About Us
We’re a residential architecture firm. We provide services for renovations, additions and new construction projects.
We also provide education. We teach what we practice to help homeowners and professionals improve their lives and communities.
Part of our core curriculum addresses how to make better communities. In the image above, we've organized a walking tour to explore a traditional neighborhood development (TND) that exemplifies the concepts in one of our courses.
How We Got Started
Ryan founded Ryan Taylor Architects LLC in 2002. He was working for a commercial A|E (Architecture and Engineering) firm ranked among the world’s ten largest firms. He worked with talented and dedicated people, whom he considered family.
They worked on a diverse collection of projects with in-house engineers and other related professionals who taught Ryan to work with and eventually lead project teams. Ryan even got to do a kitchen renovation for the CEO of the company. It was during Ryan's tenure with this commercial firm that he earned a registration to practice architecture: an eight year process.
Though his commercial work seemed (relatively) glamorous at the time, as Ryan matured in his work, his appreciation for the subtle details and client relationships quickly became most important to him.
The scale of commercial projects can make it difficult for the project manager to really know the details of the project. To address these concerns, Ryan decided to change the scale of his practice.
By focusing on single-family residential projects (renovations, additions and new construction), we're building stronger client relationships though we can still focus on the details. We’ve also been able to bring best practices and perspective from a sophisticated commercial firm to address common challenges of residential projects before they arise.
In the years since Ryan founded this company, the creation of green building programs and social media has contributed to a dramatic evolution in our industry’s understanding of building science, sustainable building and vernacular architecture. We’ve built strong skill sets and networks in these areas and we compliment them with vision, experience, process and technology.
Creativity is critical to the success of our projects – not just the creativity that yields a good design. It’s also important to be creative about how we advocate for our owners, how we collaborate with other project team members and how we lead the project team from programming through construction.
Creativity always starts with a question so we’ve learned to listen: could we...? Through experience, we’ve also learned to anticipate questions so we work to empower our owners by offering answers before questions arise. Owners are always emotionally invested though you’re not intellectually invested unless you understand your options and make decisions in a proactive manner.
That’s the goal of our purpose-driven practice: we think education makes you better owners and we believe better owners make better architecture. We don’t look for patrons who will award a commission that we design. We look for partners with whom we collaborate and for whom we advocate during all phases of the project.
Good architecture is only possible through the efforts of a dedicated and gracious team. We're thankful for all the teams of which this company has been a part and we look forward to establishing many new relationships.
We're an active member of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. In the image above, we've gathered people seated at RTA's table at the Chamber's annual Eggs & Issues breakfast.
Why We Teach
Ryan has always wanted to be an architect. He enjoys serving others by sharing his skill set to help them make informed decisions in a timely manner so they can make the most of their time and budget.
We can serve a limited number of people in our architecture practice so we share our skill set with many more people through teaching. Ryan began speaking at conventions in 2008 and has spoken at most national conventions in the real estate industry.
We eventually received so many requests to help homeowners and real estate professionals understand design concepts and technical issues that we needed a betters solution than public speaking. That's why we designed a curriculum and started adding courses to this learning management system.
We're building a series of layered courses that begin with explain how your house works plus how your community works and then add detail to help you move from understanding to action. We plan to eventually share courses to help you navigate the challenges of a renovation, addition or new construction project.
We also teach because teaching others teaches us. We learn so much from others - even if it's just how to do a better job explaining something technical.
In this image, Ryan is documenting some details during the renovation of a project by the famed architect H.H. Richardson.
What Sets Us Apart
There are two key things that set us apart from other residential design firms. The first is training. Ryan has consistently added to his skill set to address the increasing technical challenges of design, permitting and construction.
In addition to being a registered architect, Ryan has earned certifications as a HERS rater (energy rating). HVAC designer and erosion + sediment control designer in an effort to be a better architect. These allow the company to produce more coordinated designs that make the most of a project budget and meet the technical demands of permitting and inspections.
Teaching is one of the other things that sets us apart. Teaching homeowners and real estate professionals helps us better understand what topics should be addressed (what people don't know) and how to address those topics.
Ryan earned and maintains a certification as a distance learning instructor. We use the concepts in that training plus learner questions and surveys from learners to constantly improve our offerings.
We enjoy the interactions we have with students while teaching because we learn as well. We're grateful for that interaction because it makes us better at what we do.
In the image above, Ryan (second from left) dines with classmates during a ten-day course on architecture, decorative arts and history in Newport, Rhode Island.
Join Our Learning Community
We’ve built a community around learning - exchanging lessons and insight gained through study and experience. We invite you to join us!
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Thank You!
Thank you for taking a moment to learn about our work. We hope you'll use the form above to join our learning community so we can be in touch through a meeting, course or meetup.
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