Meet Sarah + Ryan Brown | Brown Collective Architecture + Design

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sarah + Ryan Brown and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Sarah + Ryan, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
In 2018, when we started the business, we hand-selected experiences from our past workplaces (across several industries) to help us curate this life we had envisioned for our family, and to reimagine what a workplace can look like for our employees. We explored everything about these experiences, including the cultures, values, social responsibility, customer service and client interactions, mentorship, quality of product / design, and work-life balance, and the outcome has completely shaped what it means to work with the Brown Collective Team.
Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Brown Collective was founded to produce high-quality, comprehensive, and boutique design, in a workplace culture that celebrates collaboration, humility, and opportunity. We set out to challenge the norm, not only in the Architecture and Design industry, but general corporate norms, too. It certainly has not been easy, especially running the business as husband and wife, but we have been successful in this because we have built this business so intentionally, we are incredibly aligned with our staff, consultants, and clients, and that piece makes all the difference.
Our culture code is built on 3 main pillars:
HONORING RELATIONSHIPS: RESPECT, COMPASSION + TRUST – Relationships are at the forefront of everything we do and the Brown Collective team is committed to a culture that honors each individual. We believe everyone should be treated with respect, met with compassion, and be given the opportunity to earn trust. Brown Collective protects our employees by only engaging with clients who offer the reciprocation of these values. One way we foster these relationships is through monthly outings with staff and their families.
WORK ETHIC + WORK-LIFE BALANCE: THE RESPONSIBILITY OF FREEDOM – The Brown Family motto is “do what we have to do, when we have to do it – – so we can do what we want to do, when we want to do it”, and it is a belief we have brought with us as a foundational piece of Brown Collective. We fully believe in the ability to do the things that make our souls sing, while also recognizing the responsibilities that need to be taken care of to make that life a possibility. Our team is committed to this delicate and important balance. This is showcased through our firm policies like unlimited PTO and hybrid/flexible schedules.
CREATING IN THE COLLECTIVE: COLLABORATION, HUMILITY + OPPORTUNITY – At Brown Collective we have eliminated the ego-driven and siloed workplace that is often associated with the Architecture + Design industry, creating a culture of collaboration and humility. Each employee is encouraged to participate in each facet of the business, provide their honest feedback from design to office policy, ask questions, chase project opportunities, and much more.
As for working with your significant other, it is as rewarding as it is challenging, we struggle to delineate work from home life, but we also get to celebrate the wins together, support each other more through the hard days, and learn alongside one another. The best gift we have been given is something called the ‘TEAM (touch, educate, appreciate, metric) Exercise”, every night we hold hands (touch), tell the other person something we learned that day (educate), let your partner know something they did for you that was meaningful (appreciate), and have a conversation about something that was hurtful and what kind of reaction or support would be helpful in the future (metric). We will tell every couple we know about this exercise!
We are also extremely committed to making meaningful and consistent contributions to local nonprofit organizations. The team regularly volunteers and participates in fundraising events, employees are encouraged to make donations themselves that will be matched by the firm, and a percentage of annual revenue is donated above and beyond those matching gifts.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Food + Drink – Edgewater Market, Fire on the Mountain, Barcelona, Sushi Sasa, New Terrain, New Image, Lekker Coffee + Watering Hole, Little Machine, Over Yonder, Los Chingones
The Outdoorsy Recs – Golden Gate Canyon, Apex, Clear Creek (biking + tubing), Winter Park, Vail, Buena Vista, Crested Butte, any splash pad (we have a 2 year old!), camping somewhere in our van
Music, Entertainment, Shopping + Misc – Red Rocks, Avs, Nuggets, Rapids, Old Town Arvada, Farmer’s Markets, Golden, W 32nd, Nocturne Jazz Club
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We would be remiss if we didn’t start by acknowledging our parents, from the start they have set examples that taught us the meaning of work ethic and the pride that comes with owning your craft. Secondly, as life and business partners, we push each other past our comfort zones, while honoring our humanness. Next, our toddler, Wilder, is our biggest motivation and inspiration, he’s a fighter and reminds us to not take ourselves too seriously. Our staff is the best, they are our engine and deserve so much recognition – Sarah Linback, Reanna Lardy, and Cherryl Agosto. Finally, all the professional and personal mentors we have had along the way. For Ryan, Jim Johnson, Founder of JNS, has been a champion of his architectural career and helped reinforce that the interpersonal aspect of running a business is just as important as the final work product, and Craig O’Connell of COA helped ease us into building our small but mighty firm. For Sarah, her Uncle Joel gave her encouragement to find her potential in a career, regardless of what it was, and her mentors and friends, Nancy Gruskay and Willow Meili, have helped her learn to hold space for people when they need it most. 18
Website: www.browncollectivearch.com
Instagram: browncollectivearch
Linkedin: browncollectivearch
Facebook: browncollectivearch
Image Credits
Staff photo and main photo are credited to Simply Love Co (@simplyloveco)