Without our clients and colleagues, we wouldn’t get to do what we love and we wouldn’t have the opportunity live our mission to “inspire, transform, and enrich lives through design.” I can truly say, that each and every project is important to us, and we try our hardest to give everything we can to each one. We want to be inspired by our clients and we hope to inspire them.
When we come across a project that we realize could help move us in a new direction (like the Jamestown Fire Station) or allow us to do something we have never done before, we get super excited! In March of 2013, an RFP (request for proposal) for the Mariposa Phase VI came across my screen. At the time, it would have been the largest project in our portfolio (94 units) and it was for an organization that we really wanted to be involved with, DHA (Denver Housing Authority).
For this project, there was a two stage proposal and WORKSHOP8 was one of four architects short listed after the first stage. As a design-build project, the general contractor ultimately ended up as the lead of the project. There were only three general contractors short listed, so the odds weren’t great for WORKSHOP8. But ultimately, Deneuve Construction, decided to give WORKSHOP8 a shot and we rounded out the team with: delet, Jansen Strawn, JVA Consulting Engineers, Noresco, Sky to Ground, Sustainably Built, and Three Sixty Design.
By now—if you have actually read this far—you must be trying to figure out what this story has to do with the photo above, so I’m about to tell you.
I doubt any of the consultants on our Mariposa team remembers this, and they may not have even heard me say it, but the morning we all got together to prep for our interview with DHA, I said, “If we win this project, I will get a butterfly tattoo!” (Get it? Butterfly? Mariposa?)
That promise to the universe hung over my head for almost two years until I finally had the time to make good on it. Thank you Vinnie, at Claw and Talon Tattoo for finally allowing me to make good on that promise. I wonder what the next tattoo will represent?
