We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jason Foster a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jason, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I think others might assume that leaving the safety of a salaried job in your chosen profession to start your own office, even in that same profession, would be a risk – particularly in 2008.

However, I think the bigger risk was seeing opportunity to do development in a part of town that had either been overlooked or burdened with bad ideas. The City hadn’t been proactive in its redevelopment, despite declaring it a “project area” some 20 years prior. Banks absolutely wanted nothing to do with it, the neighborhood was jaded and cynical of outsiders, and we (my business partner, Jesse and I) thought we would really make a splash with a 2000 sf building on a .05 acre plot of land. Mind you, we had only worked for developers, not actually done it for ourselves. And oh yes, we were locating our own business and another there as well.

Fortunately, and I do mean that in a kind of serendipitous sense, the right things landed in place, We used our own money and a loan from the City, built a building to a higher standard than others, made placemaking and quality priorities over maximized return and maximized profit, and immediately changed the perception of that neighborhood. Requests for Proposals started being released, multitudes of developers were clamoring to respond and/or strike private deals, and the neighborhood is really thriving. We currently have ownership in four other buildings, have brought 10 businesses to the area, have helped two non-profits win proposals and build their own buildings, as well as another nationally recognized design firm to our street. We have been thrilled to see that modest interventions paired with non-conventional thinking can produce remarkably good results.

Jason, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an Architect by education and licensure. I say both because it’s that second part that often gets overlooked and often abandoned. I have been in the profession since 1988 as a part time intern while I went to college. I was first inspired to pursue the profession because of a drafting class in high school and a teacher that was more influential than he ever knew. What sealed it for me was a fluke of coming across a summer program at Harvard GSD. It was summer before my senior year in high school. I went to a public school that was not at the time known for it’s academics, or being well funded, so I figured I really had nothing to lose by applying. Long story/short, I got accepted, they gave me enough of a scholarship to actually go, and it profoundly changed my trajectory. That one fluke of a find and the result of that summer still influence me to this day and I share that story – even now – with students.

I have worked for several medium sized firms, though considered large for our City, and absorbed things like a sponge. I have worked on so many types of projects from schools to nuclear research facilities. Though I had some great mentors over the years, and had made some gains to “move up the ladder” professionally, I felt the way most offices were doing architecture, was more a product of running a business than care for designing environments that improve society or the needs of clients. There was no differentiation between any building type, location, or client, they were all number exercises to feed the function of the office. It was terribly disheartening.

So, in 2008, my friend and business partner Jesse, made the commitment to jump out on our own and put this notion of a better way to practice architecture to the test. On paper it was incredibly foolish. I knew the reconning was coming as signs were pointing that way in 2007. We had one project in hand (it didn’t get built and we didn’t get paid what was owed), but things came our way with the right effort and we have managed to keep it going for 15 years now. We are still a small operation with the addition of two more architects and and intern. We as partners are hands on and involved throughout the life of the project (not usually the case in larger firms). We give our people a substantial voice when it comes to the work and they know they are heard. We, from the very beginning, have provided work/life balance in that we offer all the typical holidays, but additionally include those extra days that often required you to burn a PTO day to get full benefit, and additionally provide 4 weeks paid PTO from your first day on the job for full-time people. Other offices have caught up with some of that, but we were doing it from the get-go. What’s important to understand with this is one of the things that this produces is our people feel valued and are inclined to want to do good work because they can manage their lives.

If you are a client of ours, anyone in our office is empowered to help solve problems for you and contribute to the shape of the firm. We don’t work for the sake of getting published (although that is nice!), and frankly, we aren’t going to win awards for most profitable business, but we are a high-value proposition when it comes to effort, client care, and best practices. Believe me, in this current day and age of disposable buildings, speculative projects, and rampant inflation and short-cutting in the building industry, it is extremely difficult to hold a principled position of responsible design, client service, and employee care. Most times the competition is cutthroat.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

The struggle is real.

I have been at this since 1988 and the continued dilution of the the architectural – and other credentialed design sectors is staggering in its breadth. Design has been reduced to a commodity rather than a studied discipline. The usual refrains of, “I just need this simple thing drawn up…”, or “I want it just like this…”, or “I only need an architect because…”, are relentless. Anyone with an Instagram account or a robust Pinterest board is now a self declared “designer”. While these programs aren’t inherently bad, they are used as a shortcut to create an aura “I am a designer because look at my exquisite taste”.

Becoming an architect requires a master’s degree, a multi-year internship and a multi-part/multi-day exam.. Even then, you have a long road to becoming a good designer as it takes years of experience. Potential clients think of this credential as static, that I am hiring a person just in this moment. But, what they are really hiring is a person who has accumulated knowledge and skills for over 30 years. If they really took advantage of this, the process can lead to really transformative work. If they think they are buying an “off-the-shelf” solution, they should probably rethink what they are doing.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I can say that when you reach a certain age and have a certain number of miles on you, that you appreciate the “wins” both big and small. There can be great satisfaction in a project getting completed – even if it only achieved 80% of its goals. You learn that the odds of getting that much accomplished was incredible in itself given the number of moving parts to complete it.

However, I really believe that being a creative helps you see the creative and beauty in the world. You can at moments recognize the sublime and realize your place in it. Once you have done that, you can begin to sort out the truly important things in the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.atlasarchitects.com

Image Credits
Jason portrait: Molly Mazzolini Agency Render: Bowen Studios Central 9th: Jason Foster Infinite Scale: Scot Zimmermann Spy Hop: Scot Zimmermann Weilenmann: Jason Foster Atlas office: Cody Benson