Sarah Strauss Co-Founder
BigPrototype Design Company
Eco-friendly architect Sarah Strauss has some advice for anyone who’s laid off: when life hands you a pink slip, make pink lemonade.
The Yale grad and co-founder of Brooklyn-based design firm BigPrototype was laid off by a Manhattan architecture firm three years ago. The same day, her best friend was also fired. The duo took their severance pay, hopped a plane to Key West for a week, and returned to New York with a business plan and determination.
Working out of an apartment for two months and funneling all their cash into BigPrototype paid off. Now the “green” firm manages on average 10 projects a year, and they haven’t taken out a single loan.
Strauss, who also lectures at Parsons School of Design, and her business partner John Nafzinger, design SoHo offices, gut and renovate dozens of Brooklyn brownstones and manufacture custom furniture in their Red Hook office using non-polluting materials for each project, while recycling scraps. Their largest-scale work, the master plan and one of eight eco-friendly houses on a lot of eight homes on a Puerto Rico site dubbed Dos Ceibas, has them traveling nearly monthly to the tropics to survey construction. Set amid the trade winds on the island’s western edge, the private residence they’re designing will take advantage of the natural ventilation and sweeping ocean views while a rooftop covered in lush green plants keeps the home cool. Next up? An eco resort on the island.
Without a sign outside their Red Hook shop, all of their projects have come through word-of-mouth recommendations. “We like to work hard, but it’s not all work and no play,” says Strauss, 30. “There’s no feeling unappreciated or like the time is not your own,” she says of being her own boss. “Knowing we’re doing it for ourselves makes it all worthwhile.” –MW
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