Why Your Space Needs Both: The Architect-Designer Partnership

Scott Blosser, Principal Architect at Compass Architecture, joins us to discuss the critical importance of early collaboration between architects and interior designers. Effective partnerships between design professionals create spaces that better serve clients' needs while avoiding costly mistakes and delays that occur when designers are brought in too late.

Scott shares his journey from receiving a drafting board as an eighth-grader to becoming a community-focused architect in Colorado Springs. His passion for designing spaces that foster growth aligns perfectly with our philosophy at Pasley Commercial Interiors. We explore the clear distinction between interior designers and decorators – while decorators might select throw pillows, true designers fundamentally shape how people interact with and move through spaces, influencing energy flow and organizational efficiency.

The conversation reveals stunning real-world consequences of poor timing in the design process. One medical office faced a $100,000 expense to add basic sink requirements because they brought designers in too late. Another potential client nearly committed to a mixed-use building without understanding the sprinkler system requirements that would have destroyed their budget. These cautionary tales highlight Scott's wisdom: "A couple hundred bucks upfront will save you thousands down the road."

What emerges most clearly is how collaborative design creates better outcomes for clients. When architects and designers ask complementary questions, they uncover needs clients didn't know to express – like a pediatric clinic's need for a welcoming lobby that puts children at ease. This holistic approach ensures spaces truly support business goals rather than merely housing operations.

Whether you're planning a new commercial space, renovating an existing one, or simply curious about the architectural process, this episode offers valuable insights into creating environments that truly work. Connect with Compass Architecture at compass-arch.com or 719-677-5550 to discover how thoughtful design collaboration can transform your business space.

We welcome your questions! If you would like to learn more about us or connect for a conversation, please visit www.pasleycommercialinteriors.com.

Chapters

• 0:00 Importance of Early Designer Collaboration
• 0:36 Meet Scott Blosser of Compass Architecture
• 2:30 Architect's Role in Business Solutions
• 4:40 Benefits of Designer-Architect Teamwork
• 7:12 Client-Centered Design Philosophy
• 10:20 Community Growth Through Design
• 11:27 Contact Information and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Randi Lynn Johnson:

Welcome to another installment of Design to Help Your Business Grow. I am your host, Randi Lynn Johnson, with Pasley Commercial Interiors, here with Robin Pasley, our owner and design principal. And today we have Scott Blosser, with Compass Architecture, and you are the principal architect. - 

Scott Blosser: 

Correct. - 

Randi Lynn Johnson:

Principal architect, principal designer. I'm just happy to be here, so you guys get after it.

Robin Pasley:

Yeah, thank you for being here, we're excited to have you. 

Scott Blosser:

Thank you so much for having me, excited to be here. 

Randi Lynn Johnson:

Good deal. So Scott, we just want to get to know you a little bit. When did you first discover that you had a knack for architecture, that you liked architecture? 

Scott Blosser:

Yeah, so I don't know about being good at it or a knack for it, kind of gained interest in middle school. I think it was about eighth grade, Santa Claus brought me a drafting board. And I would sit in my bedroom and kind of self -taught myself how to draw to scale and how to use all the tools for it and just started drawing house floor plans and

kind of gained interest when it came time to apply for colleges. I kind of knew I was applying for architecture school. I guess I never really looked back on it.

Randi Lynn Johnson:

That’s awesome. And you knew from a young age, what you wanted to do, your

passions for owning a business and design. 

