About Us

Studio Tectonic is an exhibit and interpretive design/planning firm based in Boulder, Colorado since 2011. Our work can be found in wide-ranging cultural institutions throughout the United States and international locations. We provide services for cultural, formal, and informal learning institutions that want to engage their visitors with rich and memory-making experiences.

Our team is a group of highly trained and experienced museum professionals—all of whom have worked in the past as both consultants to and as staff within museums, parks, and other cultural learning institutions. We share our clients’ sincere inquisitiveness, passion, and desire to make powerful interpretive experiences for their visiting public.

Our work takes many forms—master planning, environmental graphics, exhibit design in museums, parks, and visitor centers, and interpretive writing/research and development. We also specialize in fabrication and installation, either through contract administration of clients’ contractors or as design/build with Studio Tectonic directly contracting for project buildout.

Our goal is to passionately celebrate each project’s fullest potential through creativity, predictable process, and close partnership and collaboration. The spirit of our collaborations with clients, consultants, and contractors is to work as a natural extension of each in ways that are joyful, elevating, and professional at all moments.

Services
Careful and Considered Process

Careful methodology stands behind all great projects. Studio Tectonic adapts known, successful processes to each project’s unique needs. Our process management is hands-on and involves close communication with the client.

Planning for Places

Projects don’t exist in a bubble. We carefully consider the context of place. This includes the physical location and its setting as well as the institution’s organizational structures and its place in the landscape of society.

Design and Visualization

As we move through the sequential phases of design, Studio Tectonic employs a variety of approaches to express our ideas. We use “tradigital” drawing and high-level CAD documentation and modeling.

Ensuring Visitor Success

Utilizing the most current methods for visitor engagement and evaluation (such as the Smithsonian’s IPOP model), we create powerful points of entry and layers of ideas, so diverse audiences can find and make their own meaning.

Inspired Creativity

Creativity is the hallmark of our work. We find inspiration by engaging deeply with clients’ content. Then we develop creative solutions that are gracefully integrated—not arbitrarily applied.

Project Implementation

Skillful implementation brings excellent design to life. We build strong relationships with fabrication contractors and specialists to ensure that our intent is executed with superior craftsmanship and creativity.

OUR NAME
(tɛkˈtɒn ɪk)
From the Greek tektonic meaning to build, architecturally

Studio Tectonic takes inspiration from the many ways the human and natural worlds are built, and from the beauty (and functionality) that so often results. Tectonic shifts happen slowly, but sometimes reveal themselves suddenly. The act of discovery is a constant design principle in our work.

OUR SPACE in Boulder, CO
  • Place-based history of Studio Tectonic Office 150 MYA
    150 Million Years Ago
  • Place-based history of Studio Tectonic Office 1800s
    70 Million Years Ago
  • Place-based history of Studio Tectonic Office 1800s
    1800s
  • Place-based history of Studio Tectonic Office 1890
    1890
  • Place-based history of Studio Tectonic Office 1970s
    1960s - 70s
  • Place-based history of Studio Tectonic Office Present
    Today
SUSTAINABILITY

We prioritize sustainable business practices with focus in three areas:

Internal Business Practices
Design Choices, Specifications, and Fabrication of our Work
Messaging with our Clients and the Public