Now for Something with Substance

It has been a few years now since it dawned on me that a good specialty for architects to get in to would be the design of nursing homes. With the aging Baby Boomer population reaching retirement age it only made sense. But like any specialty in our business you don't just waltz in and start doing nursing homes.

But it still was something I had an interest in and we recently got a big break in that department. A small design firm out of Vancouver, Washington asked if we would be willing to collaborate with them on nursing home projects. They had the experience, we had the ability to work in multiple states. It was a match made in heaven and we have already begun our first joint project in Gresham, Oregon.

The company, SCM Design, has worked in this field for over six years and has good relationships with several nursing home operating companies. The types of projects include skilled nursing facilities, assisted living centers, and Alzheimer's special care units.

Give us a call, let's talk. There's more to learn in an interview than can be written here.

Travel Beyond the Call of Duty

As a firm we do work everywhere. We are currently registered in 14 states with the ability to get registered to practice in any state on about 6 weeks notice. So we travel a lot. James and I travel the most and we often go together. On complex projects we find two sets of eyes are always better than one. We make less mistakes and we keep each other awake on the 2-3 hour car drives that often accompany such trips.

One trip in particular is worth a mention. We had both been traveling much of the year but were both a few important miles from the next upgrade in our frequent flyer status. We heard that cheap winter plane fares were often available to flyers looking to do just that, get extra miles.

So we did the only logical thing we could think of.

We went to Amsterdam in December!








famous (or infamous) Red Light District


Those are just a few of the pictures I took throughout the 5 day and 4 night chilly-rain-fest. It's beautiful there in December but I can see why the rates are good. But no complaints here. We saw the Rembrandt and Van Gogh museums, Ann Frank's house, ate good food and even rented a car for a day and went to Dusseldorf, Germany. We drove the Autobahn, which is a great experience if you like speed, and circled back through Brussels, Belgium on the way back.


James ordering a bratwurst from a street vendor -Dusseldorf


Our recent travels have not been quite as exotic. We have traveled mostly in Texas, Southern California and the Olympic Northwest. But we have found this country to be every bit as exciting as Europe was, in it's own way.

Pretty soon I'm actually going to start writing about what we do as Architects.......stay tuned.

The Crew

So, you've been hearing about Fearless Leader, aka Dustin Curtis, aka me. But how about the rest of the crew. There are three others. James Farrell, Jon Totel and Kyliegh Merritt.

James is our taskmaster. He makes sure we all do what's right. Fiercely loyal to the cause he makes everyone around him better by example. I'm afraid to show up too late to work as he might yell at me. But deep down he is gentle, caring and extremely creative. I don't know if he even knows this about himself.

Jon is Mr. Production around here. The only thing quicker than his drafting ability is his killer wit. Jon doesn't say a whole lot but his words are carefully chosen and painfully hilarious. Jon also created our web site (www.curtisarchitecture.us). It's fantastic to have that in house ability as getting your web site updated by an outside party can be like pulling teeth.

Did I mention that one of our specialties is dental office design?


Smiles by Joyce -Scottsdale, Arizona

Kyleigh is our face to the outside world. She is our marketing genius. But she also has a degree in architecture and designs most of our restaurants. She has amazing connections and everybody loves her. I've always thought women should have a bigger role in the world of architecture and she is the perfect example why.

Did I mention we design restaurants?


YC's Mongolian Restaurant -Chandler, Arizona

That's the Crew. And I don't have a picture for you here in Blogville because every one was having a bad hair day. We do clean up well at times though and I will post one soon.

Fearless Leader

Here I am in all my ferocity. I guess you can see why everyone is scared of me. This is actually the only time I have been to Montana in my life. James Farrell, the member of the Curtis Crew with the most seniority, snapped this for me. We had been in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho after visiting a job site and decided to scoot over to Montana so we could both add a state to our list of places visited. By the way, there is a great steak house in downtown Coeur d'Alene called Brix. I thought it was pronounced Bree (like Gran Prix) until I ordered the "bree salad". The waiter said "you mean the bricks salad?" So much for showing off culture on the locals. Amazing food though and a really beautiful town.

Who are we anyway?

The easiest way to find that out is to visit our website at www.curtisarchitecture.us. There you will find an array of projects we have designed over the past few years. The site is a fairly normal site for architects in the way it shows off our projects; not a lot of words but a bunch of pretty pictures to look at. They look real good. And something you should know about us right away, 3 out of 4 of us are avid photographers with really nice cameras and some sweet glass (lenses). More about that later, but FYI we took almost all of the pictures ourselves. Here is an example from inside a condominium project we designed in Phoenix.



So, check out the site, get an idea of who we are and what we do and come back here to Blogville find out more good stuff about us.

We've Just Moved to Blogville

Hello new neighbors. We have just moved here to Blogville and this is our very first post. Now I know this place has a lot of people that visit so we wanted to get off to a good start. We were hoping someone, anyone that saw us moving in would bring us a pie or something. Not yet!

Well, my name is Dustin Curtis and I am the founding principal of Curtis Architecture, Inc. We have been in business for 15 years and originate in Phoenix, Arizona. Around this place I am sometimes known as "Fearless Leader". I'm not sure it always fits, but I really try to play the part. My crew is exceptionally smart. There are three of them that I must lead. I think it's more like I pretend to lead because they pretty much know what's going on at all times. I sometimes think they call me that so I'll keep bringing the paychecks in every two weeks. I told you they were exceptionally smart.

We have decided to blog for a few good reasons. First of all, it seems that many people don't understand architects. Many people think we are rich. We can make a good living but by no means would you call us rich. And most of you don't really know what we do from day to day. If you are old enough to remember the Brady Bunch or watch it in reruns you may remember that Mike Brady was an architect. Going even further back, Mr. Ed, the talking horse was owned by an architect, Wilbur. He designed in the barn while talking to the horse.

TV has not represented us well.

Lawyers, doctors and detectives get all the good shows. They never do a drama about architects nor has there ever been a reality show about us. Until now that is. The Curtis Crew is our online version of a reality show about architects and architecture. We will share with you our projects and our travels and even our ups and downs. Now, we don't have octuplets, we aren't trying to make it on a desert island and we don't kick one of us off each week. But if you can overlook those little dramatic parts reality shows like to throw at you, we think you can have fun with us.

Architects are creative and basically fun loving people. Most architects, when it comes to explaining themselves, show their work. To show it off it is usually barron and void of furniture and all living things, except plants. And that's ok, but that's not us. We are here to share the human element behind the buildings and to show you what the creative process is really all about. So come back often as our story unfolds.

Hmmm, that pie still hasn't shown up yet.