Welcome to Behind the Building with your Host Funlola Obayan.  Today on the show we have Nick Brinen. Nick is a licensed and registered architect in Virginia, Texas, and New York.  He is a Founding Partner of Studio Figure, where he oversees various project typologies across multiple scales.  The scope of his work spans from private residential to restaurants, offices, and mixed use buildings.  In conjunction with co-directing projects at Studio Figure, Nick has taught architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, University of Virginia, Pratt Institute, and Parsons School of Design where he spent thirteen years teaching and developing the curriculum.   While at Parsons, Nick wrote and shaped drawing courses, design studios, and established the Parsons Street Seats design-build program with a research grant awarded by the Tishman Environment and Design Center.  In addition, he led the Parsons Design Workshop, an M.Arch graduate level design-build studio that designs and fully constructs community-based projects on a pro bono basis.  Currently, Nick is the Area Head and a professor of Architectural Design at James Madison University, where his research and teaching focuses on the synthesis between empathetic design-inputs and material resourcefulness to elevate design strategies for community-based projects.  Nick's research into material resourcefulness and pest-infested lumber has received funding from multiple grants and won him the 2023 Beck Fellowship.  The $6,000 annual Fellowship recognizes a full-time faculty member in the School of Art, Design and Art History who works to advance the visual arts at JMU and in the Harrisonburg-Rockingham County community, focuses on student success, embraces new technologies in their classrooms, and creates opportunities that make students thrive.