COLLABORATIVE DESIGN
Little Horn State Bank, Billings, MontanaThe design intent for this bank was to explore and play with the aesthetics and vernacular of rural Montana architecture.
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COLLABORATIVE DESIGN ARCHITECTS
2280 Grant Road, Suite C / Billings, MT 59102
info@cd-mt.com
Tel: 406.248.3443
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Mitchell Osland, AIA
In concepting his designs, Mitchell works closely with clients to create a space that reflects intention. What will people think when they enter the space? How will they feel? Does the experience align with the client’s vision? Mitchell notes that the ability to work directly with the principals creates an exceptional client experience and a thriving team environment.
Originally from Minnesota, Mitchell says he has discovered a refreshing authenticity in Billings and at Collaborative Design Architects, where opinions are respected and humor is welcome.
CDA in one word: Intentional
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Sydnee Lovering
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Travis Smith, AIA
“When you engage with us, you work with a partner-led team. And that team brings a forged-in-Montana work ethic.”
Travis is a firm leader in project management and delivery. His ability to think critically and solve complex situations throughout the design continuum makes him an invaluable member of every project team. In short, Travis is a closer.
Originally from rural Missouri, Travis began his professional career on the west coast where he managed a wide range of projects across the country. Over time, his portfolio evolved to include award-winning breweries, restaurants, large-scale commercial renovation projects, and multi-family projects.
In 2018, Travis joined Collaborative Design Architects, a decision made easy by the firm’s partner-led philosophy and work ethic. When a client works with Collaborative, they work directly with a partner and a team of professionals all of whom have a vested interest in making the project a success. Moreover, the firm leaders grew up in a working class, ‘blue collar’ environment. There’s an authenticity and grit that comes from that background, shaping real, relatable people.
Plus, Travis says, we just work that much harder to deliver on project excellence.
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Brian Johnson, AIA
“Our team does not design in a bubble. Clients have a voice in the design – and we are listening.”
Fueled by passion, meaning, and purpose, Brian has garnered national awards across multiple categories for his work in design. And the centerpiece of every one of his projects is client collaboration. As a creative interpreter, Brian understands that the strongest design emerges out of a symbiotic relationship between the client and the creative team. What distinguishes Collaborative Design Architects is the client experience.
Brian is a fifth generation Montanan whose roots trace back to his family’s early homestead near Roundup. Growing up in the west, there is an unwritten code of behavior: if you say you’re going to do something, you had better show up with integrity and do your best. Your actions become the bedrock of your reputation.
This code is embedded in the client relationship. Brian leads every project with a team of professionals and the client together at the table. At every turn, Brian listens to the client’s ideas and is transparent in explaining the how’s and why’s as the project progresses. Collaboration doesn’t just take place in the office. Brian will guide the client around the building site, pointing out unique characteristics, views, the public presence, adjacent features, even how sunlight will arc through the seasons. He wants people to enjoy the experience and understand how the project is being custom tailored to their vision.
Brian believes that having clients involved in the process builds trust, expands creativity, and brings forward a design that goes far beyond expectations.
That’s collaboration, and that’s who Brian is.
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Jeff Kanning, AIA
“I believe the simple design is the most elegant.”
Jeff’s architectural and master planning expertise places him in the top tier of design professionals in the country, but you will never hear this from him. Jeff grew up on the hardscrabble plains of eastern Montana where the principles of hard work, integrity, and respect were instilled from an early age. Against this sparsely populated backdrop, people genuinely care about community – neighbors helping neighbors simply because it’s the right thing to do. These core values have informed Jeff’s every action for the entirety of his career. They are also the principles upon which Collaborative Design Architects is founded.
Unsurprisingly, Jeff finds untapped inspiration in Montana’s prairielands, effusing authenticity, minimalism, and stewardship into his designs. What seems simple is not. Jeff has the ability to process a large amount of information, ideas and criteria, and rapidly assimilate them into creative solutions that allow for the exploration of multiple design options. While typologies will vary, one thing remains true. Every design is intentional and created to stand the test of time.
