Diversification by design

Axiom stayed focused on residential design to grow
Charlotte Business Journal – by Bea Quirk , Contributing writer
Date: Friday, March 4, 2011, 6:00am EST

In the midst of diversifying, the three managing partners of Axiom Architecture discovered the best way to do it is by sticking with what you know best.

“We are primarily housing people, and we are good at it. There’s no need to stray far,” says partner Steve Barton.

What changed was what Barton, 40, and fellow partners Matt Majors, 40, and Colleen Garrett, 41, did with their knowledge and skill in multifamily housing. The three — who met at Auburn University when they were architecture students — had worked nearly two decades with David Furman Architecture, which had evolved primarily into a development company.

They wanted to return to their first love, architecture. So in 2007, they formed Axiom. Furman, while keeping his development firm, has a stake in Axiom as well as an office in the new firm’s space in the Trademark tower uptown that they designed.

“We design like architects, but we think like developers — we have dual capability,” Majors says. “We can approach budgets in a way many architects cannot. We are playing up to our strengths to carry us into the next decade.”

The partners’ decision was tested during the housing crash of the last few years. The staff has shrunk to seven from 12, primarily through attrition.

But the changes are now paying off.

The company is doing work for the housing authorities in Charlotte and Wilmington and has just started design work on a project in Virginia and a multifamily development for Levine Properties in Charlotte. “The phone is starting to ring from private developers,” Garrett says.

Although Axiom started by contacting former clients, its work has now expanded beyond Charlotte. More than half its clients are now located outside the area and throughout the Southeast.

DID YOU KNOW?
The partners primarily design projects individually but collaborate on day-to-day operations and pitch in to help each other with projects. Says Barton: “We are very much in synch.”