graypants

daily journal of commerce.

daily journal of commerce: new edge | new blood shows budding design talent in seattle

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Jonathan Junker and Seth Grizzle are Seattle architects, but they enjoy the crafts side of design, too. So the pair founded a new firm called Graypants in January of 2008 to design and make furniture and lighting.

They also kept their day jobs as architects at other firms in Seattle.

Starting a business in a recession has been a struggle, but Graypants has done relatively well, Junker said.

One reason is diversification: A third of its business is lighting, a third is custom homes and other buildings, the rest is furniture and graphic design.

Their lighting is found in upscale restaurants and offices around the world. It’s also sold through graypants.com, at the Seattle Art Museum shop and at Nube Green on Capitol Hill.

Having service-based and product-based business segments that complement each other has helped during the recession and they want to keep that balance in the future.

“I think the diversity of our work is what’s allowed us to bridge those gaps,” Junker said.

Graypants is one of 10 firms selected by a panel of curators for the AIA Seattle New Edge|New Blood exhibit that features up-and-coming local architects and landscape designers.

There’s a reception tonight from 5 to 7 p.m. at AIA Seattle, 1911 First Ave. The reception and admission to the exhibit are free. The exhibit runs through Oct. 1.

Besides Graypants, the featured firms are: Alley Cat Acres, Blip Design, Cast Architecture, Coates Design, Grey Design Studio, Hapa Collaborative, Michelle Arab Studio, MW|Works, and Patano+Haferman Architects.

The exhibit was curated by Jay Deguchi of Suyama Peterson Deguchi, Shannon Nichol of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, Rick Sundberg of Richard Sundberg Architects, and David Spiker, an AIA Seattle board member.

New Edge|New Blood runs every other year. The first exhibit was in 2008.

This year it focuses on firms that have a leaner model of practice and project delivery, firms that are showing tenacity and ingenuity in this poor economy.

“What we found is that economically it’s such a difficult climate to work in,” said Jay Deguchi, a partner in Suyama Peterson Deguchi.

In the pre-recession days, promising young firms got smaller design jobs because there were a lot to go around, he said. Now more established firms are picking off even the small projects.

Some of the exhibitors have broadened their practices beyond designing buildings and landscape architecture, he said.

“You just put out as many things as you can and see what happens,” Deguchi said. “You can’t be as picky as before.”

One exhibitor with an interesting take on architecture is Grey Design Studio, he said.

It created something called Modern-Shed, which Deguchi describes as a prefab shed that can be used for an office or storage. It comes as a kit-of-parts and buyers can select from a variety of options.

“It’s a very modern looking shed and it’s certainly much nicer than the ones you can get at Home Depot,” Deguchi said. “It’s a pretty ingenious little design that allows them to pursue other avenues.”

Grey Design came up with its first Modern-Shed in 2000, and has sold about 200 of the prefabricated kits. They are from 8 by 10 feet to 16 by 60 feet, and cost from $12,000 to $100,000.

“We’ve been selling these things (to people) that want to scale down and add an office to their home or add an extra living space to their home because they have an extra person living with them,” said Ryan Grey Smith, who owns the firm along with Ahna Holder.

Grey Design also designs and fabricates custom light fixtures. It has joined with 3form, a materials solutions company based in Salt Lake City, to provide lighting for customers across the country, Smith said.

Lighting offers a way to impact a space without spending a lot, he said. More architecture firms should focus on such practical architectural solutions that serve clients’ needs, especially given the changing economic climate, he said.

“It used to be you could get a job anywhere and there were endless amounts of projects to do,” he said. “Now it’s just the opposite.”

One practice that impressed the curators is Patano+Haferman Architects, which has broken into a tough area for small firms: public sector work.

Another firm that got the curators’ attention is Michelle Arab Studio, which does landscape architecture and art.

Deguchi said this multitasking is especially important for young landscape architecture practices, which unlike traditional design firms, don’t have small residential projects to get started with.

This diversity “doesn’t preclude you from the work you’d like to do,” Deguchi said. “It just gives you one more opportunity to keep a practice afloat.”