Robin Pasley:

I knew I was always interested in business. The design side of things, it was more aesthetics and art that I was always drawn to. I was an artist when I was little and but I would always make my mom change my room 'cause it was all about the way things felt. I remember we had this rattan furniture because it was so big in the 80s and it had these little crisscross things on the side and I wanted to change the color of it and I

remember my dad being like that is horrible because it's all these layers that we had to paint he was like why but I remember he loved me so much he set up like a spray paint like tent in the garage so he could spray all those to the right color 

Randi Lynn Johnson:

Shout out to your dad. Yeah, that's so fun, but it's fascinating to me because you guys are two of the best in the biz and it came from an early age that you just, it was in you and you deliver so well for your clients. That's just a fun little connection that I observe. What is one of the things that people, well, tell us a little bit about what is your job entail? What does it look like to be an architect? How do you help business owners solve problems? - 

Scott Blosser:

Yeah, so as an architect, there's different ways that we can do things, design things and engage with our clients. As a company, we'll do everything from architectural design, so designing the outside of a building to interior design. That's actually part of why Robin and I have a relationship is being able to use her for interior design instead of us having to do it in -house.

But we'll even do master planning. So some of the different things we do is we can, like, if we're meeting with a developer, we can talk with a developer up front about what their master plan is, what do they want to do, what's the large vision they're after. And we can create documentation that does everything from a site plan to general building aesthetics to a written attack, plan of attack for how do they want to go through this development process. Sometimes if you're doing multiple buildings or for like a school district, they may be sitting there saying here's how we want and what we wanna do over the next 15 to 20 years. Well, you can't just do all of that up front here and then just go at it later. You need to understand what the steps are. And so we can help work through those steps and help kind of create those goals for what the project's going to be. From that, and where people ask a lot about what is it we do, what's different from us from engineering, typically the architect is creating that design and that vision for what the building's going to look like. So we're creating the aesthetics, but we will make structural decisions on is the building constructed from steel as it would, is it masonry, and we'll make those kinds of decisions which have aesthetic effects to it as well. Sometimes it affects the outside, sometimes it affects the interiors, and that's something where Robin and I will work together on what are some of those early decisions and how do those aesthetic things all come together into one package. In working through what that aesthetic is and how we do that, we’ll work with our engineers at that point. And so we'll work with a structural engineer and they will design the actual like detail of the structural system. Same with mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineers. They'll get all those aspects to the fine detail so it can be constructed. But a lot of times the architect and then the interior designer work together on what is the layout of the building, what is the aesthetic we're going for, how do all these things work together. And that helps us dictate and control what happens at the engineering level. our day -to -day can be drafting and software, it can be creating pretty images and rendering software, it can be getting on phone calls with clients, meeting with clients in person, even being on phone calls with engineers and talking through all of those detail aspects of what creates this giant drawing package that we can hand to a contractor to be able to build a building. - 

Randi Lynn Johnson: 

Wow. - Well said. - There's a lot. (laughing) - 

Robin Pasley: 

And I know something you didn't mention, which is dealing with regional building and the jurisdictions to make sure that what you draw can get through and everything’s gonna be submitted properly and received 

Randi Lynn Johnson: 

And you can help your clients avoid the headache of I don't wanna wait anymore or this was done wrong. - 

Scott Blosser:

Yeah, in the last three years, we've submitted over 45 buildings for permit at Pikes Peak Regional building departments. We're very familiar with them, what their process is, what they’re looking for on drawings. That can be the biggest thing when you jump jurisdictions is not understanding what that jurisdiction is looking for. And so you can spend hours talking back and forth with the permit specialist on what are you doing to get approved? What do you guys need to see to help approve it? And so our familiarity there helps a lot with speeding up that process and making sure things get through quicker. 

Robin Pasley:

That’s awesome. That's great. - Scott, I really love working with you. One of the reasons is because I remember the first project that we actually did some heavy lifting design on together. We decided to schedule it at like 4:30, pour a beer, and start working in the software together to bring both of our ideas to the table. And I appreciate that so much because Sometimes architects hire us kind of at the last minute, like, "Oh crap, we need materials for this place,” where the way that we think about space is different from the way a lot of architects think about space. And so we ask questions of clients when we come in that they've never been asked before, and it changes how the client now feels about the space and what they want to do. And we're often adding things that nobody knew needed to be added at the last minute. So I appreciate that you love to collaborate and that you've been bringing me in with you when projects get started, which is awesome, because then we can have that collaboration and go, wait a minute, what if we did so -and -so right here? And it really can make the, I think that makes the process go faster. - 

