ALEX
Mike Piché, who is he? Tell us.

MIKE
Well, thank you for having me on your number three.

ALEX
Number three.

MIKE
So yeah, it's fun to kind of chat about architecture, construction, design. My name's Mike Piché. I am the owner and founder of Piché Architecture. It's relatively new. I'm still under a year of existence, so I'm kind of learning and doing my best to provide a really high quality design product and meet some demanding clients' expectations.

ALEX
Subtle. Well, are you having fun with it?

MIKE
Oh, I'm having a blast. It's really cool. When you're starting something up, what's fun is working on all those various aspects. Starting new, even from the graphics, the templates, those things are kind of fun. But all the little less fun things too, of collateral and processes, trying to get work and then execute the work. It's wearing a lot of different hats, but it's totally rewarding so far.

I've enjoyed, in the startup part, some of those things, like the production side, being on the hands-on side. I actually do enjoy a lot of that. So that's been a fun part of this too, getting back into the weeds of some of the production stuff while trying to do the high-level business owner things as well. That's one of the things that's fun, but it's also the challenge, switching mental gears on those things on a daily basis.

ALEX
I know a lot of the work you did before was obviously Boulder, Aspen. Currently, where have you been?

MIKE
Yeah, I have projects in Boulder and then another one in Denver. One of the things I wanted to do, really, was be very specific right now, starting off, that working locally is where my head's at, and that's where I want to focus all my efforts. Part of what I like about working locally too is meeting with those clients and meeting all the people working on the project, the builders, everything, frequently, and having that face-to-face interaction. Not that I wouldn't consider something elsewhere, but where I'm focusing is I like to be local, and I like to work with the people that I know and trust and have those relationships with. There are all kinds of great people here on all sides, from clients to collaborators, so why not focus on being local?

ALEX
Yeah. I think there are some real assets to be brought when staying close to home. Which is actually interesting, because a lot of the conversations I've been having with some trade partners specifically is that lately, maybe since COVID, there are a lot more national builders, or builders that might have a presence in say LA, that are coming to town to conduct work. And I've been getting all different kinds of feedback and experiences on that. I'd be curious what your opinion is on the assets that out-of-town talent can bring, but also the limitations that inherently come with it.

MIKE
I think on the pro side, they may have worked on a big spectrum, at the high-end level of things, and have the experience and attention to detail. Some folks have just worked on some really sweet stuff, at a really national level of quality and detail. On the flip side, the relationship part of it: through COVID I think there can sometimes be struggles just getting people to show up or prioritize you. With a national builder, there's the worry that maybe you're not going to be there to support the trades into the future. With your local builder, it's like, no, I'm probably going to get another job from them. I'm going to prioritize them. They've always paid me on time and treated me well. So there's that relationship where they're going to work with them and prioritize them.

But I think as long as you're vetting through and talking through those aspects, you can probably get a high quality product either way. It's just what you're looking for. Occasionally some of the bigger ones have their own steel shop or cabinet shop and can self-perform, so that maybe gets you past some of the hurdles that a small local person can't.

ALEX
Yeah. Admittedly, my first thought is, when you're expanding that pool, the ability to have refined standard operating procedures and systems is one thing. When you're getting into those unique details, you're looking for an outlier in terms of experience, and you kind of have to expand the pool. It's also something I've thought about for the long-term trajectory of my business. I'd love to have a satellite division somewhere, frankly somewhere I would love to spend some time, and use it as an excuse to get away. But the residential market is just so connection-based. I've struggled to feel confident about how to pursue that. Whereas commercial, I think, is so cutthroat, you could almost go anywhere, and as long as you're going through the formalized process, it's A to B. When you get into these unique details, you're balancing connection, you're balancing risk factors, and then experience. That's a really, really hard thing to do.

MIKE
In that relationship sense, if someone's bringing in a national builder or some builder from somewhere else, they probably already have that trust that's built, and that relationship, and knowing what you can get, on a personal level. I think that's pretty important.

ALEX
Yeah. It's fascinating. I've been curious why there might be that trend right now, whether it's just because of the building economy, if some of these companies from elsewhere are looking to expand their reach.

