Ryan Nicholson, RA, AIA, NCARB

Ryan Nicholson joined the company as an intern in 2001 and stepped into the role of President in 2022. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Architecture, he is a Licensed Architect in 48 states, as well as an NCARB member and mentor.

Ryan has had the privilege of managing several large corporate hospitality clients, including Jim ‘N Nick’s BBQ, Buffalo Wild Wings, Holler and Dash (Cracker Barrel), and Church’s Chicken, and has overseen a team of architects in the development and rollout of various projects across the country. He has also enjoyed developing new restaurant brands from the ground up, one of mention being Holler and Dash. Ryan is skilled in commercial hospitality projects, client management, AutoCAD, Photoshop, and site adapted design. His technical skills include Sketchup, hand sketches and renderings, Bluebeam, SharePoint, Morpholio, and Procreate to name a few.

Growing up, Ryan always loved to draw and one of his favorite classes was his art class. In high school, his English teacher had the class write a paper on someone famous that inspired them. Stumped on who to choose, Ryan made his way to the library to find someone to write about and came across books on Frank Lloyd Wright. After many hours of reading about Wright and his work, Ryan was inspired and knew he wanted to become an architect.

In 2015, Ryan contributed to the firm’s winning of a Corporate Design Award for Excellence from Buffalo Wild Wings for Prototype Development and Project Development for multiple locations. Under Ryan’s leadership in 2021, Design and Engineering, Inc. was nominated for Restaurant Design in the Southeast Region by the Restaurant and Bar Awards for the River House project in Nashville, TN.

What Ryan loves about his work is the fact that every day is different and that he is constantly learning new things. This profession covers so much, from a broad scope of working on an overall site layout to very detailed scope of working on an attachment detail. He enjoys traveling to different sites, learning about a region, and designing to adapt to a location and community. Ryan believes that meeting people along the way and building relationships is the best part. In his free time, he enjoys golfing, watercolor painting, hiking, grilling, trying new restaurants/bars, traveling, vacationing to Rosemary Beach, watching Notre Dame football, and making/enjoying fires.

“I learned early on that the working world was much different than the theory and conceptual world that we were taught in school. So, I quickly became interested in learning more about the technical side of architecture because I wanted to understand and know how this side of the profession worked. But as I’ve moved further into my career, I realize more and more that it is important to not forget the artistic and conceptual side, as this drives creativity and shows your vision to the client. Learning to balance the creative and technical sides has been important to me and shaped me into the architect I am today.”