nick kratz design portfolio

Tudor With A Twist

kitchen and master suite renovation site superintendant / project manager leawood, kansas

$500,000 contract architecture: el dorado inc

Teaming up with long time collaborators El Dorado, Hurst had the opportunity to complete an intricate kitchen and master suite renovation of a tudor house in Old Leawood. I lead the construction team through the project, working directly with the architect, interior designer, and client to ensure the design intent was held firmly intact throughout the multitude of “surprises” that come up when renovating a 100 year old house. A large curtain wall system was designed to span from the kitchen counter up into a reading nook in the bedroom, careful coordination with the structural team and glazing contractor was required to tie together the details. El Dorado fabricated a custom “razzle dazzle” louver system to act a sun and privacy screen for the bathroom windows, meticulous framing and detailing was excecuted to pull it off and make it all feel cohesive.

024119.A SELECTIVE DEMOLITION (RE: STRUCT.) 033000.A CAST-IN-PLACE CONCRETE

STEEL REINFORCING

JOINT FILLER STRIP

STEEL TUBE

STEEL

kivett & myers redux

whole house remodel site superintendant, cabinet shop drawings leawood, kansas

$950,000 contract architecture: forward design

Another long time collaborator with Hurst, Forward Design approached us with a mid century home in Westwood Hills who’s owner wanted to expand upon the original sensibilities and correct some of the 1980s adulterations. Taking the entire house down to studs, we retained a few original windows and select areas of salvagable claddings. I lead the team on site and quickly became the client’s trusted guide through the process. As these types of projects go, the further in we got the more troubling past construction methods we discovered - everything from a new commercial roof membrane to 14’ deep steel piers to shore up various spots around the foundations. We had the opportunity to provide value with new heated flooring, better energy efficiency, and much improved natural light and flow through the space due to the large glassy addition. The project has moved into interior finishes and is slated to be completed in late October.

Mccown Gordon Hq

custom casework / metalwork / wall cladding for construction company’s new headquarters commerical office project manager, fabrication

850 main st, kansas city, missouri

$250,000 contract bldwn design assist, detailing, shop drawing high end retail t.i. project manager, fabrication melrose place, los angeles, ca

Working with project client and general contractor McCown Gordon Construction, along with the design architect Helix Architecture, I managed the $250,000+ casework and custom interior component scopes. Managing an internal team to produce shop drawings from the CD set, I worked through multiple coordination issues — from sequencing to material selection and installation method. In addition to the large cabinetry scope, several unique elements — the below lobby feature wall and nearly 2,000 square feet of custom metal wall paneling — were detailed and fabricated from the architect’s schematic-level drawings. Simple, custom brackets were created to modulate large, ash hardwood slats that required careful layout and measurement to ensure proper alignment. Rather than multiple drafting exercises, I produced a Grasshopper script to standardize six rooms of matching aluminum wall paneling, capitalizing on numerical inputs to determine best fit. Due to the integrated nature of the scopes, I worked closely with members of all teams to ensure successful delivery; my unique position as designer-fabricator allowed me to seamlessly flow between often disparate worlds.

$260,000 contract concept sketches

Growing pains with new management and a subsequent new design direction led a staple client to pursue another design architect (Montalba Architects) for their new flagship store in the upscale Melrose shopping district of Los Angeles. Approached to bid on the fabrication of all the store’s custom millwork and metalwork scopes, I led the team for what ended up being equal parts design assist, construction administration, and high-end fabrication. My experience as an architect allowed me to facilitate communication with a multidisciplinary and new design time, ensuring tact was used to help turn the new designers intent into build-able pieces through smart detailing. Coordinating many aspects with the general contractor, including a pre-install field verification and selective demolition trip to install hidden brackets in the wall, I personally oversaw a dozen vendors and joined in weekly calls with BLDWN’s new president and the many representatives of the design team to ensure project success. From shop drawings, to MEP coordination, to custom hardware specification and change orders, what started as a seemingly simple fabrication bid became a broad and multifaceted collaboration.

Art Fabrication

design assist, detailing, documenation, installation art installations / sculpture project manager, fabrication various location in US

+/- $150,000 total contracts

During the summer of 2018, Kansas City was host to a new public art exhibition which took place across all parts of the city — the inaugeral Open Spaces. Artists, both local and international were approached to produce installations for public viewing, along with musical performances and other theatrical events during the 3 month exhibition. I had the opportunity to collaborate with three artists to take loose concepts (sometimes no more than a napkin sketch) and turn them into constructable realitites, in many cases working hand in hand with the artist from fabrication through installation all while coordinating a team of craftsmen, vendors and suppliers.

In 2019, I collaborated with Art Prize for their new public art initiative, Project One, which takes place for two months in various public locations throughout Grand Rapids, MI. Working with Brooklyn based Olalekan Jeyifous (Lek) I designed, detailed, implemented and installed his sculpture “The Boom + the Bust” on a extremely tight deadline, working with many local tradesmen and vendors to pull it off.