Scott Blosser:

Not only does it go faster, I think it goes smoother as well. And I love that from your end, you notice that it is a collaborative aspect. - 

Robin Pasley: 

Absolutely. - 

Scott Blosser:

When we’re calling you and trying to bring you on, we want you early in that, because you're not a house interior decorator that's picking out what throw pillows land on the couch. You're an interior designer. Part of what you're doing is helping us talk about what is the influence of the space? What's the organization? What does the energy feel like? There's little things you can do with design that help influence how people interact with and move through a space. - And us being able to do that together early on helps a lot with the design, satisfaction of the client and what that final product is that gets delivered. And by pulling you in late, it wouldn't meet that goal and that's something we wanna make sure we're doing for our clients is delivering that quality product at the end. 

Robin Pasley: 

Yes. 

Randi Lynn Johnson:

That's so great. I'm glad that you guys mentioned that timing piece because I think a lot of people, it's like, oh, I'm to do a project. I know I need to get an architect in there. Um, but I think often it is that thought of, oh, get a decorator for the end and the rope. But things like that. But Robin really does do so much more. And I appreciate that you see that and that you guys have, I think, really unlocked this magic secret code. 

Robin Pasley: 

The other thing I love about working with as if you're not here (laughs) speaking of you in the third person, is that you think about client care and client satisfaction the way I do. Like, you really wanna listen to them, that's a big piece of how you do function in your offices, with your team, is what are they saying to us, staying in close connection with them, and just paying attention, and we're, you know, it's not always like that with, you know, other teams that we've worked with. So I really appreciate that. - 

Randi Lynn Johnson: 

Way to go. 

Robin Pasley:

It just feels really seamless. You know, I feel so confident to tell people that we really want to bring them a great architect and recommend you guys some. - 

Scott Blosser:

Thank you. 

Randi Lynn Johnson:

That’s cool. - Can you back to that, the thing about, you know, timing and when it is beneficial to bring in a designer sooner and in that timing piece, can you think of some examples, like real world examples where that has been the case, or maybe where it hasn't and they haven't brought you in early enough.

Robin Pasley:

Oh, from me? My stories? Oh, yeah. I mean, you too. I can tell anyone. It was one of those situations where we ended up realizing that the client was not asked what they needed as far as plumbing in this medical office and the architect didn't ask the question so it wasn't in there. They didn't have any sinks in a medical office and so they had already gone out to bid and it was going to be almost a hundred thousand dollars to add sinks and so what I did was quickly looked at the plans and started to figure out how we could because then the other thing was the architect had put in tons of cabinetry and she was like I didn't ask for all this and like walls were lined with cabinetry. And so I was like, okay, nobody's made any cabinets yet. Let's back up, take this cabinet, you know, allowance that we have and reapply it. And then we just began looking at the walls and where were we close enough to another, um, you know, sink drain that we could pull. And anyways, we had to pause everything because that was, you know, We were brought in so late and some major elements were missed, but we ended up helping that client get to the finish line by her opening date. And we were almost to the dollar on the original bid without going over because of the way that we re -appropriated those cabinets. 

Scott Blosser:

And you asked about timing. And I think that's, you know, hitting on the budget part and talking part about that is, is relevant too. Cause it all goes together. The longer that we wait to call you and have you involved in the process, it can throw budget off. And it all depends on what is the contractor's involvement already? Are they already involved? Are they coming later? Do we know what the budget is for the client? And there's times that you come in and you'll sit there and ask questions and there's something aesthetically more important to the client about finished selections, organization of things that get brought up some of the questions you generate, um, then they say when we're talking about stuff, cause I may be talking with them about the cabinets, about the sinks. And then all of a sudden when you come in, they're like, Oh no, we need this lobby to look like this because it's pediatric clinic. And we need those kids to feel comfortable and welcoming and we need that energy in the space. Um, and sometimes I can't get that out of them. And then you turn around and ask us a very similar question. All of a sudden they're like, Oh yeah, this is what we So it's important for us to have that together and early on and be able to collaborate through the whole process, not just late in the process. 

