Chris Ryan - AIA, NCARB
Building Design & Development Consultant
Licensed Architect & Registered Contractor
Board Member & Speaker
TRUSTED BY
That's where a new type of Third Space(+) comes in; spaces that curate an ecology of parts that support the different aspects of our lives; our work, play, and personal growth; spaces that inspire while fostering connection, creativity, and well-being.
Whether our visionary clients want to build a state-of-the-art climbing and fitness facility, an innovative coworking hub, or a vibrant community center, they are committed to creating spaces that improve our mental, physical, and social well-being.
By blending life, work, and play, while balancing vision with risk, we create strong businesses and spaces that are vital to our collective thriving.
Whatever your vision, it all starts with your project's unique fingerprint.
What you truly care about, and how you want to activate your community.
That's the foundation for creating what's next..
Track
Record
Clients opened 9 new facilities in the last 3 years.
Current projects valued at over $90m.
Helped 4 businesses open first location in the last 3 years.
Worked with businesses up to $5bn in revenue.
Helped 1 business franchise their model.
Helped 7 businesses raise funds to build in the last 3 years.
Opened 17 climbing and dedicated work/ play facilities.
Worked on 5 continents.
Designed 75+ climbing wall projects over last 20 years.
Created 100+ climbing and mixed-use concepts, and test fits.
Track Record
Clients opened 9 new facilities in the last 3 years
Projects valued at over $90m
4 businesses open first location
Businesses up to $5bn in revenue
1 business franchise their model
Helped 7 businesses raise funds
17 climbing and dedicated work/ play facilities
Worked on 5 continents
How We Do It
Design Visualization
Bring your concept to life
Envision and understand your project by bringing your vision to life to ensure it aligns with your goals.
See what your vision could be and test ideas
Build support for your project
Conceptualize what's next
Financial Analysis
Balance investment with returns
High-level Financial Planning & Analysis that balances all the parts of your project, so that you only build what you need.
Balance vision with the reality of finances and investment
Balance business model and investment with returns
Determine how best to use every dollar
Strategic Planning
Map your path forward
Strategize and organize your entire project from start to finish, so you know exactly what to do next at any given moment.
Working as your trusted strategic partner
Bridge the gap from idea to open doors
Determine milestones and reduce delays
Testimonials
"It's his experience not only in the Architectural genius in the designs he creates, but in the many details found in-between.
Everything about how we approach our growth as a company has evolved so measurably since beginning to work with Chris."
Britt Riley
Founder - Haven Daycare/ Coworking/ Fitness
"Chris Ryan has been an invaluable resource helping us to convey our concepts to various municipal departments in an expeditious and cost effective manner.
His ability to rapidly translate concepts into visual realities and to scale is remarkable"
Jesse Levin
Founder - Tactivate
"I feel like I wouldn't be in the process of opening and making it happen without Chris; and the guidance through the development world has been great.
Turning an idea into reality, I attribute a lot of that to your help."
Mark Messner
Founder - Rendezvous Climbing
About Chris
Chris Ryan is a licensed Architect, registered contractor, former development executive, and over the past two decades he's focused on designing, developing, and building next-generation building projects centered around emerging sports and activities.
After years spent working for multidisciplinary architecture and design-build companies, learning how to balance design with cost and execution, Chris spent a decade designing, developing, and building next generation climbing gyms across the country.
These experiences taught what it takes to take visionary ideas and efficiently bridge the gap between idea and open doors.
Today, Chris uses those lessons and recipes learned to help clients build wild Third Place projects, based around the sports and activities we love.
An avid rock climber, surfer, skier, and former national-level competitive athlete, Chris has experienced firsthand how play can profoundly impact our lives.
His award-winning work has been written about in Fast Company and Forbes, and his YouTube channel has over 18,000+ subscribers.
He has taught design, construction, and professional practice courses at Roger Williams University and as a Visiting Lecturer at Northeastern University, and received his Master of Architecture degree from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.
Get Weekly Inspiration From Chris In Your Inbox
Join 18,000+ subscribers and access Chris' latest insights, so you can apply them to the building projects of tomorrow.
FAQ
Chris helps clients take visionary ideas and turn them into successfully completed multi-use building projects.
His focus is on creating the best projects in the world that combine work and play, mixing emerging sports and activities like climbing, skate parks, coworking, events, food & beverage, fitness, recovery, yoga, racket sports, childcare, education, retail, and many other unique programs.
These facilities often function as community centers and a new type of 3rd Place +, where we get to share the things we love, together.
The first step is to reach out through my Contact page, and if it seems like the right fit, we can hop on a call together.
Chris develops projects side by side with you, as your go-to development person.
The goal is to help you, your vision, and your facility shine.
