We had the good fortune of connecting with Steve Scribner and Morgan Law and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Steve Scribner and Morgan Law, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Morgan Law started Shape in 2016 and Steve joined in 2018. We had both come to Colorado for family reasons and were looking to build our careers at firms that excited us as designers and fulfilled our commitment to building science-based sustainability work. Morgan didn’t find a firm that checked all of these boxes, so instead he decided to form a Design/ Build company with an old college friend. It was an exciting and successful venture but the imbalance of design-to-build led Morgan to start a separate firm focusing on super low-energy but attainable homes. He named it Sustainable Habitats and Performance Engineering [SHaPE]. Much of the work was very small-scale and scrappy at first, but Morgan also was able to put a lot of energy into the beginnings of the front range Passive House community (translation: super nerdy building-science based ultra-low energy standard). This network helped earn Shape a couple of passivehouse certified new home projects. As these home designs were getting off the ground, Steve was planning his move to Colorado. Steve was also struggling to find a company that resonated with his design and sustainability aspirations, but knew Morgan through friends; he decided that joining forces on the mission-driven, vision-aligned company Morgan had created would be more fulfilling and exciting than taking a position with job security at a locally established firm. In short, neither of us set out to start our own business, but did have a belief in a vision and hunch that the front range was ripe for the kind of work we wanted to do.

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?
I think we’re most excited that we’ve grown the business to the point where we are doing dream projects that combine our various passions. For instance, the 1881 Park is a cluster of net-positive community buildings that celebrate both the farming heritage of the land and the future of dry-land agriculture in the west. It’s so many things we love and care deeply about: bringing people together around a celebration of nature and a specific and amazing landscape, creating a super unique model that generates more energy than it uses, for the purpose of bringing together people, supporting education, and creating community. The process has been highly collaborative with inspirational partners, from Studio Superbloom to Studio NYL Structural Engineers, Sally from Altius Farms, Eric from Esoterra Culinary, and many more. Making the world a more sustainable, vibrant, connected, and inclusive place – what could be better?

In terms of getting to where we are, we’ve had our share of luck through good timing and a wonderful network; and we do our best to execute all of our opportunities to our absolute highest ability. Our incredible team of architects and designers really get the vision and make it happen. Of course, it takes a lot of late nights to do everything we need to on our projects as well as attending to the administration side of the business.

There have been plenty of struggles and learning opportunities that inevitably come from drinking from such a firehose; because we have the good fortune of growing and diversifying our project types, we have lots of learning experiences! But honestly, neither of us would want it any other way and count our blessings to be in a career that is infinitely challenging, changing, and rewarding.

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.
While we love our city and appreciate all it has to offer, both Morgan and I would (and do) drag our friends into the mountains. We both engage in the usual array of outdoor activities, but I think we were both drawn to Colorado for the solace the remote backcountry offers. Spending time in the Gore Range, San Louis Valley, Canyonlands, or Nordic Skiing at Snow Mountain Ranch has such a powerful ability to refill our energy and creativity.

In Denver, the Clyfford Still Museum is a real architectural masterpiece. Uchi has amazing food and a really unique design by tres birds, another local design company that continues to create a wide variety of unique and inspiring work.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We have both worked for a number of exceptional architecture firms, from Washington State to NYC, Boston, and Maine. All of these formed our skillsets and values, and we are deeply grateful for the different perspectives we’ve experienced. Probably more than any others, Kaplan Thompson Architects in Portland Maine demonstrated a business model that gained recognition through super sustainable buildings built to measured energy efficiency standards, and providing an extremely empowering workplace. Morgan started his career there after grad school and brought the ability to combine energy modeling and architecture to Shape. He also did a stint at Prentiss Balance Wickline Architects in central Washington, where he learned more about the business of architecture and immersion in their refined, detail-oriented and material-focused design approach.

In Denver, our biggest heroes are the Landscape Architects Studio Superbloom, with whom we are lucky to share an office space. Their clear vision, research-based methodology, and exceptional design skills and success in their three-year history is so impressive. We’ve learned from their process and ridden on their coat-tails: our two largest and most exciting projects are landscape-forward public parks/buildings in collaboration with Superbloom.

And lastly, we have to shout out to the Leadville community and a couple of specific business-owners there, who have helped enable us to take the leap from single-family to commercial and mixed-use work.

Website: https://shapearchitect.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shape_architect/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shape-architecture-studio/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shapearchitecturestudio

Image Credits
Drew Tooley, Trendem Media – Englewood Passive House Duplex & Wildewood Passive House Sarah Vanderpool – Buena Vista House

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutColorado is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.