Solstice Design Studio

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Solstice Design Studio

Multidisciplinary architecture firm shaping homes + community-rooted spaces - from concept to construction. Rooted in UT & OH. Working nationwide.

03/25/2026

Commercial kitchens can be unforgiving. Every inch of sqft matters. Circulation has to really work for the space.

Ventilation and ducting are also big components in commercial kitchen design and in a historic building with masonry walls and an apartment above, it was not a simple answer.

This kitchen at the new Old Cuss Cafe location sits in a compact footprint with an existing historic window we were not about to lose.

Getting the exhaust duct routed meant close coordination with the contractor and MEP engineer to thread it through existing conditions.

We are taking on more commercial projects in 2026. If you have one, let's talk.

www.solstice.design
801.558.7705
[email protected]

03/23/2026

Hard to believe it's almost April.

The first few months of 2026 have been wonderfully full. Projects moving, custom millwork pieces finishing, flights between Ohio and Utah, museums, trails, and a lot of good work with good people.

We have been quietly building out a more robust scope for furnishings and finish selections - something our clients have been asking for and something we are genuinely excited to offer. More on that soon.

Trail time is not separate from the work. It is part of how we think, reset, and show up better for our projects. Shay and I have been getting outside as much as we can and it shows up in the work whether people realize it or not.

Grateful for the clients, colleagues, and collaborators who have made this stretch of the year what it has been.

Happy Equinox.

03/20/2026

Built in 1909 as the Mission Theater, later the Keith O'Brien department store, then decades of sitting in the middle of a changing downtown.

The bones were good, the history was rich and Work Hive saw the opportunity.

Solstice came on to provide focused architectural services for the retrofit - navigating the specific challenges of bringing a 116 year old commercial building into compliance for a modern coworking use. Permit drawings, accessibility, life safety. The unglamorous work that makes the glamorous result possible.

📸

03/12/2026

The kitchen is architecture. The built-ins are architecture. The bench at the entry, the floor-to-ceiling storage, the stair rail.

All of it is architecture.

The iconic architect and designer Charlotte Perriand figured this out in the 1920s. She was the one who looked at a kitchen and saw architecture, not furniture. Built-ins, storage, the fitted details of a home. All of it designed as a cohesive system. Not every studio works this way. We do.

This project began as a conversation. A client who knew how she and her family wanted to live in their home, and a team of designers and a fabricator who knew how to make it happen. The millwork you're looking at came from that. It started with a sketch and became something that feels like it was always supposed to be there.

Construction on the additon portion of this project is still wrapping up and then we'll be sharing photos of the fully completed spaces. The finish line is near. Can hardly wait!

📣We are seeking projects that want this level of craft and detail.

If that is yours, reach out.

[email protected]
801.558.7705

03/11/2026

The moment you walk into a cafe, you're making a series of small decisions.

Where do I order? Where do I sit? Is this a linger-and-work kind of place or a quick-coffee kind of place?

Good design answers those questions before you have to ask them.

Clear sightlines, a layout that separates arrival from seating without making you feel managed, and light that signals where the energy is and where the quiet corners are.

☕️
Architect: .designstudio
Contractor: .development
📸

03/05/2026

Lofts on Beall started with a problem: an irregularly shaped lot between residential and commercial zones, tight zoning constraints and a corner that couldn't be built on.

After a multi-year process with a robust team of designers, engineers, the builder, city planners, and the owner, that unbuildable corner became shared space. The result: 11 rowhouses designed to fit the site rather than fight it.

This kitchen is part of that. All electric, net zero energy ready, open to living without losing its own definition. Efficient layouts with open ceilings that feel fluid, not squeezed.

North-facing balconies with views to the Bridger Mountains. Private outdoor space. Ready for rooftop solar. 1,500 to 1,800 square feet each.

Homes are available now. Link in bio.

03/02/2026

A client sent us this photo from their project's job site today. We love getting mid-build snapshots and progress updates.