We do this with a combination of Visualization, Financial Planning & Analysis, and Strategy.
For some clients, that's in an advisory capacity. For some, it's helping with rapid visualization of business concepts. For many, it's helping from the earliest ideation, through business planning, visualization, fundraising, documentation, permitting, construction, and opening.
In all of these cases, the goal is the same (to open world-class facilities), but the way we work together depends on what's the right fit
Chris' unique specialty is as an Architect who's done world-class, multi-use projects around the world that mix work and play.
These are a new type of 3rd Space, and function as a home away from home for the people who get to enjoy them.
This started with his personal love for climbing, developing next-generation climbing facilities for over a decade across the USA, but that was just the beginning.
Today, projects incorporate multiple uses for different types of users; from Olympic athletes to groms; we mix things like climbing and skating, with spaces for coworking, fitness, events, kids' programming, food & beverage, retail, etc...
This is the requirement for a modern facility; to reach a wider audience while still speaking to the core user, to create a resilient business.
The goal is to always create ecosystems of programs, to create inspiring spaces and successful businesses.
Chris has been creating award-winning live/ work/ play projects for nearly 20 years.
Chris has been a climber for nearly 30 years, and is a prime example of how climbing can change your life. From a under-sized 15 y.o. kid, to traveling the world, to designing climbing walls and finishing 10th in bouldering nationals in the early 2000s', this is is the reason Chris is so passionate about helping people open new facilities and build communities through climbing.
Chris is a Licensed Architect (AIA, NCARB), a registered general contractor, and ran development for a climbing gym franchise for nearly a decade.
Over those 20 years, Chris was a designer, project manager, construction manager, owners representative, VP development.
He's walked countless spaces, done hundreds of test fits and concept designs, and worked through piles of leases and potential opportunities with businesses looking for real estate to buy or lease.
In addition, Chris was a professor at the college and graduate school level for 11 years; researching and teaching on issues related to professional practice, construction and materials, and design studios. That experience has informed his current way of working, leading to better ways to organize projects, teams, and work with owners compared to most "traditional" models of project delivery.
Chris did his undergraduate degree at CU Boulder (Bachelor of Environmental Design BENVD '02), and got his Masters at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (MArch '09).
Over the years, Chris has designed and developed climbing gyms and other mixed-use projects across the country and around the world. These lessons and insights have proved to be invaluable working with clients on projects, saving time and money, so that we can focus on the best result possible.
All of this is to say that Chris thinks and works at the highest theoretical level, while also digging ditches with clients to make projects happen.
Here are some specific metrics and client results:
Between 2022-2024:
Between 2000-2022:
You can hear more from my clients directly, on my Testimonials page.
This isn't for everyone; if you're looking to do a milk-toast project, you'll be better served elsewhere.
This IS for people who aren't satisfied with a "good" project, and are willing to invest in creating a truly great project, with genuinely world-class ambition.
To create a world-class project, it's not about simply hiring an architect and hoping for the best. There's too much at stake for you to be someone else's new-project experiment.
It's about REALLY digging into the why of the project, so that we can design a space and develop a strategy to execute the project that meets your goals, budget, timeline, and ambition.
This means that the space you rent or buy, and the business model you develop, and the amount you can afford to spend on the build-out, and the predicted return on all that investment needs to work together.
Figuring out that puzzle is what Chris does with clients.
If your ambition is a world-class project, and you'd like help to put the pieces together, designing an inspiring space, and strategizing how to execute everything successfully, then reach out and let's talk.
The first step is to reach out through my Contact page, and if it seems like the right fit, we can hop on a call together.
My goal is to guide you in the right direction with feedback and recommendations on where to go and what to check out or who to talk to.
If I can help, 99% of my clients start with my Project Launch advising program, because it's a great way to get to know each other, extend the conversation, and get you some real answers, organization, and digital tools and templates you can customize.
From there, as the project develops, we can jump into a larger Design and Development Package, and the Advising fee will be deducted from that.
If you have a very clear vision as-to what you want to do, and depending on your timeline, you may be in that 1% where we can jump right into a Design and Development Package.
Over the years, beginning with advising has proved to be a great path to success, because there's no extra cost if you continue with the Design and Development Package.
In any case, reach out and let's begin the conversation.
Yes! My first job at the end of college and after college for several years, was designing climbing walls for a climbing wall company, and it's something that I've continued doing over the last ~25 years, for specific projects.
I'm a big believer that our climbing walls aren't good enough in most facilities, and over the years, I've become more and more re-engaged with climbing wall design, to get the most out of projects for my clients.
Send Chris A Message:
Protected by CAPTCHA
PROJECTS:
WORK:
INFORMATION:
PROGRAMS:
RESOURCES:
FOLLOW: