Checking Out: Nathan Lee Colkitt

What drew you to architecture?
My father was a builder in Seattle and I used to accompany him to job sites. He put me to work. He called it “fun,” but looking back, I think it was child labor. Still, it became something I knew I wanted to do.

Even as a youngster?
Yes. Like a lot of little boys, I wanted to make big buildings with my erector set or Legos.

Did you study architecture in college?
At the University of Arizona. It’s a much better party school than Arizona State, by the way.

When the party was over?
I went to California where I worked for Stephen Kanner Architects in Los Angeles. At the time, they were bringing in clients like Armani and Puma.

And you began working on commercial interiors?
Not right away. But at one point, the firm lost a big account so, instead of letting some of us go, it transferred us to the commercial interiors department.

So, no more big buildings. Did you like commercial interiors?
It was fascinating. Things move quickly and you see results in months rather than years. It’s the closest thing you can get in this business to instant gratification.

Problem-solving, too.
Absolutely. On the commercial side, you’re trying to build a 3-D machine for making money. You’re dealing with how you get people to move through space, interact with product, react to merchandise displays. You have to ask, “How do we want this space to perform?”

What’s your view of the work you do?
At Colkitt&Co, [which has offices in San Diego and New York], we like to use the term “innovation to impact lives.” A lot of designers and architects want to make the world a better place. Can I have a positive impact on the planet while I’m here, make it a better place when I leave it and leave behind the physical remnants that I was here?

How have you made a better planet?
My firm had set up a sustainability program of trying to use 99 percent recycled steel or bamboo, polished concrete floors instead of linoleum, locally sourced metal, LED lamps, efficient HVAC systems. When Puma asked us to do a LEED-certified outlet store in Syracuse, N.Y., we realized we could achieve LEED Platinum status for them. That was a wonderful project. No matter how far we wanted to go, the client wanted to strive for more.