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.
