals moving forward for the future? They probably start with more growth. We’ve recently acquired a property and look forward to developing it, probably at least partially as our future office with room to bring on more architects. We also want to use that property to engage with the community. Stay tuned to our social media for ideas about bringing our community together.
Iur goals continue with refining our technical prowess. We’ve been meaning to become LEED-AP for years, but never gotten the actual credentials. Hopefully, you’ll see an announcement about that this year. We want to upgrade our software and tools to incorporate more options for our clients to experience their designs and to speed up and decrease errors in our workflow. We’re going to keep seeking out additional partners, specialists, and employees to give our clients access to options they didn’t think they have now.
We’d like to expand our sustainable offerings. That might mean doing a LEED rated building for someone. It would probably be among the first in Kent or Sussex Counties. We’d like to do a mass timber structure for a client as we haven’t used cross laminated timber in a project yet and would love to incorporate heavy glulam posts and beams into a design. Relatedly, we want to get into lifecycle carbon analysis for clients worried about their ecological footprint. We’d love to experiment with some of the AI programs designed to find the max/min solutions for a project. That could be max. ROI, or min. Carbon Emissions. The short answer here is we’d love to keep being challenged by our clients to make their designs better, as they define it.
In the end, we want to be here in another 15 years, still listening to our clients and assisting them in turning their dreams into a physical form. We want to still be “Creating a Better World, One Design at a Time for the foreseeable future. We hope you come along on that journey with us.
