Topics
Commercial
Designing for commercial spaces is an exercise in balance: often there are tight budgets and timelines, but if you don’t get it right while staying true to your brand, you risk having uninspired clients who don’t come back in again, or employees who’d rather work elsewhere. We love designing inspired spaces, and here you’ll find all things commercial (projects, blog posts, recognition, and more) at Board & Vellum.
Our commercial services.
Commercial
We build dynamic, multidisciplinary teams customized for the needs of your project. Whether you are starting from scratch opening your first space, or updating your existing brick-and-mortar location, we’ll collaborate with you to design a commercial experience true to your brand and values.
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Hospitality & Retail
Our in-house architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture teams collaborate closely to design holistic, stimulating experiences for your hospitality or retail space, enticing visitors to return again and again, and to share their excitement about your business organically.
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Offices & Workspaces
Though the landscape of in-person offices and workspaces is changing, the essentials remain the same: you need a place where you, your team, and your guests can feel both comfortable and productive. From coworking spaces to private office build-outs, we create welcoming workspaces that suit your unique needs.
Learn more.Our commercial studios.
Architecture
Much of our lives are influenced by the built environment, so its design should be thoughtful, functional, beautiful, and enduring. Whether designing a home, building, commercial or community space, we approach it conscientiously. We are committed to great design, sustainable practices, and creating healthy buildings composed of spaces that are a joy to experience.
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Interior Design
Interior spaces are often the ones we get physically closest to, interacting with the layout of a space, actually touching the materials. Great interior design makes the places we live, work, and play not only functional, but delightful. We are a passionate team of designers, eager to collaborate with you to create beautiful, meaningful, finished spaces for your home, business, or multifamily project.
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Landscape Architecture
Beautiful outdoor rooms expand our experience and build community. Spending time outside is essential to our health and happiness. From our own backyards to everyone’s public parks, we love designing verdant, sustainable spaces people simply love to be. Knowledgeable and passionate, our landscape team has experience on projects public and private, large and small, commercial, residential, and civic.
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Sustainable Practice
Sustainability is much more than certifications and solar panels. It is about improving the world we live in both environmentally and socially. It’s about reconnecting us with nature and providing opportunities for delight and discovery. Our integrated approach ensures we are thinking about sustainability from all angles to design the best, healthiest, spaces possible.
Learn more.Our commercial posts.
Architecture, Commercial, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture
Pre-Leasing Considerations for Your Commercial Space
Finding the right commercial space for your business can feel overwhelming. Board & Vellum’s pre-leasing consulting helps businesses uncover hidden risks, evaluate tenant improvement budgets, and explore design opportunities before signing a lease — turning uncertainty into clarity and setting the stage for long-term success.
Learn more.
Architecture, Civic & Community, Commercial, Landscape Architecture, Multifamily Residential
Building Walkable Neighborhoods
The walkability of neighborhoods is an important factor in community health and livability. While we see around the globe the benefits of neighborhoods that are easily traversed on foot or bike, in the U.S., many of our cities are oriented toward vehicular traffic, rather than pedestrians. So what could make our communities more walkable?
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Architecture, Commercial, Interior Design
Designing for the Senses
Designing a hospitality space is about more than what’s behind the front door. The scents, sights, and sounds that radiate onto the street prime your guests and passers-by for what they’ll experience inside. Your menu is important, of course, so how can you feed your guests’ senses from the start? Let’s visualize it.
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Commercial
A Guide to Opening a Shop, Café, or Office for First-Time Business Owners
Opening a brick-and-mortar location for the first time comes with a lot of questions. We don’t expect you to have all the answers! To help guide you through the first steps, here are eight factors we think business owners should consider when opening a shop, café, or office for the first time.
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Commercial
Warm Shell vs. Cold Shell Commercial Spaces
If you're in the market for a commercial space for your business, you might be familiar with the terms ‘cold shell’ and ‘warm shell.’ But what to do these terms mean? And what considerations should you take into account when choosing a warm shell vs. a cold shell commercial space? We break it down here.
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Commercial
Why Your Project Needs a Commercial Test Fit
You’ve search around and found a great location for you business. Now what? How do you know whether the space will suit your needs, fit what you need to fit, and be comfortable and accessible to your employees, clients, or guests? Enter, the Commercial Test Fit.
Learn more.Our commercial recognition stories.
Urban Choreography’s Top 40 Architecture Firms in Seattle
Board & Vellum is featured on Urban Choreography’s list of 40 Best Architecture Firms in Seattle, acknowledging our creative multidisciplinary approach.
Fixr’s Top 100 Architects Influencing the Industry 2025
For another year, Jeff has been honored as one of the top design professionals prioritizing innovative solutions on Fixr’s Top 100 Architects Influencing the Industry in 2025.
Fixr’s Top 100 Architects Influencing the Industry 2024
Jeff has been recognized as one of 2024’s most influential architects on Fixr’s Top 100 Architects Influencing the Industry in 2024.
Best Architectural Firms in Seattle
Board & Vellum is honored to be named as one of Home Builder Digest’s Best Architectural Firms in Seattle, Washington.
Our commercial team team members.
Jeff Pelletier, AIA, CPHC®
Managing Principal, Founder
In 2011, Jeff founded Board & Vellum in his attic and has forged ahead with excitement ever since. Architecture aside, he is a huge advocate for traveling, and takes LEGO really seriously.
Robin Quinn, NCIDQ, LEED GA
Director, Interior Design
Robin is delighted by the imaginative journey her interior design career has taken. In every project, she likes to celebrate the unexpected, especially the “ah-ha” moments where work and planning come together into a cohesive design.
Zack Thomas, PLA
Director, Landscape & Site Design
Zack co-launched B&V’s ”Site Design Studio,” and is excited to take on landscape projects of all shapes, sizes, and scales. He loves to get out of the city on weekends and makes a point of traveling to another country each year.
Yi-Chun Lin, NCARB, NOMA
Director, Architecture, Landscape & Site Design
Yi-Chun’s diverse experience across typologies and sectors enables her to guide collaborative project teams on commercial, multifamily, and single-family projects, connecting culture, environment and the human experience through design.
Jennifer Ross, NCIDQ, LEED GA
Senior Associate, Interior Design
Jennifer loves brainstorming with a collaborative team to come up with creative design solutions for residential projects of all sizes. In her free time, you might find Jennifer traveling with her family, gardening, and otherwise enjoying the outdoors.
Would you like to learn a little more about us?
We’re pleased you’re interested. Explore more about us and our work via the pages below.
Our Story
Client-centered authenticity is our north star, and we continue to prove that great design doesn’t require great ego.
Pre-Leasing Considerations for Your Commercial Space
Finding the right commercial space for your business can feel overwhelming. Board & Vellum’s pre-leasing consulting helps businesses uncover hidden risks, evaluate tenant improvement budgets, and explore design opportunities before signing a lease — turning uncertainty into clarity and setting the stage for long-term success.
Considering a project, or curious about something?
Say hello, and send us your questions via the form below. We’re always pleased to make new connections, and eager to get to know you, your project, and your goals.