MIKE
I think so.

ALEX
So one of the ideas I thought we could talk about comes from a book that I'm reading right now. It's called The One Thing, and it's this concept that the ability to focus on one thing, as opposed to many, and remove a lot of the background noise, is the determining factor in achieving great things. Interestingly, it's really changed how I've approached a lot of my day-to-day. It's changed how I've approached the business a little bit. And one application I thought was really interesting is toward potential clients. I think clients get so overwhelmed by how complicated the process is. Starting on the design side, going to the construction, managing budgets, managing selections, permitting, all of this. It requires a literal team to do it all. If you had a prospective client and they asked you, Mike, what's the one thing that I should focus on to determine the success of this project, what would you steer them towards?

MIKE
I like that analogy, and I think it's a concept. For me, working on a project, I really try and strive for one clear idea. It's somewhat obvious in terms of what that is, and when you establish what that is, that concept for the house, it just makes editing and decision-making a lot more clear. It's not a value engineering thing, it's an editing thing. You're allowed to distill more and more things out of it to have this idea read more clearly.

An example is a house I worked on long ago when I was at Studio B. There was one that had a courtyard around the pool, and that one was just about, we're going to cut this oculus in the middle, and you're going to look out to the sky. And that made decision-making so much easier. We had trellis structure, or other plates over windows, and all these other aspects, and every time we'd go back to that one thing: no, we don't need that, we can pull that back. It actually made everything simple and clear, and it became a better house.

I think most projects go through that process. The value engineering process, I actually like it, because it distills down to what's needed. What's important? What's the idea you're trying to convey? It may be a million different things. That one was the sky oculus. Maybe there's a concept of light or dark or shadow. But that idea to get behind is really helpful. And it goes on down the line. If you're going to name a house, or market a house, or talk about the house, then you have this story and a narrative that can make it that much more rich and memorable.

ALEX
I like that. The word cohesive came to mind when you described that. Something to always come back to.

MIKE
Same with any kind of architectural project. There's budget, permitting, personalities, code, all those things that you go through. And if you're able to have one clear idea actually go through that gauntlet, and at the end it still reads as this thing, then I think you've got a pretty successful project.

ALEX
How have you seen clients best navigate that? Because I think oftentimes, even if you set that expectation with clients, holding everyone accountable in the moments isn't always the easiest thing. And I think sometimes people need you to help advocate for them, in the form of, hey, we had this goal set out to come back to the center point, and this is the moment where we need to do that. That's sometimes easier said than done. In your experience, in those moments of design, what's the best way for people to approach that? Where are the struggles, where have the successes been?

MIKE
The good thing about the position is you're holding the pen. So when you're presenting those ideas back, you're hopefully having those discussions beforehand: here's what we heard from you, and here's how we're interpreting it, within the context of the goals of the project. You're trying to listen to what they want and work it into this cohesive thing. You explain it that way, so it's not just, oh, you have this perfect shape, whatever it is, a donut, and they want to add another room, and there's just a fort stuck outside of it. No, you're working it in. And once they get that, they get into it themselves as well. Like, oh, I want to keep this pure, the way this reads. They understand it and they're receptive to that. And sometimes they're not.

ALEX
Yeah. Everyone has those stories if you're doing this long enough. That's actually an interesting segue into this idea, again, of inherently building prototypes. When I've used that word before, people think it means the extravagant end of the spectrum. I think that's a big mistake by the industry, number one, but also when dealing directly with the client. Because even if you're doing a bathroom remodel in a home, while yes, there are systems and things that have been done a hundred times over, and the complexity is way less, nobody has ever done that in that exact set of circumstances, in that exact way that that client needs it or wants it done. So it's always a one-off. You're just trying to come back to a center of how to approach those things, using those fundamentals.

I wonder though, once you get to that other end of the spectrum, which you definitely have a lot of experience in, as the design gets more unique, more one-off, as the details become more elaborate, what traits, from the perspective of a designer and also of a builder, have been most commonplace in determining success?