The design matters, but so does staying connected through the whole process!

02/25/2026

Visited Ludowici in recent weeks and we’re still thinking about it.

They are a company that’s been working in clay since the 1800s, and you can feel that lineage the second you walk in.

Exposed structure overhead. Mounds of raw clay. Rows of tiles drying on endless rows of racks. Long production lines humming along. And then, off to the side, someone carving and refining a custom dragon ridge piece by hand.

Every piece is adjusted by hand. Swipe to slide 3 to see the action!

The scale is industrial, but the product feels deeply personal and human. You can tell the process isn’t just a step in production - it’s the point. Forming, pressing, carving, firing, inspecting. Over and over. There’s a quiet pride in the way it’s done, and it shows. Not just in the finished tile, but in the energy of the facility itself.

There were so many good moments captured during our visit. Here’s a small glimpse.

We’re grateful for days like this. It’s a reminder that there are still companies who care about how things are made and who understand that architecture begins long before it ever shows up on a roofline. We also love connecting with other beings who are equally as passionate about craft, quality and durability as we are.

P.S. You don’t have to be located in the Midwest or Appalachia to specify them. Their tile is on projects across the country and internationally. When a material is made this well, it belongs anywhere 🌎

02/24/2026

This space wasn’t a blank slate, and that’s part of what appealed to our team about this project.

Before it became the new home of Old Cuss Cafe, this space had lived several lives. The building still carries layers of history, historic systems, and structural quirks. Rather than fighting those realities, we worked with them.

Architecture in existing buildings is as much about listening as it is about designing. Good design is a conversation, and careful attention to what’s already there informs the decisions that follow.

We studied what stayed, what had to change, and what could be revealed. Then we used those discoveries to guide the transformation.

Swipe to see the before and after: from what was, to bones to a space ready for gathering, working, and staying a while.

02/18/2026

Recent site visit in Athens, Ohio.

This residential remodel + addition (including a rental unit above the new garage) is officially picking up speed. The scale of these windows is already transforming the space - generous, intentional glazing doing the heavy lifting and flooding the interior with natural light.

On site with the owner, millwork fabricator, electrician, and our architecture team coordinating details in real time. Aligning structure, systems, and custom millwork early keeps the design vision intact and prevents those “why didn’t we catch/think of that?” moments later.

Modern residential architecture is all about thoughtful planning and restraint, and this one is shaping up beautifully.

Excited to watch it continue through construction.

02/12/2026

Locus’s initial ideation, circling around what would become the parti.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, a parti is the guiding spark: the central idea, phrase, scribble, diagram, or form that kicks off a design. It’s the conceptual backbone of a project, distilling relationships between space, form, light, and site well before anything gets detailed.

In other words, it’s strategy in its earliest form-planning at its most essential.

And if we’ve learned anything over the past 6 years at Solstice, it’s this: good planning is everything. You can’t skip steps or half-ass the early thinking and still expect a smooth, successful, on-budget, on-time project. 🫳🎤

Shown here: big, bold ideas distilled onto a note card. One that’s traveled with the evolving stack of drawings for this project since day one.

For Locus, it began with two questions:

What does it mean for a structure, and the people it holds, to truly belong to a place?

And how can architecture reflect and support that kind of belonging?

designprocess

02/10/2026

A new home for Old Cuss Cafe on Pierpont Avenue in downtown Salt Lake City.

For this project we worked with the client and Revival Development to transform a space within an iconic SLC historic building into a place that supports coffee, community, and everyday life - respectful of its past and adapted for today’s use.

Historic retrofit projects are rarely simple, and working with existing conditions opens up opportunities for thoughtful problem solving and unexpected spatial moments.

Here, history and hospitality come together in one familiar, welcoming address.

We might be biased, but we recommend a visit to Old Cuss!

More about this recently completed project soon.

Address

299 S Main Street Ste 1300 PMB 92635
Main Street, UT
84111

Telephone

+18015587705

Website

http://www.solstice.design/

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