As principals, we stay intimately involved on a project from start to finish. This continuity ensures that projects move smoothly through the design and construction process. William Charles Shugart, Principal Architect
Columbia Cabinets Northwest began in 1995 as a distributor for affordable custom cabinets to serve both individual home buyers as well as other custom home contractors in the Whatcom County area. Since that time, CCNW has ventured on to not only distribute these custom cabinets but to also design, manufacture and install them as well. As a division of Dykstra Construction Services, CCNW works hand in hand with other contractors for all their cabinetry requirements as well as the general public who want to upgrade or customize their cabinets for their home. No job is too large, or too small. If you can dream it, we will build it! With a custom finish booth and cabinet shop, your cabinets begin and end in the same place. Contact us for a free consultation about the cabinets of your dreams.
dates back to graduate school at Columbia, and the firm was rebranded as Shugart Bates. One of the firm’s first completed projects was a single-family residence back in 1993. It was the recipient of an AIA Award of Merit and was nominated for that year’s “Home of the Year” program, sponsored by AIA Seattle. Shugart Bates has since had several additional residences recognized over the years by AIA Seattle’s “Home of the Year” program. Some of its other notable projects include the Harvey Residence, Madison Park Residence, Lake Washington Boulevard Residence, and the Riviera Place Residence. For Charlie and his team, a critical aspect of these and any project’s success is making sure there is proper alignment between the client and architect. “Our goal is to put the client’s best interest first,” he says. “When we feel we are not a good fit for the project, we try to refer the client on to another firm that might fit their needs better.”
Columbia Cabinets Northwest, LLC PO Box 247, Lynden, WA 98264 P: 360.354.5188 | F: 360.354.0628
www.colcab.com 118
luxury home quarterly
MARCH 2011
Two significant qualities clearly set the firm apart from others. First, as an integrated practice, it blends both architecture and interior design seamlessly. “We approach every project holistically, linking all aspects of a design together in a singular strong idea or direction,” Charlie says. “A project is only as good as the sum of the parts, and in our mind one discipline of a project can be no more important than another.”
Secondly, it’s a principal-driven company, meaning that every project it takes on will have strong leadership from one of the three principals. “As principals, we stay intimately involved on a project from start to finish,” Charlie says. “This continuity ensures that projects move smoothly through the design and construction process.” Based upon the diversity of work experience among its principals, Shugart Bates has been able to take on projects at all scales—designing projects from small jewel-like interiors (such as a display case it recently designed for a client’s three Nobel Prizes) to large multistory buildings and city master planning. Each is linked to the other by the thoughtfulness of the design process and the attention to detail. Looking ahead, Charlie is optimistic about his firm’s future. Although the economy is a challenge for everyone these days, Charlie says that the firm has been blessed with a number of repeat clients. “Given the new realities of the economy, clients are far more focused on the bottom-line economics of the project than at any point in the past,” he says. “They’re still looking for exceptionally welldesigned homes, but clients are now looking for more space-conscious projects that do more with less. The end results are slightly smaller homes with multifunctional spaces that allow more living in less area, thereby reducing construction costs without giving up the level of finish or livability.”
luxuryhomequarterly.com