Randi Lynn Johnson:

So Scott, tell us a little bit more about Compass Architecture and who are your ideal clients? Who do you love working with? And how about you? 

Scott Blosser:

Yeah. So I can get to a little more of a direct answer, but general idea of who we are at Compass Architecture, we're trying to design better places to live, learn and play that foster community growth through innovative building design. And the big word in there is phrase in there is fostering community growth. We’re about things that try to help build our local community and that can be anything from your private business to higher education design. So we currently have contracts with Pikes Peak State College And with part of their evolution and things going on for them, they've in two years ago, they went from being community college to state college. Part of that change for them is being able to offer four -year bachelor programs now. And so for us, from the design standpoint, being able to design better classrooms, lab spaces, whatever they need, helps with that 20 -year -old out there that's trying to explore, What do I want to do for the rest of my life? And that is something that directly affects our community for what environment are we creating and what education opportunities are we providing for these people to be able to be the next generation that comes into the workforce. And even designing things for small clients or small private businesses, that's part of our community too. It's not just the big businesses. Those little people help make the community go. They help keep things going. There's so many little small private shops down here on Tejon. Those are critical to part of what we see in Colorado Springs and small businesses. 

Robin Pasley:

The functional space for employees and customers is huge. One of the things we’ll do is an audit in a space and we were doing a branding audit because we offer branding services as well for interior design and commercial furniture. And just to walk through the space and kind of take it in as a first user, then we walk through to kind of take it in as an employee. And both things, walking through to make sure that there was clear wayfinding for a customer to know where they're going when they get through that space. 'Cause those people that work there, they know what to do every day. They’re not thinking I'm new. And, you know, if they’re, you know, have any impairments or anything like that, we're thinking about those kind of things as it goes with universal design and compliance as well and then lighting and I mean the layers and layers and layers of what we think about when it comes to interior space and we hadn't even touched branding yet and how a brand is displayed and how it impacts the end user and also the employees that reminds them of why they come to work. They spend so much time and that company and that business. So for them to be reminded on a daily basis to kind of gin up their energy for what they do, it all folds together. - 

Randi Lynn Johnson:

Yeah. - 

Scott Blosser:

And I love that you brought up that you guys do branding too, because interior design itself can create a brand. - Absolutely. - If you sit here and wanna talk about design and what we’ve seen identify in the world as design things, I mean, I could sit here and hold up pictures for you and you'd be like, "Oh, I know that's a church. I know that's a bank," because general aesthetic directs you at things. Well, from a branding perspective, sometimes if that design is off and it doesn't match what the use is, people don't recognize it. And so there's an aspect to branding that's not just a company logo, it's the aesthetic that comes with it. - 

Robin Pasley:

Absolutely. - 

Randi Lynn Johnson:

Ding, ding, ding. - We got it, we got it, we got it, yeah. - 

Scott Blosser:

And especially if you want to talk about Google, and What is Google headquarters and what is that workspace? When you see pictures of those things, people know what it is. It's because that interior design and the architecture around it all come together to create part of that visual brand that is Google. It's not just a logo on the wall. - 

Robin Pasley:

Yeah, absolutely. 

Randi Lynn Johnson: 

I’d love to take this opportunity to publicly affirm both of you on a recent collaboration, a recent project. We had the celebration with the client and he said something like, what's been the biggest thing you've noticed or improvement and you know, people come in and he's like, “I love just seeing people come in and he had someone even ask if it was part of a franchise.” Like you guys did such a great job. It looked so professionally well done that they thought it was part of a nationwide.

