here’s what warren does

I hold many titles – architect, designer, maker, to name a few – and I’m perpetually curious and excited to exchange ideas, collaborate and create, and engage in compelling conversations. 

In many ways, I am a product of my environment: I am the grandson of a carpenter and furniture builder, son of a custom car-obsessed father and a crafty DIY mother; and a child of the 80’s shaped by Legos, Nintendo, and board games.

I then earned a 5-year Professional Degree (BARCH) + an Industrial Design Minor from Virginia Tech, where I explored every resource in the architecture program. Since then, I’ve blurred the lines between passion, purpose, and product. I started my career in a design/build office, and then launched two successful design-build firms: dbd Studio (2008-2011) and design operative (2011-2013), both creative architectural offices specializing in restaurant and retail space design, with a digital fabrication focus. In 2012, DC artist and designer Maggie O’Neill and I merged our respective companies and founded SWATCHROOM, an artist-driven creative studio with a mission to build community by enhancing spaces and experiences through art and design. The following decade plus produced unique, stunning spaces and experiences internationally, where I honed my creative problem solving skills while focusing on the sweet spot between art + design and fabrication + environment. 

Next Chapter = WarrenDoes.

While I always love nerding out about creativity in general, I’m also game on anything hoops, drums, cycling, plants, YouTube rabbit holes, cooking, modern art museums, and traveling to get creatively inspired. I look to build/support the communities and connections that keep the creative economy going round, most recently teaching an Exhibition Design Studio course at GW University’s Corcoran School of Art.


do you want to build some cool $@&! together?