Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ryan Griffith. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ryan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

The architecture industry tends to be a place for a lot of ego. It’s challenging and selective to get into a university for an architecture degree. There’s a mentality that you have to do whatever it takes so there is a lot of competition and all-nighters. I’d liken it to pre-burnout culture. Then you get a job and lots of firms value and reward advancing in the firm and having your ideas heard over a work-life balance or maintaining a team-oriented and supportive environment. At Cornerstone Design-Architects we try to reward balance, avoiding burnout, and sustainability in our practices. We want our people to stay and be happy, so we balance our workload and schedule expectations with our staff’s capacity to work within normal work week hours to avoid taking advantage of staff by having them work 55-60 hour work weeks on the regular. We also equipped for and continue to improve our ability to offer a hybrid and remote environment for our staff. That might not be wildly unique within creative fields, but we have a mentality of approaching what we do with a confident humility which is something I’m really proud of in our talented team of design professionals.

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

I went to school for architecture after having a strong fine arts background. I’ve always been a creator. I painted, drew, and modeled in whatever mediums I could get my hands on all through school. I always liked Lego and never built the sets how they were on the box. I always played Create-A-Park mode in the Tony Hawk series more than I played the actual game. So architecture was a natural fit for me creatively. I’ve also always had a desire to be able to serve my community in some way. As an adult, my mom told me a story about when I was 5 or 6 years old and was playing with some cardboard brick toys. She asked me what I was doing, and I told her I was “building a home for someone who doesn’t have one.” I’m really fortunate to have been put in a position to work with non-profit organizations in our city wo focus on addressing homelessness and providing more affordable housing. I’m even more blessed and encouraged that the folks at our firm seem to really have their hearts in the right place for that mission.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses.

I bought Cornerstone Design-Architects from its founder, Dale Yoder. He established a firm known for integrity and doing the right thing in addition to the creative side of designing buildings. He had a very intentional transition process, where he made sure that the next generation of leadership would be compatible and would do well by the name of the company. That focus on being a good person above all else in an inherently competitive industry is what made me want to buy the business. I’m partners with another architect, Zak along with the founder’s sons Josh and Ben. So the business stayed in the family and the partners align in values where it counts in ways like never compromising our integrity to get ahead and in making sure that we’re focusing on the health and well-being of our employees. My wife Sarah, who is also a Registered Architect, was such a strong supporter in that process. Purchasing a company means a lot of time with lawyers and a lot of difficult discussions with people with whom you have strong mutual respect. Going through that process would have been a nightmare alone. Having the support of my significant other and seeking out the right consultants to help me be more well informed throughout the process were vital to the success that we’ve felt as a firm through the ownership transition.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Our firm has 17 very talented individuals, which is considered medium-sized for an architecture firm. We worked really hard following Covid quarantining to invest in being flexible and developing the ability to have staff work remotely. Not only that, but we’re doing it with some of the most powerful software and systems available in the industry. For some reason in my experience architecture firms seem to have struggled with implementing hybrid and remote workflows and it seems to be a trust issue. My attitude is that we have hired professional individuals that we trust, so we need to demonstrate that we trust them by not feeling the need to be looking over their shoulder to feel that everyone is being productive. Hire people you trust, do what you can to make the balancing of their home and work lives attainable, then respect allowing them to be flexible while maintaining a high level of service for clients. Capable individuals will be able to make that happen through transparent communication.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cornerstonedesign.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryangriffitharchitect/

Image Credits

Cornerstone Design-Architects.