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 branched off from Liv Studios innovative hospitality interiors, UNUM has been crafting interior spaces for restaurants, markets, bars, and other retail that have been getting themselves and their clients notice and praise. Beyond these interiors they are branching into residential and resort projects and have created two side projects, UNUM home and UNUM shop, diversifying the typical business model of an architecture firm.

After the credits, this episode includes an extended conversation where they reveal what was actually in their coffee cups and other stories about the struggles of our profession, the design community in Denver and their attempts to bend PVC pipe with hot water.

This episode is sponsored by Modern In Denver.

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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 hostile work environments, until she landed at Page and started THE5WH as a way to better implement her design philosophies. She gives us a frank and powerful story of navigating the built environment and the profession as a black woman all with her inspiring passion for helping people and improving lives with design.

This episode also includes an extended conversation, after the end credits, about race and the profession as well as what Kaci is currently pushing forward with AIA Colorado.

This episode is sponsored by Modern In Denver.

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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 Mega Bien, Sushi Rama and Denver Central Market. This conversation could have gone much longer than the hour and twenty minutes that it did and there is actually bonus material after the end crits. 

This episode is sponsored by Modern In Denver.

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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 backgrounds, how they came together and the work they are creating now. This episode also contains a bonus clip after the credits where they talk about winning the Architectural League Prize and their experience with Kevin Hirth (1:11:30).

This episode is sponsored by Modern In Denver. 

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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 California and moved to Colorado. Heidi formed re.dezine after founding the Creative Co-Lab and has crafted immersive interior projects throughout Colorado. 

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Rick Sommerfeld, Founder of the UC Denver CAP  Colorado Building Workshop and Director of the Design-Build Certificate Program, joins the show to talk about his deep architectural background and connection to our state.  He tells the story of the beginnings of the award winning Building Workshop and dives into some of its many trials, tribulations and successes.  

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Chris Shears, founder of Shears Adkins + Rockmore Architects and instructor at the University of Colorado Denver, joins the show to talk about our shared beginnings growing up in the neighboring, Kansas towns of Hutchinson and McPherson. He talks about the series of "interventions" that took him from studying medicine to discovering architecture at the University of Minnesota, Walter Gropius' Architects Collaborative, Harvard's Graduate School of Design and then Colorado where he and his firm have had a profound impact on our urban fabric. 

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Rachael Johnson, 2021 AIA Colorado President and architect at SmithGroup, joined to talk about her strong Colorado background and interactions with healthcare environments that inspired her work with this typology and inspired her to develop a story-focused means of design at Davis Partnership and SmithGroup. We discuss her many volunteer roles and talk about her vision for AIA Colorado and the community at large.

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Rick Petersen, Principal at OZ Architecture, joined the show for a live session to talk about his distinguished and varied background from Berkeley, to Harvard to Zurich before settling in Denver at OZ almost 30 years ago.  

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Julianne Scherer, Managing Principal for HDR Denver, joined the show for an Instagram Live session as the first new guest of 2021. We talked about her formative years in Pennsylvania and persevering through Penn State before moving to Chicago for a long stint as a principal at Nagle Hartray Architecture. She then talked about her big move to Denver four years ago and her involvement with this community. Check out the full conversation on iTunes, Google, Spotify, Anchor or wherever you get your podcasts and visit www.architect-ing.com for images of her work.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.