and basement walkouts for the first three years before I could get somebody to actually sign me up to do a real house. But we went out of the gate pretty quick.” Throughout all the growth, Nathan has held tightly to the twin priorities he developed during his architectural technology training – technical rigor and genuine beauty. “Coming out of school, I had a lot of passion for both of those things – for work that was correct from a building science standpoint, and also work that was beautiful and meant something,” he says. The ongoing challenge since then, he explains, has been to pursue both of those purposes simultaneously, as BLDG Workshop has evolved from a solo practice into a full team. Today, the firm focuses primarily on custom new home design, with clients that include both end users and builders. That second category – builders and contractors who approach BLDG Workshop on behalf of their clients – has become an increasingly important part of the firm’s work. Nathan has always believed the relationship between designer and builder should be one of genuine mutual respect, and he’s never understood the adversarial dynamic that sometimes pleagues the industry. “That kind of stereotypical animosity between designers and builders always felt weird to me,” he says. “I always thought that as a designer, why wouldn’t you have respect for the builder? And why wouldn’t you also expect that the builder has the same respect for you?” That collaborative philosophy has translated into long-lasting partnerships. Some of Nathan’s builder relationships, for example, go back to 2010, the year he started the firm. Nathan credits that loyalty to the clarity of their drawings, and the philosophy of open communication throughout the building process. “We’re work relaly hard to support the builder in looking like the superstar,” he says. JULY 2026
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