Family photo of the team at Stitch Design Shop

For this iteration of Small Studio Snapshots, we are venturing to North Carolina to talk with STITCH design shop about what it is like to grow an architectural practice in a small city. Read on to hear how the team of seven is making a name for themselves in Winston-Salem, the city of Art and Innovation.

How many people are in your practice?

Full-time staff of seven and growing.

Why were you originally motivated to start your own practice?

Because we wanted to design and build cool shit! Pete, Adam and I have a similar approach to design and shared the same concerns with how Architects are typically engaged in the design process. We saw an opportunity to leave our existing medium-sized Architectural firms to start something new and just went for it. The process of starting our own firm was scary as hell and there are a lot of long nights but it’s also been a lot of fun. We now have the freedom to evolve our approach to design and services that we provide where it makes sense.

What hurdles have you come across?

The biggest surprise was the size of jobs clients were willing to hire us for. Collectively we have such a depth of experience, however, the perception of the more risk-adverse went something like “They don’t have experience with something like this because this is such a young firm.” Initially, this resulted in more residential work and small commercial renovations. Fortunately, we have also had a number of like-minded clients that said fuck it these guys can crush this. Initially the result of this was residential work and small commercial renovations. We are thankful for every project that helped establish our firm in this market but we’re also eager to have opportunities for larger commissions.

Can you talk a bit about working in North Carolina and starting an architectural practice in a smaller city (versus a larger architectural hub like LA or NY). What do you think some of the advantages and/or disadvantages are?

STITCH design shop is located in Winston-Salem, NC whose tagline is the City of Arts and Innovation. The community here has really embraced this ethos and we are grateful to be a part of it. We looked at various markets in the Southeast when we decided to get started but North Carolina has a rich history of embracing progressive architecture and there is a lot of opportunity here. It’s also easier to make a splash and get noticed here than in bigger more established markets.

In the same vein, being more isolated poses challenges around establishing a foothold in those larger markets but we are currently working on that.

Is scaling up a goal or would you like to maintain the size of your practice?

Over the last four years we have seen our opportunities continue to increase and our shop has grown in response to that. Inevitably we will continue to grow but see an ideal size in the 15-person range for our Architectural practice. We have witnessed the challenges of the mid-sized Architectural firms first-hand and realize that growth will impact our culture so it’s important to us to stay focused on what we all got together to accomplish in the first place. We don’t know what the sweet spot is yet for our shop but hopefully we will recognize it once we get there.

What are the benefits of having your own practice? And staying small?

Everyone in our shop is directly responsible for defining the direction of STITCH and we are continually figuring out how to get better at what we do as a team. We have a strong internal team bond and we share that with our clients, something that can be more challenging in larger companies. My experience is that there is a higher level of awareness at a small firm that is liberating but can also lead to a lot of anxiety. Bottom line is that this has been a great trip and we are enjoying the ride!