Michelle and Brent credit that responsiveness to their personal involvement as the leaders of the firm. Brent says that he and Michelle are “intimately involved in the day-to-day running of each of our projects.” They also employ team leads that know the project as well as they do, and they empower and encourage those team leads to respond to clients and contractors as well. Other firms sometimes have issues with responsiveness because they insist on one point of contact – “but we always have multiple points of contact with each job,” Brent says. “In a situation where something is urgent and I can’t be reached, and Michelle can’t be reached, someone can reach out to the team lead, and one of the three of us are going to be able to respond.” That responsiveness has helped Dutra Architect to form some close-knit relationships with contractors over the years. The firm also takes the perspective that they are “one small part of a larger team,” Brent explains, and that perspective has also helped those relationships flourish. “The way we see it is we’re either going to succeed as a team or fail as a team,” he says. “If we design something great on paper, but that design never comes to life, that’s not a success. We want to see the design come to life. So we’re not there to throw up roadblocks for the contractors. We’re there to work with them to achieve the final goal, which is ultimately the product that the client wants.” OCTOBER 2025
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