Thoughts for the New Year

2013 has already come to a close, and we've been so busy that we only now have the chance to write our year-end recap! Better late than never, here it is!

I’m a few days late in doing the obligatory recap of 2013 post as we’ve been so busy here, but I wanted to stop and highlight the great stuff going on here at Board & Vellum. We’ve been especially quiet on the blogging front lately as we’ve redesigned our website and getting it working properly took a bit longer than anticipated. Not wanting to draw attention to something that wasn’t quite right, we’ve laid low. No longer!

So, what the heck have we been up to lately? Well, first and foremost, we’ve grown. When I started Board & Vellum 3 years ago I knew I wanted to focus on great projects with even greater clients and I couldn’t have been more fortunate to have had that work out for us. I knew that to do some of the challenging projects I’d have to grow and back in early 2012 I did just that, adding Ryan to the mix. As of this month we’re now a firm of 6 with our newest project architect joining the mix along with Scott Pitek who joined up forces with us several months back. Scott and I were actually college roommates back at Cornell so it has been a real treat to work together. Look for introductions from both of them in the coming months. At our size we’re now better suited to handle the mix of small projects to much larger ones.

missed in drawings — **Crazy serious staff photo**

This is me pointing at something trying not to look too snarky doing it

Numerous projects were wrapped up in 2013 and we’ll be highlighting them in separate blog posts coming up. The most visible one has been Ada’s Technical Books and Café which has been getting lots of good press and attention. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I encourage you to swing by their location (just down from our office) on 15th Avenue East in Capitol Hill.

View from street at dusk. – Ada’s Technical Books & Café – Retail Design – Board & Vellum — **Craftsman Repurposed**

The Craftsman roots of the historic home were passionately preserved: great bones repurposed for house’s new life as a commercial space. *Ada’s Technical Books & Café | Photo by Cindy Apple.*

Adding to the excitement right now (aside from the fact that we’re expanding our physical footprint and consequently surrounded by boxes and construction dust) is the bevy of projects we have on the boards. Right now, we are working on a few rehabilitations of older multi-family buildings, a varied mix of residential projects from a very traditional home to a home down in Lake Tahoe in Nevada, and a bunch of smaller to mid-size commercial projects. We’re really excited to start to see some of these designs get documented and take shape later this year and next.

While 2013 was a year of massive change for Board & Vellum, it is comforting to know that I’ve managed to find a crew that has embraced the values and principles that have guided me as I started off. There’s plenty of architecture out there for the masses out there but we pride ourselves in truly being your advocate. Each project we get to put ourselves in your shoes and fight for what you want. I had your back when I started Board & Vellum back when I started this company, and now I can proudly say that all of us here – Scott, Matt, Anne, Jesslyn, Ryan, and I – have your back and will continue to do so. Cheers and Happy New Year!