CEO builds on unique office space

"People see me when they walk in," Crichton says. "I like that fact, and I think people who come here do, too. I may be the CEO, but I'm also an architect, a part of our staff, and I think people like to see that."

Customers, visitors and prospective clients may see Crichton immersed in the design elements of a new project. He also might be meeting with another client, or collaborating with fellow architects, structural engineers and interior designers.

Even if his office is closed, people see what's going on through the spectacular glass doors, a consistent element throughout the fantastic former Warfield-Pratt-Howell wholesale grocery warehouse, a 1906 building the firm helped redesign seven years ago while working with contractor Bart Connelly, of Sioux City.

Cannon Moss Brygger Architects moved into this space six years ago. United Real Estate Solutions occupies the first floor. The top three floors are devoted to condos, while the fourth floor features 12 corporate condos.

The former Pierce Moving & Storage warehouse, through the work of these pros and with the benefit of historical tax credits, has retained its warmth and charm through original brick walls and century-old timbers.

Some 72 windows were cut into the west side of the building, a key element that allows natural light to flow throughout an open concept.

"The brick adds something to this space," Crichton says from a west side office featuring windows. "It's a warehouse and yet it's a warm feeling."

Crichton, a native of nearby Moville, Iowa, studied architecture and graduated from Iowa State University in 1997. His first office space, he says, was a cubicle at InVision Architecture, where he worked for Dale McKinney. He joined Ruble Mamura Moss Brygger Architects in 2001 and became a partner in the firm in 2004.

Along the way, the architect went from a cubicle with lower walls to a cubicle with higher walls when the firm was located in the Mid-American Energy building downtown.

"We work as teams and we're constantly collaborating," Crichton says, remembering the up-and-down motion he'd make while checking for a coworker's feedback while diving into the details of a building project.

"In a cubicle, you're not seeing daylight or activity or other people," he says. "You're isolated. As a structural engineer, or an  architect, or a designer, you have to collaborate."

The setup at Cannon Moss Brygger Architects fosters the sharing of ideas with ease, immediacy, transparency. Walking in through the glass doors, one sees Crichton at his desk, or Todd Moss, senior architect, in his office next door. Keep walking and you're soon engaged with architects and structural engineers poring over a plan, perhaps for a new school or medical center.

Head up the wooden steps and you might find more staffers gathered around a table, offering ideas for a plan that's posted on the wall. The process is called a charette.

"In our charettes, we'll take people who aren't working directly on a project and involve them in the process for a short period of time, gathering ideas, and this space works very well for us," Crichton says.

A few steps away is a library for interior design. And just on the other side of a shelf of design swaths stands Morgan Driskell, an interior designer who is putting the finishing touches on an array of examples for a client in Sheldon, Iowa.

"I love this space," Driskell says, noting how the office layout and atmosphere helped convince her to join the team at Cannon Moss Brygger Architects.

Crichton looks out over the second floor as coworkers continue a morning's work effort, more than two dozen employees creating concepts and building designs across 9,360 square feet of space. The snow flies in downtown Sioux City as music rolls softly from a speaker near those giant glass front doors.

"As architects," he says, "we like clean lines. We seek efficiency and collaboration. This is very linear; the building sets itself up that way."

Clean lines within warm brick walls and original wood timbers, physical elements connecting the dots of productivity in downtown Sioux City for 110 years and counting.