{"id":194241,"date":"2024-12-23T10:05:02","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T10:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realbusiness.co.uk\/?p=194241"},"modified":"2024-12-23T10:05:02","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T10:05:02","slug":"grace-morris-professional-personable-residential-architects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realbusiness.co.uk\/grace-morris-professional-personable-residential-architects","title":{"rendered":"Grace & Morris \u2013 Professional, Personable Residential Architects"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Grace & Morris, a new high-end residential architectural practice, has torn up the rulebook with its dynamic shop-office site, trust-based culture and top-tier communication.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Edward and James Park, both highly experienced architects and co-leaders of PARKdesigned<\/a>, a firm that has taken the commercial architectural sector by storm with its vast portfolio of projects and multi-talented team of experts, are rocking the residential world too.<\/p>\n

Grace & Morris<\/a>, a sparkling new residential architectural and interior design business, marks their move into the lucrative luxe-residential market. However, the idea for a separate brand came from within PARKdesigned itself, where they had taken on a series of smaller, private projects at the start. \u201cIt seemed a bit bipolar,\u201d comments Edward on the company website’s mix of private and larger-scale commercial projects. \u201cClients were wondering whether we only did domestic work or vice-versa.\u201d Earlier this year, the decision was made to separate the high-end domestic residential part of the business from the commercial, and thus Grace & Morris was born. \u201cIt has made things cleaner and simpler,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

Despite only being a few months old, Grace & Morris already has a healthy rota of clients, one being a 6-8,000 sq ft manor-house-style project outside Wakefield. Since its launch, client design requests have been interesting, ranging from an indoor golf simulator, and arcade rooms, to a bunker. Edward attributes the firm\u2019s early success to its physical presence in the heart of the affluent Yorkshire town of Harrogate. \u201cWe opened on a Monday, a lady walked in, and we\u2019re now working on that project.\u201d This site Edward calls a \u201cshoffice\u201d, which is a combination of a shop and an office. They came to the idea through attending a business growth course at the University of Leeds, and decided that as Grace & Morris is \u201cdealing with the public and people\u2019s homes,\u201d as opposed to a commercial entity, a shop-office hybrid where people could walk off the street and make enquiries would work best, \u201cnot many architects do that,\u201d he claims, adding that this format gives clients a large degree of \u201csecurity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grace & Morris is all about the personal approach, and you can see it in their shop-office site which features an interactive showroom, \u201cthere\u2019s an entire house entertainment system in there,\u201d says Edward. Visitors can also browse security systems, lighting and invisible in-built speakers in the walls, giving them an idea of what they could integrate into their homes. There are also virtual reality (VR) headsets available, so clients can see what their unfinished projects will look like, \u201cthat\u2019s quite rare for domestic residential clients,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n

When it comes to client support, quality service and clear communication are paramount for the team. \u201cA big thing for us is communication,\u201d he confirms, \u201cthere are always issues on site and that\u2019s inevitable, but it\u2019s about staying on top of it and being proactive.\u201d Edward credits their workforce for \u201calways being available via regular communication, site meetings and client correspondence.\u201d They also ensure that minutes are taken during all meetings, with notes shared with the client for utmost transparency. \u201cWhen people are spending their own money it\u2019s about trust, you have to be there and have the trust of the client.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carefully considered branding is a core part of Grace & Morris too, and it was during the aforementioned business course that they decided that the firm\u2019s name should have personal connections. Grace is the name of James\u2019 daughter, and Morris is Edward\u2019s son. \u201cOur preference was to go for something personal with strong branding built into it,\u201d Edward explains. \u201cThe names have the values that are integral to Grace & Morris.\u201d By this, he means the firm\u2019s approach to client work, encompassing elegance, beauty, charm, respect for craftsmanship, and much more. \u201cWe knew that we needed something softer, something about being approachable, as we\u2019re dealing with private clients and their homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edward has some advice for SME owners involved in a branding or rebranding exercise \u2013 look at what you\u2019re selling and explore your company values. \u201cWith our high-end service, integrity is so critical to what we do that we used our children\u2019s names.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like other firms in their sector, they\u2019ve had to navigate the market challenges brought on by inflation and the rising costs of materials, partly caused by the ongoing war in Ukraine. Because of this, Edward explains that generally fewer projects are coming to the market, but here\u2019s the better news, budgets are bigger with clients taking more time to build up savings. \u201cClients these days are still finding the money to work on projects,\u201d he confirms.<\/p>\n

Of those ready to design their dream homes, Edward has noticed that they prefer to spend money \u201con the things they can see,\u201d such as kitchens over structural work. Other, more aesthetic trends include a movement away from bi-folds to sliding doors in their homes, due to its \u201cmore refined\u201d look with \u201ccleaner sightlines.\u201d Furthermore, the long-enduring open-plan style has given way to a \u201cbroken plan\u201d, where clients have the popular open-plan kitchen dining space but with separate rooms too.<\/p>\n

If 2024 hasn\u2019t already been a great start for Edward and James\u2019 new residential brand, the future looks even brighter. A second \u201cshoffice\u201d is part of the plan for next year, with it hopefully up and running by the summer. The five-year goal is bigger still, and includes having several Grace & Morris shop-office hybrids dotted around salubrious areas of the country, an exciting prospect indeed…<\/p>\n

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hello@graceandmorris.com
\n34a Parliament Street, Harrogate 01423 457038<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grace & Morris, a new high-end residential architectural practice, has torn up the rulebook with its dynamic shop-office site, trust-based culture and top-tier communication. Edward and James Park, both highly experienced architects and co-leaders of PARKdesigned, a firm that has taken the commercial architectural sector by storm with its vast portfolio of projects and multi-talented […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":194242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11014],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews"],"views":530,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realbusiness.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realbusiness.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realbusiness.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realbusiness.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realbusiness.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/realbusiness.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realbusiness.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realbusiness.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realbusiness.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realbusiness.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}