We recently connected with Megan Lin and have shared our conversation below.

Megan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

As experienced architects, we understand the challenges of maintaining profitability in this industry. One thing that has helped me is hiring highly educated staff. Having a team of knowledgeable professionals allows us to take on more complex projects and deliver high-quality designs to our clients but hiring costs can be costly.

However, it’s important to remember that good design takes time. Creativity cannot be rushed, and sometimes it may take longer than expected to come up with the perfect solution. This is especially true when working on homes, which can take anywhere from a few months to several years to complete.

Another challenge we face is pricing our projects. Unlike other industries, architecture has no standard fee, making it difficult to determine fair pricing. We need to be careful not to undercharge for our services, as this can harm our profitability in the long run. It’s essential to do our research and make sure we are pricing our projects fairly while still making a profit.

We also need to better educate our clients about how much work goes into our design and drawings so they understand good design is well worth the money.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Frank and I met while pursuing our Masters degree in Architecture and decided to start our own firm when we moved to Austin and started our family. Our firm, coXist, was born out of our desire to create homes that truly reflect the needs of the owner and enhance their overall experience of “home”. As a family-oriented firm, we are always considering how families function and how to design spaces that make life easier and more enjoyable. Our approach is centered around people first, and we are thrilled to see how our designs have positively impacted the neighborhood. As a firm, we strongly believe that the best design is one that reflects the human experience. This is why we focus on creating spaces that engage all five senses and leave a lasting impression through memory and a sense of place. Our goal is to create timeless designs that stand the test of time, rather than fleeting trends. We are proud to have built our firm on this principle and look forward to continuing to create spaces that enhance the lives of our clients..

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

With so many architects in the Austin market, reputation is critical to the success of our business. Austin functions like a small town even though it has grown over the years, so word of mouth can spread fast whether you do something good or something bad. We build our reputation in the market in two main ways: design quality and thoughtfulness and how we treat the people we work with. People are the first and most significant part of what we do, and how we treat them is very important. We want our clients to feel heard and seen, and we are invested in making the process as smooth as possible. We also love working with all the other team members required on a project. We work better together by listening to their feedback about drawings or details. Collaboration creates a great word-of-mouth atmosphere around what we do.
Design to us is fundamental. We have a strong ethos that has built our reputation in neighborhoods. We try and de-scale projects where ever possible so that even larger homes look like they fit in the neighborhood fabric. We thoughtfully look at the houses around our projects and try and pull in aspects of the character of the place we are working while still creating something fresh and new. People don’t want their neighborhoods to feel foreign; they want them to still feel like home. Many of our projects come from around the same communities because of our reputation in design.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

coXist is a husband and wife-owned architecture practice. People always ask how we can raise a family and run a successful business together; for that, you have to go back to the beginning. We first met in Grad school at Washington University in St Louis and were best friends. We built a relationship of trust by helping each other on projects and supporting each other through the school’s demanding rigor. The same trust we built then helps guide us in what we do today. We have a deal that if we don’t like something in the design, we change it until we both agree. This collaborative process and a fantastic team contribute to our designs

Contact Info:

• Website: www.coxiststudio.com
• Instagram: coxist_studio
• Facebook: coXist Studio

Image Credits
Jake Holt Leonid Furmansky Reagen Taylor Patrick Wong