Ask Duane Grove what a few of his favorite movies are and you may be surprised at the answer: “Sing”, “WALL-E”, “Zootopia” and most any film by PIXAR. But when you listen to his reasons, you begin to understand.

The artists who make these movies, Duane explains, get to create entirely new 3-D worlds, with their own looks and layers of texture. They get to determine how the characters react to the environment and everything in it.

In essence, it’s much the same way Duane approaches creating environments for his clients. He puts himself into the shoes of those who will enter the space and imagines how they will interact with it—how they will move through it, what they will find comforting or inspiring or just allow them to do their jobs easier and more efficiently.

As an architect who has the skills to use 3-D modeling programs himself, Duane can also create and modify his ideas in real time, providing clients with a clear understanding of his vision. He believes that design is an active process, and that clients must be comfortable with every decision along the way. It’s an approach that earns Duane a big “thumbs up” project after project.