MIKE
It might be that it's just a willingness to explore some of those ideas. We talked about it a little bit when we came in. If you're drawing a detail, as the architect you're trying to produce that detail and drawing, trying to understand, I think this is how we're going to build it, and presenting that to a builder, showing that I think we can do it. The builder comes back: no, I want to do it this way. And oftentimes there are a couple more iterations, and then you get a better product out of it. Having that builder who's willing to do that, versus, and this sounds weird, but, oh, I just built it.

ALEX
Yeah.

MIKE
And I knew there was a better way. You have a million years of construction knowledge, and I'm doing my best to get in front of that, but I want to have all that construction knowledge in the room and have that collaboration, so you get something even better. And sometimes you'll have clients who love that kind of stuff too, and they'll add to those details. On both sides, it's, well, here's an option, what do you think? Versus, no, you have to draw it the way I build it, or vice versa. There isn't that tension. There's collaboration. Yeah, let's try it, seems cool, I'll try and figure out how to do that.

ALEX
Yeah. The more removed from the project I find myself, the more my role becomes to facilitate expertise. And I think that's what you're describing right there. To have the expectation that I'm the expert on even modern plumbing manifolds and all these other things, that would be a waste of everyone's time, and I would not be the builder you should hire if I was the expert on that, because then I should be the plumber. I use that analogy a lot, because that makes asking the plumber the critical point in all of it, and bringing them to the table the same way you would a builder or a dream carpenter. I think that needs to be more acknowledged in the pre-construction phase by some of my clients. Oftentimes the outcome of the project is based on our ability, or willingness, to bring all the people to the table at the beginning, as opposed to just handing them something at the end.

MIKE
Yeah. Because of the amount of people that touch each project. They all have their hands in it at some point, and they're all experts in their own world. How do you get that stuff out of them, so everything is built well, doesn't leak, matches whatever expectation of aesthetics, from designers or owners or contractors, all of it.

ALEX
One thing I'm curious to hear your perspective on is the future of high-end architecture in Boulder, especially with the moratorium that I believe is still in place. I think it's been a fascinating trajectory that Boulder has gone through, and I've only been here for eight years. Talking to other people and learning the history of everything, I think it has some very deep roots, but I also think it's changing incredibly fast, and everyone's entitled to their opinion on that. I wonder what the future is in trying to balance high-end architecture, but then also the other end of that spectrum, affordable housing, and the city's best attempt at solving all of those challenges. Do you think that the tucked-away, unique architecture in Boulder is going to dry up eventually, or is it going to inevitably continue to grow?

MIKE
I think Boulder continues to be a pretty desirable place, and there are a lot of natural assets, a lot of great companies. So I feel like the draw and the access to all those things are going to keep bringing people here. And with people coming from a variety of places, people who have designed there or here, everyone kind of wants to elevate the built community. I think Colorado is awesome.

ALEX
Well, and something I'm interested to see as well: oftentimes people are buying something, tearing it down, building up, because Boulder can't expand outwards anymore. Granted, there's Western Boulder County, which I think is going to continue to grow. But if you're in North Boulder and you're looking to build a high-end home, you're probably tearing something down. A lot of the more unique projects that I've been involved with are so influenced by their surroundings, but when you inherently have to tear something down in order to build, that steers where you're building so much that it could either pigeonhole the type of architecture, because you're building on these rectangular lots all the time, or it could make people not as inclined to build in those areas. But I don't see it slowing down at the same time.

MIKE
Yeah. The dream is always to build something beautiful in a beautiful context as well. It still feels like there's plenty of openness around Boulder. But I would agree, the context and the place: in the majority of neighborhoods there isn't architecturally a ton to respond to, it's more limited, and then maybe you're designing a different kind of experience. Going back to the courtyard with the cut-out: part of what was fun on that one is that we had all been working in the mountains, and this was the first city house, opening to the sky. Trying to find something that's unique and responsive.

ALEX
You started with Studio B in Aspen, right? And then came to Boulder. Now that Boulder is what it is, on the consumer journey throughout the process: granted, Aspen homes are a monster all in themselves, and I don't know if they're directly comparable to much, but the building process is the building process. What would you say is the biggest difference between building in a place like Aspen and building in a place like Boulder?

