Hidden Gems: Meet meet Will and Annie Martin of Studiobvio

Today we’d like to introduce you to Will and Annie Martin.

Hi Will and Annie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
With reputable local architecture firms being increasingly gobbled up by behemoth multi-national corporations, Studiobvio emerged as a vital opportunity for us to help guarantee that architecture in Denver remain accessible and awesome to everyday folks at the local level. With deep local knowledge and a commitment to the highest possible design standards, we set out with Studiobvio to create a nimble yet rooted small firm that could leverage our interdisciplinary skill, technological chops, and commitment to building resilient and equitable communities to collaboratively improve our city and region one project at a time. 

With extensive experience (but without a large portfolio of work to ride on), we decided to focus our initial efforts on a potentially high-impact niche where we could quickly become experts and provide value. We picked Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). We were attracted to ADUs because of their potential for bettering the city fabric and social life in meaningful ways from the ground up. We also appreciated that the impossibly tight sites and spaces, constrained by an intensely opaque regulatory environment and small urban lots, meant that good design would not be a luxury but a necessity were the units to perform to the maximum potential. We developed research that guided advocacy and services, including ADU feasibility studies that helped homeowners understand their opportunity to not only build a financial asset that could augment their lifestyle in a myriad of ways but also potentially help provide much-needed housing to their community. Ultimately, however, for a wide range of reasons, ADUs did not emerge as the vital opportunity that we had once hoped. Growth in ADU development has been relatively stagnant as soaring construction costs and limited access to financing driven by systematic limitations baked into the underwriting and real-estate listing process, put ADUs out of reach for most Denver homeowners. 

Unperturbed, we have shifted our focus to other high-impact project types including master plans, public facilities, and data architecture for publically-minded, value-driven organizations. On the residential side, we have expanded our focus to include custom single-family residential projects that meet the international Passive House standard, the best building and energy performance stand on earth, for clients willing and able to be leaders in developing building solutions (with the incredible knowledge and expertise of Colorado companies like Emu Systems, Pheonix Haus, and Alpen Window) that can guide the building industry to the carbon-neutral future we need. We are currently working to expand our network of like-minded, value-driven people and organizations to collaborate with make a difference. 

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Starting a business is not easy. There are so many elements to success that lie outside of our core expertise as spatial thinkers, designers, and storytellers. Learning and implementing those elements through thoughtful business systems, so that the essentials don’t overly detract from our core focus—designing beautiful spaces for your families, organizations, and communities to flourish and grow sustainably—has been challenging. We always feel behind in realizing the potential efficiency of implementing one business strategy or another. Luckily, we are learning and we are certainly getting better. 

Adding our first child shortly after starting the business certainly didn’t simplify things (personally or from a business perspective). Nor did the pandemic, or the addition of our second child. We knew we wanted a family and we knew we wanted our own business… so we just jumped in. Raising a young family while nurturing the fledgling business has meant that we have made certain decisions that prioritize the family’s stability (by taking a stable second job for example) over the ambitions of the firm. however, we think that making slow but purposeful growth will lead to a better more resilient firm in the long run. In the short term, we are grateful to have the inspiration and support of our amazing family, friends, neighbors, and community of Denverites who “give a damn” to borrow from the Warm Cookies of the Revolution slogan. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Roughly translated Studiobvio means “study the obvious”. We coined the term from Latin roots to express our approach and passion. We also take it as an imperative to challenge the status quo. We believe that the typical humdrum spaces of our day-to-day life should not be humdrum, NAY!, they should be awesome, resilient, and inspiring. Our buildings can and should do much more and waste much less. Everyday spaces matter. 

This imperative also translates to our work being defined more by our approach or process than a singular type of building or space. While our work cuts across a wide range of project types, scales, and disciplines, we are rooted by a deep sense of place and guided by sensitivity and respect to our region’s geography, history, and people. Our work (as an office, as educators, as parents, and as community members) shucks the region’s historically fabricated idealism of the “rugged individual” for an embrace of what we see as Colorado’s uniquely cooperative ethos. This ethos, as we are fond of pointing out, nourishes the immense local, national, and international success of the Colorado craft beer industry from which we draw delicious pints and inspiration. We hope to contribute to a similar ascendancy for architecture and design in Colorado. 

To that end, we seek to find people to collaborate with that share our pride, ambition, and can-do collaborative attitude. Architecture and building is a challenging and messy process, we hope to also make it also meaningful, impactful, and fun. 

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
We have learned that the strictures of corporate culture should be abandoned for an embrace of many of the innovative and more flexible work solutions that have been incubated during the pandemic. We are grateful that our clients have welcomed the presence of our kids in online and in-person meetings. We hope that this openness is not momentary but signals a shift in our culture from one of convenience to one of care. 

Contact Info:

• Email: info@studiobvio.com
• Website: www.studiobvio.com
• Instagram: @studiobvio
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/studiobvio/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/studiobvio
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7I4npTMEN79gJ-4Blyrm5w/featured