The Countdown is ON!

12 years ago…

We launched Shelter to address sustainable design practices in residential architecture. We took up offices just south of Loring Park in a small third floor studio at 314 Clifton Ave in Minneapolis. We focused on what we called “cause design”. We were seeking out projects that dealt with environmental issues, aid work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and how what we design can help people live better no matter what their age or abilities. When we were at Clifton Ave we started the design of what would become Minnesota’s first LEED-H Platinum certified home and our work was starting to get noticed.

7 years ago…

We had outgrown our Clifton Ave studio and headed to Uptown to a newly renovated studio at 2913 Harriet Ave. We had a huge open house to celebrate 5 years of designing fantastic homes for fantastic clients.

5 years ago…

The housing market was still in a funk so we started taking on more and more commercial design work. It proved to be a great addition to our residential work. The economic doldrums and staff changes made for a tumultuous couple of years but we rolled up our sleeves, focused on great design and as the dust settled Shelter was a more nimble and talented studio than it had ever been.

3 years ago…

While touring prospective sites for our newest commercial clients, the folks starting Bauhaus Brew Labs, we happened upon an adaptive reuse space in NE MPLS.  Crown Center was being developed as a hip business center in the industrial heart of Minneapolis.  One look at the long, narrow space overlooking the bridge crane corridor and we knew it was the place for us.  We packed up our office in Uptown and set up shop at 1229 Tyler Street — across the parking lot from Bauhaus Brew Labs itself!

2 years ago…

We looked around we realized a decade had gone by and we had a portfolio that we were darn proud of! We celebrated Shelter’s TENennial by throwing a hooTENanny for many of our friends and colleagues in our exciting new Crown Building studio.  It was an occasion to look back on ten years together and track how we got to where we are.  We started thinking about what Shelter set out to be and what it is now.  We affirmed our values: sustainability, approachability, livability, and beauty.  We agreed that good design [still] has value and cool [still] matters.  Ten years in business felt like a good time to embrace that fact that we had a good thing going, but also turn our effort to the important work still to be done.  We asked our new roommates, Malley Design, to help us out with a new website to get things started.

1 year ago… 

We engaged Malley Design to refresh the rest of our branding.  We wanted something that matched the maturity of our ten year old practice but also seemed current and fresh — perhaps even leading edge.  Malley Design asked us to study ourselves.  Figure out what we believed in and what we didn’t. Luckily we’d been thinking about it already so we brought forth our abundant thoughts.  They reviewed the disparate and sometimes uncoordinated pieces of branding we had produced over the past ten years. They brainstormed at length with us, and edited what we came up together.  In addition to their pronounced roles as marketing consultants they acted the part of psychologists, diplomats, creative directors, and friends.

This Friday…  

The refreshed Shelter brand will go live.  Branding is only fully alive when it is shared, so we invite you to be a part of it.  We will unveil Shelter’s refreshed branding on Friday afternoon.

BUT FIRST…

Let’s think about where we’ve been and where we’re going.  Each day this week we will review or preview an important aspect of our company.  Talking about what we do helps us clarify our values, goals, patterns of thought, and ways of working.  It also shapes your understanding of us and hopefully demystifies what we do and why we do it. So buckle up, because the countdown to our refreshed branding launch is ON!