Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Davis.
Josh, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My college education started at a small school in Georgia playing soccer on scholarship. However, at the end of that year, I decided that I needed to get serious about what I wanted to do for a career, so I transferred back to my home state and to the University of Tennessee to go to school to become an Architect.
I worked at a Knoxville architecture firm while going to UT, which helped me into doing the type of work that I do today. While working at that firm, I oversaw designing homes for clients who purchased land at a retirement neighborhood. I would meet with the clients and show them some of our standard home options. They would tell me what they like while looking at these model types, and I would take notes of their home wish list. I would then take these wish list notes and begin to model the home of their retirement dreams. Of course, I usually didn’t get it completely correct the first time, but after a few meetings with the clients, their dream retirement home would take shape. I really enjoyed this process.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Architecture at Tennessee, I expanded my Architecture resume, and began to pursue a career in the larger city of Nashville. I applied to a few of the biggest firms in the area and ultimately chose one of the largest Healthcare Architecture firms, which was in Brentwood at that time. At this firm, I gained valuable experience doing large projects and working with a team. I was placed on the hospital design side of the firm and worked my way up as a young Architect into quickly managing projects on my own which culminated in being the head Architect on a 56,000 sf, 5 story tower, 30-million-dollar hospital addition, which I finished up on my ninth year at this firm. Hospital design taught me how to dive into the code and design by strict standards. I also enjoyed the process that went into these larger project types, although it didn’t quite have the personal touch as designing someone’s home.
So, my next career move sent me back to designing homes, but this time I wanted to design unique homes. I would look through websites and other social media sites and look for the coolest designs. I found a smaller Nashville firm that did residential designs and worked my way into a job with them. I knew that I needed to gain more experience doing this type of work as this is what I really enjoyed. And this is the type of work that I could do on my own. I always had it in the back of my head that going out on my own was my goal. After many years at this firm managing and doing all the construction drawings for my residential projects, the covid pandemic hit. After this, I did all this firm’s work from home and eventually decided, why am I not just doing my own firm thing now under my own name, so that’s what I did.
I have now had Josh Davis Architecture established for several years, and I enjoy what I do, designing custom projects for you, my clients.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Well… on that first question where I said I decided that I needed to get serious about what I wanted to do for a career and transferred to UT to do Architecture. That seriousness came because I found out I was going to have a child. So, I got very serious about making our lives the best I could, and the Architecture path is what I chose to do this. I think I was probably the first undergraduate student in the Architecture program to have children, and yes, I purposely chose to have a second child at UT while in the Architecture program. While most students were living in the Architecture building working and partying, I was doing my work in the Married Student Housing with my kids by my side. They made me go through school with a business mindset while also having a natural desire to learn this field, as I was completely drawn to it. This life is also what forced me into getting my first Architecture job, which is what eventually led me into residential architecture. My amazing supportive wife and I are now finished with four awesome kids, and they have all pushed me to do some great things along the way including now owning my Architecture firm.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Josh Davis Architecture?
All of these experiences, over 20 years of designing for clients, have directly created Josh Davis Architecture. The way I have created my firm is a direct answer to all the things I want to provide for a client. My firm is me, doing architecture for you. I do not hire any outside work, or pass anything off to a young apprentice, or a firm in India. You will meet with me, someone who has the experience and understands building practices. I will be the one that takes down your wish list and notes for a project. Then, I will also be the one that takes those notes and turns them into your dream design. No communication is lost in translation this way, and I know it provides a better experience and results for my clients. I love all aspects of architecture including the software that goes into creating it. I have positioned myself as Josh Davis Architecture to create some beautiful projects for my clients.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
If you just know me through my work as a client of mine, you may not know that I also created a toy called ARMOblox, which is basically a construction toy. I doubt that most of my clients dive into my website or social media enough to find this out, and I’m not just going to come out and say hey I created this toy. I just love to design and create, and this was just another result of that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://joshdavisarchitecture.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josh_davis_architecture/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090223312607
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-davis-98a85337/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JoshDavisArchitecture/featured
