Last November, Kevin and I sat down for our annual holiday card charette, a tradition we’ve kept since founding the firm. It’s something we always look forward to: an opportunity to create something memorable and share it with our friends, clients, and community. This year, one idea jumped out and stuck: *Lego*.
The moment we said it out loud, it just felt right.
For both of us, Lego holds something personal. As a kid, it was my favorite toy. I would spend hours sprawled on the floor, building rocket ships, cities, and other wild inventions. It taught me creativity, structure, patience, and maybe most importantly, the joy of making something with my hands. That joy never left me. In many ways, those early days with Lego laid the foundation for my lifelong love of architecture.
Now, I get to share that same joy with my son. We love to build together, lose track of time, and explore the same lessons I once learned.
When Kevin and I revisited the idea with fresh eyes, we realized it could be more than just a holiday card. It could be a gift—a miniature, tangible reflection of our work and values. We chose one of our recent projects: a modest backyard casita with clean lines and thoughtful details. The simple form made it an ideal subject, but translating it into Lego turned out to be more challenging than we expected.
We built the model over a few days, adding playful seasonal touches—a Christmas tree, holiday lights, and snow. Then came the real challenge: photographing it. Capturing miniature architecture is not an easy feat. We wrestled with lighting, scale, and angles until we found a composition that felt right. A little building that told a big story.
From there, the idea snowballed. I’d heard of people designing their own Lego kits and decided to dive in. I downloaded Bricklink Studio, Lego’s digital design platform, and, after some trial and error, recreated our model piece by piece. The software even let us generate an instruction manual and source bricks from various vendors. We packaged the pieces in a custom box, complete with the instruction booklet, and delivered it to our client, who was completely blown away.
In the end, what started as a holiday card became something much more meaningful. It was a creative challenge, a shared moment of joy, and a chance to reflect on why we do what we do. And just like we often discover in our architecture, it’s the small, thoughtful gestures that tend to leave the biggest impression.
Click here to access a .pdf of the instruction booklet.
Explore
Gulf Coast Beach House
Rockport, Texas
Residential
Located in a community along the Gulf Coast, this new residence creates a place of rest and relaxation through offering expansive views and ample room for indoor and outdoor living and entertaining.
Reid Kennedy
Musician, Composer, & Teacher
Music and Performance
In this episode our resident architects Joe Rivers and Kevin Barden visit with Reid Kennedy, a drummer and composer from St. Paul, Minnesota. Reid Kennedy is a percussionist and pass drummer from St. Paul, Minnesota and a standout example of the modern working musician. In addition to being a top-call drummer in the Twin Cities, Reid teaches percussion and music theory at McNally Smith College of Music in downtown St. Paul. He composes, performs, records, and produces his own music in groups such as the Reid Kennedy Jazz Trio and Big Villain, and is the co-founder of the neo soul modern jazz darlings of Minneapolis, Nooky Jones. Joe and Kevin talk with Reid about his path to becoming a full-time musician, having passion for creating, and the ins and outs of collaboration.
Ethos
Kevin Barden and Joe Rivers
Writing
In an essay entitled The Hedgehog and the Fox, Isaiah Berlin quotes the Greek poet Archilochus, “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing” (Berlin 7). The essay was written as a commentary on Leo Tolstoy’s view of history, however, the text can offer an understanding for how one might practice architecture as well. For us, this understanding reveals itself in perceiving the environment as a fox and believing in it as a hedgehog.