Steady demand at Press Architecture LLC has prompted the Spokane-based architecture and planning company to relocate to a larger 1,100-square-foot office at 522 W. First, in downtown Spokane, to accommodate a growing staff.

“It was really challenging to find one in Spokane that sort of fit,” says owner and principal Drew Kleman of the new office. “Being downtown was important. I believe in downtown.”

Kleman founded Press Architecture in 2021. The move, in June of this year, marks a major step for the company, which has grown from two architects working in a shared coworking space at Liberty Lake-based Burbity Workspaces LLC, to a team of four architects and architect designers, with additional hiring underway.

“We slowly grew,” Kleman says. “And the next thing you know, it's four guys in a 10-by-15 room. Now we’re actively hiring architects. We’re looking for that unicorn who has about eight to 10 years of experience.”

Klemen declines to disclose the company's annual revenue, but he says business has tripled since Press Architecture was established four years ago.

Kleman, a University of Cincinnati graduate, began his career with Portland, Oregon-based Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP, later working at a small firm in Omaha, Nebraska, before relocating to Spokane nearly a decade ago.

With more than 20 years of experience in the profession, Kleman has worked for both small and large firms, including Spokane-based Nystrom+Olson Architecture, which was acquired in 2017 by Menlo Park, California-based development, design, and construction company Katerra Inc. While working for the now-defunct Katerra, Kleman served as a project architect and manager for the development of the Catalyst Building, at 601 E. Riverside, in Spokane's University District.

“A lot of my experience with mass timber was through Katerra,” he says. “I led the architectural team for light industrial development with mass timber."

Press Architecture specializes in multifamily housing, infill residential, retail, and light industrial projects in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, and Arizona. The business handles about 25 projects annually, ranging from feasibility studies to new construction projects.

Residential infill projects comprise about 40% of the firm’s current work.

“We’ve been afforded the opportunity — through feasibility studies and projects — to see the city of Spokane infill codes develop from the interim (Building Opportunity and Choices for All) standards to where they are today,” Kleman says. “We know these codes in and out and our clients see that.”

Current projects include the Five Mile Apartments, a 48-unit, three-story walk-up complex, at 7650 N. A; the Summit Apartments, a 94-unit multifamily complex underway at 819 S. Hatch; and an eight-unit townhouse development in the Perry District, at 1728 E. Hartson. 

The Perry District development will be Press Architecture’s first lot subdivision project, a model Kleman says is intended to create more attainable housing in Spokane’s urban core. The development involves the division of a single "parent parcel" into individual "unit lots" that can be sold to individual owners, according to the Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington website.

 "A unit lot subdivision allows the parent lot to satisfy the land use design requirements — and then the 'child lots' are afforded a bit more flexibility in these standards and ultimately leads to greater density opportunities," Kleman explains.

Commercial architecture also has picked up as another steady segment of the firm’s portfolio. Press Architecture has recently designed sites for a Chipotle restaurant in Cheney and a Starbucks shell in Spokane County, navigating both corporate branding and local zoning design criteria, Kleman adds. The firm also has completed a full turnkey project for Houston TX Hot Chicken.

“We took their concept and then their interior concept and delivered that as a full new build for them,” he says. 

In the education sector, Kleman says one of his favorite recent projects was Chewelah High School’s football stadium press box, which was designed and built in collaboration with Mercer Mass Timber LLC, a subsidiary of Vancouver, British Columbia-based Mercer International Inc. The project combined innovation and practicality, he notes.

“It was challenging because it was the last project of the bond money Chewelah had,” he says.

The stadium press box was designed and built using prefabricated cross-laminated timber panels that were installed in a single day, says Klemen. The project used Mercer Mass Timber’s new cross-laminated timber stud system, which incorporates offcuts from panels into stud framing.

“We took sort of an alternative structural approach to one of the walls,” he says. “I think this was the first in the country to use that type of product. So it was really fun.” 

The firm’s name, Press Architecture, also draws inspiration from the mass timber industry, Kleman says. 

“I didn’t want to spend more of my life trying to get people to pronounce my name correctly,” Kleman jokes. “Press is a little bit about mass timber, like pressing the panels, and a little about pressing forward. We’d love to see this sort of design community, and what we do in our community, as pressing forward beyond what has always been here and bringing something different to the table.”

Kleman says the firm’s most successful projects are those that capture the essence of a concept.

“We’ve found that one ‘thing’ that makes the projects sing,” he says. “We distill projects down to their core, stripping away nonsense and anything additive.”