At EntreArchitect, you’re encouraged to share your knowledge. When we share with other architects, we all benefit. We are able to learn from one another and the profession will grow. One of the goals of EntreArchitect is to provide a platform for other entrepreneur architects to share their stories.
We want to interview you! What’s your story? Do you want to share your knowledge or the story about how you were inspired to pursue this profession? How do you become an entrepreneur architect?
Join us for our series called The Entrepreneur Architect, where each guest has the opportunity to share their story and answer some questions that will provide value to each of you.
This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, The Entrepreneur Architect Series featuring Daniel Robey.
Background
Daniel is a landscape architect and the owner of Huntlands Landscape Architecture in Northern Virginia. He has a bachelor’s from Clemson in Landscape Architecture and is a licensed professional architect in the state of Virginia, a LEED Green Associate and a multi-award winning designer. He lives in Virginia with his wife Murphy and his three kids, Maris, Charlie and Hank.
Daniel’s Origin Story
Daniel started out loving to draw and always thought he wanted to draw cartoons. In high school, he fell in love with golf and everything in his life began to revolve around it. When he had to figure out what he wanted to do after high school, he fell upon architecture at a local golf course that was under construction. When he walked around the grounds with the architect, Daniel realized that was what he wanted to do.
He knew that to get into golf course architecture he needed to have a name or professional behind him, so he did a number of internships: one for a land-planning company, one for residential install work, and another for the Charleston parks department. He was exposed to different avenues. After college he worked for a land planning civil engineering firm in Charlotte. Daniel felt he wasn’t doing a whole lot of creative work, so he planned to move to the residential side of things right before the birth of his first child.
He moved from a smaller company to a large residential design build firm. This past year, he opened his his own business doing high-end landscape architecture.
What does a landscape architect do?
Daniel does high-end residential architecture. He works with elements of plantings, hardscape, architectural structures, water features and everything that ties it together like lighting, audio, and more.
What is one big goal you’ve achieved in your career and how did you get there?
Daniel didn’t ever dream of starting his own business, but it became clear that that was the best thing for him to do to advance his career. When he came to that conclusion, it was a huge goal for him to set out to achieve. He did a ton of reading, research, podcast-listening, and more to get as much business information as he could.
What are the pros to starting your own business?
It’s allowed Daniel more flexibility to be home with his family and to be involved with his kids.
What struggles have you gone through?
Early on, Daniel...