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Nick Pancheau, AIA
“Design is realized in elegant, thoughtful solutions to real world problems.”
Nick is a visionary. As an award winning designer and maker, Nick excels in realizing order in disorganized, complicated processes, programs, and spaces. Identifying the problem is the cornerstone of his design. Getting to know the client – their perspectives and challenges – brings insight that leads to elegant, thoughtful solutions.
Nick understands that it takes more than design intelligence to deliver a beautiful project. Rigor, discipline, and a strong work ethic are essential to solving complex design challenges – wisdom he learned from his father.
Raised in a small town in eastern Montana, Nick grew up working alongside his father in the trades. Construction was hard work, but also rewarding. It was through this experience that Nick began to understand how a vision can translate into drawings, and drawings transform into reality. A seed had been planted.
From an early age Nick’s father encouraged his son to pursue a college degree, an opportunity he did not have. Architecture was an immediate interest as it combined Nick’s love for construction with his passion for artistic endeavors.
Nick’s design sense evokes timeless modernity, melding that which has stood the test of time with the power of architecture to create experiences: wonder, contemplation, innovation, stability.
As President of Collaborative Design Nick is the architect of the business, designing the firm’s processes, systems, client experience, and staff culture. In this role he applies the same principle of timeless stability with an approach marked by wonder, contemplation, and innovation.
Under Nick’s leadership, Collaborative Design Architects has earned distinction as an innovative firm. The company’s portfolio brims with significant, diverse, and technically challenging projects that affirm this merit.
One of the distinct advantages of working with Collaborative Design Architects is that every project is principal-led. This ensures a customized approach to the client’s needs.
In an industry brimming with polished personalities, the team at Collaborative Design remains refreshingly real and dedicated to elevating the art of design.
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Jason Fitzgerald, AIA
“We have hired licensed architects who had never been in a client meeting. Our philosophy is that all members of a project team should have unfettered access to every project phase, including hearing firsthand from the client. Their thoughts and opinions are valuable.”
Jason’s technical expertise, combined with an ability to think critically and functionally, makes him a master at resolving the most complex issues. This skill along with a comprehensive understanding of building codes undergirds Jason’s proficiency in designing public use projects, such as restaurants, retail establishments, and professional offices.
With more than two decades of experience, Jason takes the lead in mentoring associates through the Intern Development Program (IDP) and rigor of professional licensing exams. In every interaction, he coaches staff members to embrace a team philosophy, leaning into the “we,” while giving a sense of agency to the individual.
Recognizing each person has unique passions, talents, and interests, team members are channeled into working on projects that they love which forwards the best design – and gives associates a deep sense of pride.
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Austin Anderson, AIA
Austin understands better than most how the built environment impacts quality of life. A native of Williston, North Dakota, he watched as the quaint farming community transformed into a modern-day boomtown – function often trumping form.
For Austin, great design is not rooted in a particular style of architecture but is an organic process of discovery – and fostering a genuine relationship with the client is key. Austin begins by listening carefully to the client’s vision, including the words they use to describe how they want people to experience a space. Next, he studies the interface of site parameters and building programming, uncovering natural connections between the two. He then explores how to bring simple forms and appropriate scale together to create a modern architectural solution. Austin emphasizes the power of client collaboration in achieving an exceptional design.
CDA in one word: Genuine
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Valerie Meier, AIA
A talented artist, Valerie was attracted to the path of architecture where her natural abilities could be harnessed and celebrated in a professional way. Her first engagement was with a large architectural firm in Denver working on massive and complex projects. The experience gave Valerie a deep appreciation for the extensive team it takes to truly execute a design successfully.
In 2012, Valerie and her husband moved overseas and spent six years living in Australia, Malaysia, and Borneo. She immersed herself in the array of juxtaposed building typologies – ancient Hindu temples and steel and glass towers, traditional Indonesian kampung houses and luxury villas. Her trained eye observed how the different cultures transcended seamlessly across millennia to find understated expression in modernity. This fusion of timeless simplicity and lasting functionality informs Valerie’s design priorities.
