About
Endemic Architecture is an award winning full-service architecture and interiors office specializing in linking architectural expressions to socio-cultural, historical, and physical circumstances of any given project. We are interested in how careful manipulations to familiar building types, materials, or elements can foster a quality that we call almost familiar; A quality we see as a means for creating distinquished buildgings while also expanding access to architectural joy, confusion, contemplation, and audiences.
Perhaps more imporantly, we are intersted in translating your story into a physical form and a spatial experience.
Our intention is to (re)frame and invigorate questions of individuality, personal meaning, sociality, expression, and architectural experiences by transforming what is often seen as familiar and therefore often overlooked— windows, scuppers, chimneys, gable roofs, porches, walls, parapets, columns, domes, confetti, shingles, stairs, or plain old geometry such as spheres, cones, and cylinders — all in service of shifting the arc of architectural attention.
While not all of our projects are built, they are all grounded in applied research or experimentation that considers built & unbuilt buildings, drawings, models, images, installations, diagrams, & writing as sites for possible futures in commercial practice. We work closely with clients to guide projects from initial conception & feasibility through permitting and construction administration while coordinating consultants, specifications, and the design process along the way.
With a record of work spanning residential, commercial, cultural, & institutional projects located in urban, rural, and suburban contexts we approach each project with the same five core values;
Endemic Architecture1 . seeks to enrich experiences within the built environment by eliciting curiosity and delight while maintaining a commitment to the social, cultural, & contextual dimensions of architecture;
2. seeks to be inclusive of a wide array of social and physical contexts by creating architecture that what we call “almost familiar”;
3. prefers mixed meanings, open interpretations, & varied associations rather than fixed messages or singular narratives;
4. is committed to creating architecture through collaborations that celebrate the nuances of local conditions and individual projects demands;
5. maintains a commitment to expanding architecture’s received histories, theories, representations, voices, & techniques.
For additional information and a complete project list, click here.
Get in Touch
Clark Thenhaus, Principal
(E) Clark@endemicarchitecture.com
(P) 303.548.7806
Nicolette Zader, Office Coordinator
(E) Nicolette@endemicarchitecture.com
Kyle Troyer, Designer
Alameda, CA.
2424 Blanding Ave. Suite 205
Denver, CO.
Contact for office address.
Endemic Architecture is led by California and Colorado licensed architect and tenured professor of architecture at California College of the Arts, Clark Thenhaus. Many talented people have contributed to Endemic Architeture, and I am grateful for the experiences working with Claire Leffler (2022), Daniela Ibarra (2020-2021), Nate Wesseldyk (2015-2020 ), Maya Annotti (2018), Rajah Bose (2018), Sofia Anastasi (2015-2017), Brian McKinney (2015-2017), Mitchell Price (2016 - 2017), Trenton Jewett (2016), Taylor Metcalf (2016), Sarah Herlugson (2016), Gina Bugiada (2016), Nate Oppenheim (2013-2015), Tyler Smith (2013-2015), Alexandra Bernetich (2014-2015), Ryan Doidge (2013-2014), Samantha Okolita (2014), Danielle Tellez (2014), Paul Mitchell (2012), Kae Donahue (2011-2015), and Adam Steinbach (2012).