2015 Economic Impact Awards Entrepreneur of the Year: Brad Erwin

Five years ago, Brad Erwin took out a second mortgage on his home to launch Paragon Architecture Inc., even with a three-year-old at home and another child on the way.

It was the middle of the recession, and he had just left his previous firm Creative Ink Architects in the wake of a merger that created Buxton Kubik Dodd Creative.

For Erwin, entrepreneurship wasn’t a goal when he graduated from University of Illinois.

It was born of necessity. He set out to grow his business and give salaries to less than a handful of employees who came with him from his former firm.

“I never set out to establish Paragon Architecture,” he says. “Fifteen years ago, I never thought I’d be in this spot. Now, I really like to build our organization. Having the ability to do that is tremendous.”

With startup help from his former employer, Erwin and crew set out to distinguish itself in a design field that’s busy at the best of times and worse during economic downturns.

During the recession, Erwin says his crew had to compete with larger, nationwide companies that needed the business just as bad as Paragon. His answer was a client-first solution and playing to the strengths of his staff.

“We played upon our weight,” Erwin says.

“The way we ran things, the way we were organized, the way we tackled projects, the way we did marketing, everything else was not like a one- or two-person or three- or four-person firm, it was always like a larger organization, because we know that’s where we wanted to go.”

At Paragon Architecture, Erwin says clients have a seat at the drawing board and are able to be involved in every aspect of the process.

That ideal, he says, distinguishes Paragon from others by forming a sense of transparency with clients.

“A lot of times an architect will go to a client and say, ‘OK, tell me what you need.’ And then the architect goes – they disappear in their office for two weeks – to create something in this abyss and then comes back to the client and says, ‘Here look at the pretty picture,’” Erwin says. “What we like to do is say, ‘How do you do things? How do you function? How do you operate?’ We try to co-create that building or that space with them and try to work out solutions in front of them.”

In this way, Erwin says Paragon creates unique spaces for its clients.

He says it’s the firm’s goal for buildings to not be easily recognizable as Paragon projects.

“We understand that this is not our building, it’s truly their building and we’re just shepherding them through the process,” he says. “They appreciate the building we help create isn’t a monument to Paragon Architecture.”

Paragon focuses largely on three areas: the public sector, corporate offices and manufacturing. Knowing they excel at these areas, Erwin says, allows the company to give clients exactly what they’re looking for. As such, they’re picky about what projects they take.

Erwin’s approach has worked, as Paragon has grown revenues each year since opening. In 2014, the company posted revenue of $2.14 million, representing an 18 percent increase compared to 2013 and a 181 percent increase from 2012. This year, he’s projecting over $2.5 million in revenue, or a roughly 17 percent boost.