Winsome Launches their Featured Architect Series with an Interview with Nathan Good

We have found that often the journey to find the right team of people to design and build is a daunting one for clients.  Your architect or designer and builder are such critical team members that will help to ensure that your building process is all that you want it to be, so how do you make sure that you make informed decisions about which one is a good fit for you and your project?  It is a good idea to check out their websites, to look at their work, to ask for referrals and to meet them and ask lots of questions to find out how they work and to be informed about what you should expect.  Trust and a good working relationship are essential.

In our business, we have had the good fortune of meeting and working with many of the area’s finest architects and designers.  We felt that it would be helpful to have a place that clients and potential clients could go to learn about our local architects and designers to facilitate this difficult decision.  With this in mind, Winsome has launched the “Featured Architect of the Month” series.  Every month in 2012 we will be featuring an interview with a local architect or designer complete with extensive project photos, website information and contact information.  We will highlight the architect on our blog and a full, detailed interview with more photos to be found on our website.

For our first featured architect, we sat down with Nathan Good, an award winning green architect based in Portland, Oregon.  Here is a recap of our talk with Nathan.  Visit our website for the full interview and a more complete set of photos of his work.

Talking to Nathan, with his humble and down to earth style, you would never guess that he is one of the premier architects in Oregon and an internationally renowned green architect that has designed homes and commercial buildings across the United States and even internationally.  I had the good fortune of meeting Nathan back in the late 90s when he was still working with Portland General Electric (PGE) the then utility based energy conservation program, Earth Advantage Institute, which later became a highly successful independent green building resource.  He was innovating then in spectacular ways that continued to change the landscape of green building long after he moved on to other things.  Now he continues to change the landscape of green building through his creative and innovative designs.  He is clear about his vision and drive.  He thinks the future of green building needs to be that green building is standard building practice.

Nathan was drawn to architecture as a child when his parent’s started working on designing a home.  Even as a child, Nathan found that he was fascinated with the decisions to be made in designing a home and how to help people to collaborate to create a final design together.  Even today, Nathan says, “If you were to ask my clients, they would say that negotiating win/win design agreements among couples is my greatest strength.”  Nathan uses a collaborative approach to design, where relationships and working together are emphasized.  “In the process of designing and building a project, I find that it works best to temper the ego and ask others for advice.”  Nathan explains,  “It produces a superior result when I suspend having to be right and ask others to contribute genius to the project.”

Read the full interview with Nathan Good.