We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christopher Brandon. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christopher below.

Christopher , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

It’s hard to pick just one, but I would say the first project we did in Vail valley, Colorado, was a very meaningful project for us. It was one of the first projects we chose to do outside of Southern California and it was also the 3rd project with some of our favorite clients. They’re a wonderful couple who were very nearly the first clients I ever had after opening the business in 2009. They are very trusting and although we hadn’t done any work in CO at that time they wanted to go out on a limb and hire us, mostly because they wanted to do something different with the home. It was a great opportunity to get outside of our comfort zone and design something avant garde in a new community and a very different climate. It was an awesome project and very rewarding to work with clients who became good friends and provided just as much creativity and energy as we did (she was the interior designer on the project). The home was a big success by many measures: happy clients, financially (in an uncertain market), and won many awards including the Best in American Living Platinum Award, Best in Region, and Home of the Year, 2019

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I grew up in Northeastern Oregon and was always interested in art and math. I think my mom put the idea of being an architect in my head to steer me away from becoming a “starving artist” but I remember loving those classes in high school. The Architecture program at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo was my ticket to California and I got my first job in Orange County in 2002 working for a small custom residential firm.

We pride ourselves on being a very client focused architectural practice. That means that we’re very good listeners and we enjoy involving our clients in our unique design process. We love what we do and we have the most fun doing it when our clients are emotionally engaged and excited about the home. As a result our portfolio is quite diverse, and each day we’re working on something new and different. I think a lot of architects tend to bring a certain “agenda” or style to a project regardless of who their client is. We like to break that mold, start with a completely open mind and push our clients to really dream big.

We’re very proud of our portfolio of homes and various other projects, but we’re even more proud of our unique process we take our clients through. That’s the main thing we try to get across when we meet a potential client for the first time. “These homes you see on our conference room wall or in the magazines are great, but yours is going to be even better…because it’s going to be inspired by your unique story.” We leverage a lot of cutting edge technology in our process, such as photorealistic renderings and Virtual Reality tours of the project, all of which are created in-house. These are powerful tools not only for us to be more creative but most importantly for us to share our vision with our clients in a very easy to understand and digestible way. Most clients can’t look at black and white lines on paper and “put it together” in their head as 3D space like we can. So we do the extra work it takes to create that experience for them, and that gives them the confidence to move the project forward and invest the significant time and resources it takes to build a custom home. Our core principles are embodied in our purpose statement: Smart Design = Better Living. We believe that good design can elevate someone’s experience and lead to a better life, not just for themselves but for their family, neighborhood, community, etc… and good design comes from a smart and introspective process. A process that puts the client and their values at the forefront and also considers the broader impact of the project, what we call the “greater good”

Have you ever had to pivot?

The great recession was a pivotal moment for myself and my career. Up to that point I was lucky to work in small firms directly with the owners so I got a good education in what it took to run a practice. Many experiences were good and some were not so good, so I wasn’t sure I wanted to “hang my own shingle” just yet. The recession basically made that decision for me. In June 2009 I was one month newly married and I lost my job. I was already licensed in CA so I spent the first year picking up whatever odd jobs I could. I also remember submitting the odd resume here and there. It was a dark time for architects. Fortunately, my wife had a stable and recession proof job at the time…and lots of encouragement and patience. Slowly I started to build a network and get more and more custom residential work. I hired my first employee in 2011 and that was another pivotal moment, when I realized I could leverage the skills of others to focus on what I loved most about the job: doing great design and keeping my clients happy. The rest is a blur of a longer story but those are the pivotal moments that stick out the most to me.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

In the last 3 years I’ve enjoyed learning more about high level management and leadership with the help of a business coach dedicated to working with architecture firms. (The Business of Architecture) As we have grown quite rapidly, I’ve also felt it’s equally important to focus within and protect our wonderful firm culture. This ensures we maintain our coveted boutique feel, while fostering and encouraging growth for our team members and their design/business goals.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.brandonarchitects.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandonarchitects/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandonarchitects

Image Credits

Manolo Langis