Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Rickman.
Michael, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Since 2004, I worked at several architecture firms in Atlanta and always had the desire to operate my own business. Then, in 2016, I met an owner of a furniture company that hired recovering addicts and taught them the art of craftsmanship while at the same restoring their lives as they recover. Immediately, I was intrigued when he spoke about the term “social enterprise” and thought, “why isn’t there an architecture firm out there that does this?” Yes, working on high profile design projects all across the US and the world during my career has its value, but nothing compares to serving as a catalyst for social impact. I immediately began my research and networking with key people and organizations in and around Atlanta. These organizations (Plywood People) and people were crucial to the growth and development of where RAD is today. After establishing the mission and vision I had for RAD, I took the leap into self-employment in early 2018 and the company has experienced amazing growth and blessed with unexpected opportunities.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No! And honestly its the rough patches, worry and unknowns that mold me and RAD into what it is today. Struggles sharpen everything and perseverance defines the outcome. Challenges experienced were proper financial forecasting, wearing too many hats early on, properly resting and balancing home/life and learning to shut the business brain down when it needs to… and most recently hiring our first employee! So, the challenges never really stop… they are only an indicator that you are growing and learning, so bring them on!
Please tell us more about what you do, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
Rickman Architecture & Design, RAD is a social enterprise architecture, design and research practice founded in Villa Rica, Georgia. RAD believes through observation, collaboration and implementation a well-designed environment can serve as an agent for social change. Our portfolio of projects share a commonality of providing space for community impact and social good. Additionally, through reinvestments of profits, we believe architecture and design can go beyond the paid services we provide and offer donated time to serve as a catalyst for social good. The culture we impact through our work is directly influenced by our own ability to create a quality culture within ourselves first. Culturally and architecturally, we are in the business of building up, not breaking down. Currently, we are working on several adaptive reuse projects that will provide business that do good (non-profits and social enterprises) a space to grow, learn and teach. We are proud to assist a non profit fitness get into their new space, provide a coworking space for refugee staffing agencies, restore historical offices so that a non profit center can grow and continue to fight homelessness and creatively design a process to provide affordable ADU’s (like under 80k!) so we can provide much-needed housing. Even the projects that are not directly helping these groups we still find a way to give back. In our contracts, we research a local entity to highlight and donate a percentage of our fees too.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
One goal of ours is to grow this company into a business model that we start to see other architects copy and mimic. Our goal is truly to help, so if others want to copy what we do then that only adds to our accomplishments! Another exciting venture we plan on implementing here soon is guerilla architecture. So many times, we are critics of our built and non-built environment of what could have been designed better or impact the community in a better way but it seems to have been done wrong. So, rather than complaint, we are just going to design it and spread the word about our idea to as many people as we can. Maybe through digital means or print, it all depends on the project. How great would it be to create something out of nothing, then it gains enough traction and develops into an amazing solution for the community!
Contact Info:
- Address: 224 W Montgomery St Villa Rica, GA 30180
- Website: Michael
- Phone: 7703651967
- Email: mr@radga.com
- Instagram: @rickmanarchitecture
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rickmanarchitecture/
- Twitter: @rickmanarch
- Other: www.radaga.com
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