Washington's Atelier Architects celebrates it's 10 Year Anniversary (Jan. 2003)

By Steven J. Stauffer

Taking as its name the French word for an artist's studio, Atelier Architects has over the past ten years grown into a well-established medium-sized firm. Their ten-year anniversary is a good time, say founding partners Gene Burnett and Bill Faust, to make people more familiar with the full spectrum of firm's services. "We were founded on the principal of getting the job done, no matter what its size or complexity. We've developed a reputation as a firm with a grounded approach; we roll up our sleeves and get involved," says Burnett. "But the result of this practical emphasis is that there are some people who aren't as familiar with our capabilities as a design firm. Many people are surprised to learn that we've grown to have a staff of twenty five, with offices on K Street. I think some people still think that it's just the two of us, working out of a basement. They need to know they can also come to us for the full range of design and production services; we have the experience and the staff."

"We've never been a firm that has targeted a single niche. We are not an avant-garde architectural firm, but we are not Brooks Brothers, either. We deliberately keep a broad market focus," says Faust. "Health care was huge in the late 90s, and then withered away. If we'd had that one area as our total focus, we'd have seen some hard times. But our diversification into other areas such as landlord and tenant oriented interior design services, commercial architecture, multifamily housing, and retail have allowed us to be more responsive to market conditions, giving us a very stable practice, with the majority of our business with repeat clients." The firm's success stories include some very high-profile jobs both here at home in their Washington, D.C. base, and in the New York City area.

"Everything from sophisticated design jobs to base buildings," Burnett explains. "We have blossomed into a multi-faceted design firm." "We have a design approach," agrees Faust, "and the quality of our design is very closely related to the studios concept. Each of our two studios has its own designers and architects, technical and professional staff. A new project is assigned a team from one of the studios, who will follow the project from its inception through final occupancy. This assures that our clients benefit from a continuity of staffing and information flow that you don't get with many firms."

Each studio also has established relationships with long-standing clients. This allows us to better know our clients and serve their needs. This approach is especially effective with clients who own or manage multiple properties, such as the John Akridge Company, Carr America, IBG, The Goldstar Group, Boston Properties, and Brandywine Construction and Management, Inc."