When the family moved back, they chose to move to Billings, a place they saw as offering abundant opportunity and an active, outdoor lifestyle. Valerie was ready to rejoin the workforce but wanted to be selective about the environment in which she worked. After careful consideration she chose to join Collaborative Design Architects, describing the culture as authentic, unpretentious, and giving her the space to excel and flourish.
CDA in one word: Opportunity
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Luke Sanders, Assoc. AIA
Luke believes the smallest details matter. He enjoys working with clients to understand their needs and wants, and then translating those into a thoughtful design program. And as an avid model maker, he has honed his ability to key in on the most refined details.
Luke chose to join Collaborative Design Architecture in 2021. He was impressed with the large variety of projects and diverse architectural styles the firm has achieved. While the desire to work with many different clients was a strong draw, Collaborative Design’s culture was equally attractive. The principals work alongside the associates, guiding and helping them to improve. They also invest in professional growth for every team member – and they know when to have fun.
CDA in one word: Fun
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Keith Myhre, AIA
Keith is a consummate design professional. With nearly four decades of experience, including 16 years at the helm of his own firm, he has the competency and technical knowledge to solve complex problems. He also excels in project documentation and delivery. Keith’s portfolio includes a diverse array of project types and sizes that dot across the western United States. Independent of the size of a project, Keith prioritizes client collaboration where he deciphers their inspirations to bring forward reality.
Success, Keith believes, comes down to people and their willingness to innovate. Collaborative Design Architects takes actionable steps to invest in both. As one example, the firm flew all associates to Chicago to attend the annual AIA conference, adding professional sporting events and themed dinners for teambuilding.
CDA in one word: Forward
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John Wetendorf, AIA
John Wetendorf brings the knowledge and experience earned from more than 16 years of professional design. Originally from Montana, John worked with a large firm in Salt Lake City where he led teams across the country designing facilities for financial institutions, religious organizations, commercial buildings, and professional offices.
In 2022, John had an invitation to join Collaborative Design Architects. The opportunity to live, work, learn, and play with a leading edge firm was a winning combination.
At the core of his design process, John focuses intently to understand the client’s dreams, bringing in local elements and culture to connect the design to place. This honoring of place is a hallmark of Collaborative Design, which draws inspiration from and espouses the core values of eastern Montana.
CDA in one word: Authentic
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Andrew Houlihan, Assoc. AIA
Andrew values architecture as a perfect union of art and science – a balanced duality that brings together the transient and permanent, immaterial and physical. It is within this space of opposing principles where the theoretical can be transmuted into a thoughtful design that provides an elegant solution to the client’s desires.
Andrew describes his approach to design as a ‘collaborative shepherd to a complex process.’ To this process he brings tactile knowledge of materials and democratic design sensibilities honed by working as a designer for a global home furnishings brand.
In 2015, Andrew joined Collaborative Design Architects where the opportunity for professional growth is significant. As someone with a passion for civic engagement, the move to Billings also gave Andrew the opportunity to make an outsized impact in his local community.
CDA in one word: Passion
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Alex Wright, Assoc. AIA
Alex works in a kaleidoscope of design prompts – from luxury mountain villas to boutique retail, high end commercial to custom residential. The diverse array of projects lays open the opportunity to explore new aesthetics, different materials, and spatial concepts that are innovative yet meld beautifully to reveal the client’s vision. An artist herself, Alex holds a deep appreciation for curating design moments that are truly one of a kind.
CDA in one word: Innovative
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Bill Haynes, AIA
“Collaborative Design Architect’s portfolio is diverse, revealing our creative intelligence across many different design styles and typologies. This gives clients confidence in our ability to successfully deliver any type of project they can envision.”
An expert in integrated project delivery, Bill oversees the myriad of layers and details requisite in successfully executing complex architectural projects. His ability to be laser focused with the design team results in the optimum solution for building performance, design aesthetics, and project cost.
Bill began his architectural career in Chicago, a city renowned for architectural innovation. In 2006, Bill joined Collaborative Design Architects bringing along an impressive portfolio that includes significant international projects.
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