David Virtue is an award-winning, licensed and registered architect with over 25 years of experience in designing and leading over $5.8B in large and complex projects throughout the world.
Philosophy - Seek Simplicity
Make the complex simple by discovering shared values, commonalities and conceptual alignments. Seeking the simple is uncovering the truth. Truth is beauty.
Architecture is about the connections of things; how things join. This is true in the built, conceptual and social realms. It is about orchestrating how people and knowledge come together to manifest ideas; How materials, light, systems and constraints interface to create space. How spaces and senses align and relate to become great architecture.
Leadership - Act with courage, compassion and wisdom
A leader removes obstacles, allowing the success of everyone. This builds genuine trust. Trust builds strong teams capable and intent on creating value for all.
Creating value for everyone takes responsibility. Responsibility is not about blame, but about responding as one is able. This requires taking action with courage, compassion and wisdom. Architects have a unique role in elevating the quality f human culture and being stewards of the natural environment. This takes great responsibility.
Career - Leave the world more beautiful than it was found.
I have consistently sought ways to improve the way in which architecture may be created and delivered more effectively, as the old ways of doing things have not worked for some time.
My dedication to this discovery required exploring diverse venues, from developing intuitive, media-rich design software, immersing myself in the process of modern Italian kitchen and furniture fabrication, practicing architecture in Switzerland, and even learning a smattering of languages along the way.
I have consistently shared this gained wisdom by mentoring, teaching, presenting and publishing. Through these efforts, I have developed a clear process for design, management and creating value. A process that I wish to share with the profession at large.
My Process - Do the right thing, and do the thing right.
My framework for approaching design comes down to understanding the values of all shareholders, uncovering where alignments lay, understanding the order of things, creating a workflow, and executing. This is not merely a theoretical exercise, but one that has profound and proven results of higher quality design, profitability and client satisfaction. The fundamental concept is enlightening the team to distinguish effectiveness from efficiency.