Robin Pasley:

Oh, thank you, 

Randi Lynn Johnson:

Thank you. For making his dreams come true and making such an impression. - 

Scott Blosser:

Well, and one of the things that I loved about it and talking with him was how excited he got about some of the wall graphics that you guys came up with. And he actually took one of the wall graphics that you guys came up with from a creative perspective and turned it into a branding opportunity for himself. And they made t -shirts that have that on it now. It was something they never had before they even considered going into the space. - 

Robin Pasley:

Yeah, that was really great. It was super encouraging. I was happy to see him so pleased. - 

Randi Lynn Johnson:

Yeah, definitely. Well, great work, you two. - Thank you. 

Scott Blosser:

Being a small business owner myself, one of the hardest things to do is going through your day today and knowing what your day today is. It can be so dynamic, you’re wearing so many hats. It is very complex. Your pains and tears at 10 o 'clock at night are totally called for, you’re allowed to do it. (laughing) But if you're looking to try to expand your business and you're looking to go into a new location, understand that there's a difference in knowledge for what needs to go into a space between an architect and into your designer and your real estate agent and what you're looking for there. You can hire Compass Architecture to come and explore spaces for you and we will walk around the spaces with you. We will look at what the current building information is on the Pikes Peak Regional website and we'll give you a quick feedback. It only takes two hours of our time to sit there, look some of this stuff up and walk a space with you and say, “Yes, this feasibly fits for you or not a chance. Whatever you think your budget's gonna be for renovating stuff, you need to be at four times that, five times that because something's missing from a code perspective. We had one, we looked at last summer with a client out in Salida where the great concept of wanting to do the old school soda pop pharmacy thing and have that whole thing down bottom and then put apartments up above. It's like, I love the idea, I love the concept, but you guys don't have a sprinkler system in the building and the building's not already separated. So you would have to bring a sprinkler system in the building. It’s required by code for that residential use up top. And they're like, well, that’s part of the whole thing. And it immediately became a budget killer. And so they’re like, okay, we'll keep playing with the idea. We may do the downstairs first and hold off and do the sprinkler system later. But It's being real with clients and talking through what your real items are, your budget, your code items are. Those are things that can surprise you when you're a small business owner. We don't expect you to know and understand building code and architecture and interior design. That’s what you're hiring us to help you do. And those are little things that I see that creep up on small business owners when they get excited about moving into that new space and they just haven't properly explored what the implications are buying the space that they want to move into and properly evaluating it. A couple hundred bucks up front will save you thousands down the road. Absolutely. 

Randi Lynn Johnson:

That’s great. That's a great reality check for people, you know, because first on business owners or, you know, expanding like, oh, these exciting ideas and they're visionary and great. We love that energy. We want to keep it. We do. But you also help save them a headache. 

Scott Blosser:

Yes, that's I hate to see someone get a $70,000 bill for just tapping the main to bring the sprinkler line in the building when for $400 bucks I could have walked it with you and been like the next building over would be better. 

Randi Lynn Johnson:

Sure, sure, I'm sure they appreciate that. So if someone needed you and your services, where could they find you? 

Scott Blosser:

Yeah, so if you're walking around, you can always come and knock on our door. We're at 101 North Cascade in downtown Colorado Springs. You can find our website, Compass Architecture. It's compass-arch.com. On there, we have a get in contact with this page. You can sit there, plug in some information about your project, who you are, and shoot us an email, and we’ll get back to you there. You can also call us, 719 -677 -5550. 

Randi Lynn Johnson:

Awesome. Great. Well, Scott, I don't have anything else, you have anything else for him? 

Robin Pasley:

No, just so thankful for you. Such a great partner. Yeah. Really appreciate that. 

Scott Blosser: 

Thank you so much for having me. 

Randi Lynn Johnson:

And you can find these two just moving and shaking and making all kinds of improvements around the city of Colorado Springs. And until next time, see you later. Thanks. 

In an increasingly competitive market, the merits of using interior design as a strategic growth tool can make all the difference in not just surviving but thriving. 

Robin Pasley:

Pasley Commercial Interiors- design to help your business grow.

*Recorded in our studio at 616 N. Tejon St., Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80903