MIKE
It depends on the project type. Talking about houses and residences, the experience I've had is pretty different between Boulder and Aspen. In Boulder, we were linked to the clients. I'll see them pretty regularly, and often they're the ones living in that home. In Aspen it's different. You see them at a bigger distance between personal interactions. You build up for a presentation every couple of months, they come in, and you have a more intense three days where it's all things about this project. Three days of decisions. Here, you're picking it off week by week.

And in Aspen, the houses, when they're lived in, it's usually a second home or something like that, where recreating is the point. Not always, but a lot of times, and that makes a difference. There were different age spectrums with a lot of the clients we worked with up there. It's part of why I like working in Boulder: you get to know those people, see them around town casually or socially, see them using their house.

I also worked on the Christ Episcopal Church, which was a very community-based project in Aspen, and that was incredible. It felt like this all-star team of people on the building committee. The set designer from Blade Runner was on it. After the meeting: can you just tell us about Blade Runner? So there are some pretty cool things about that. And in general, those are oftentimes a higher-dollar house too, so the base of what a house is, and the options on there, are more than your base house would be in Boulder.

ALEX
Yeah. The community sense of things, I think it's tangible in the building process too. I think about my owner-architect meetings. Some of them are weekly, some biweekly, some monthly. But when I think back to the clients that have had the best experiences, at some point in time they know the names of a few of the tradespeople. This is so-and-so, they live in East Boulder or Lyons or wherever it might be. Or, hey, this is the furniture maker, why don't we go out to the cabinet shop together? You'll find it interesting watching it actually being made.

I'd like to think, in a little bit of a romantic sense, that you're not just building or selling or providing a structure. You're building a home, an experience. When you can watch somebody make the cabinets or the furniture that you have in your home and see, oh, this is Robbie, he lives next door, he has a shop and he's been doing this for 45 years, this is his day to day. It feels different when you sit in that chair then. It's something I really, really value.

MIKE
And it's personal. We've probably all been on those job sites where the site is just tense, and then you go to the job sites where there's this kumbaya spirit. For whatever reason some of them click that way, and it's probably the ones that are going better. There's that introduction, that understanding of the team thing that's happening. It's not just one person dictating. Everyone there is contributing, doing it as a profession, trying to be successful in whatever they're doing.

ALEX
I had one of the more challenging projects I've had in the last few years, and one of the emails I got towards the end of it from the client was expressing that he's been around a lot of construction projects, and he was unfortunately expecting some changes in the budget and schedule as things progressed. I started reading the email and I was like, oh, where's this going? But what he actually said was that he was just grateful to know that I'm on their team, that the designer's on their team, that he feels more confident because of the team.

It made me really think about how I've tried to stress that residential construction could learn a lot from commercial, bringing that business-like approach. And I do think there's a void to be filled. But at the end of the day, it's a home. It's a visceral experience. There's inherently an emotional element for people, when you're dealing with probably one of the biggest investments somebody will ever make in their lifetime. There's such a big level of responsibility that comes with that, and it shouldn't be taken for granted by anyone. But if you can spread that awareness to the entire team, I think it changes how people approach challenges, how they approach the successes, and the shortcomings that are inevitably part of every project. It brings me back to this idea that you're advocating for the client first and foremost, as opposed to just building something. That often dictates the experience.

MIKE
Yeah. You've got their back, and you're working in their best interests. A lot of it is a communication thing.

ALEX
Well, tell me, what are you excited for coming up?

MIKE
I think the thing that I'm most excited about is actually having some things starting to go into construction. Since I started, this was probably the biggest dry spell of not having anything under construction in a really long time. That aspect is amazing, because I love going to job sites and actually seeing things built, and all the mayhem that comes with that. It's fun. That's by far what I'm looking forward to the most.

ALEX
So if I see some incredibly modern architecture pop up in the next two months, I'll know it's yours.

MIKE
That's right.

ALEX
Fantastic. I appreciate you coming out and doing this.

MIKE
Yeah, anytime.