Gordon Magnin
Gordon Magnin is a registered licensed architect and professional engineer in California and Nevada. He is a National Council of Architectural Design (NCARB) certificate holder and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green associate.
Gordon has over 20 years of building and architecture experience on a wide variety of projects ranging from custom homes, hospitality, restaurants/bars, multifamily, institutional, and industrial/commercial projects of all scales and complexity levels. His background includes a number of years working in structural and civil engineering, which have proven to be very beneficial in his architectural practice by giving him the technical skills and knowledge to implement and coordinate these trades in the earliest stages of project development.
Gordon holds a Master’s Degree in architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI_arc) and a Bachelor’s of Science in Structural Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno.
Gordon holds a Master’s Degree in architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI_arc) and a Bachelor’s of Science in Structural Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno. He has also received a citation award from the Northern Nevada AIA (American Institute of Architects) for his “Quiet Walk” project in Tahoma Lake Tahoe.
Gordon has a long history tied to the Reno/Tahoe region. He was born and raised in Reno, Nevada, attended local schools through college and moved to Los Angeles for graduate school. He continued working in the Southern California area until achieving professional licensure. After their first son was born in Los Angeles, Gordon and his family decided to move back to Reno where he worked for two award winning architects before starting his own in practice in 2018.
Gordon is also a highly accomplished artist and illustrator with numerous publications, including illustrations for the New York Times, Bloomberg Business week and many art/editorial books. He still has a keen interest in contemporary art.
When Gordon is not working, he is spending time with his family outdoors, camping, running, hiking, backpacking or just exploring the natural environment of Tahoe, the Eastern Sierras, or the high desert of Nevada and great basin.
Awards
2024 Citation Award State of NV AIA Hadjuk Residence
2024 Sustainable Design Excellence State of NV AIA Hillman Residence
2020 Citation Award State of NV AIA Cabin Obscura
2019 Citation Award State of NV AIA QUite Walk
Publications
Design Philosophy
Modern Custom Home Designs
There are no templates for Modern Architecture. That’s why we work closely with our clients to turn their custom dream home designs into reality. Together, we pursue singularity in concept and form. Clean and simple, but also beautiful and rich. We put an emphasis on the expression of each design, removing unnecessary clutter. That allows us to hone in on our clients’ vision, concepts and needs. We specialize in sustainable, green design for residential and commercial projects of any scale or budget. We love the challenge of small projects.
Process
Magnin Architecture is a full-service design firm. That means we work with our clients from the earliest concept stages and encourage dialogue and inquiry. All questions matter and oftentimes inform and add richness to the work and process. We’re part of every step of the planning process, from land selection to feasibility studies. We consider the site, orientation, views and keeping a sensitive footprint that fits naturally with the environment. Together with our clients we choose the best materials to fit their project. We make use of environmental factors to support the driving architectural and interior concepts and bring all of this information to the design phase where the structure starts to come to. Most of all, we want the design process to be enjoyable for our clients, so we make it a unique, creative and collaborative experience.
Technology
Magnin Architecture is a Revit based/building information modeling (BIM) office. We start all of our projects in 3D, which is presented to clients in earliest design meetings. We find this technology and approach to be very helpful for those that have difficulty in reading floor plans or other modes of architectural representation. We create digital walk-throughs and animations to take you inside of your project before it is built, which allows us to iterate design options quickly and clearly, but more importantly, communicate to the client all aspects of the design. This technology also allows us to hire a consultant team that also works in BIM and can coordinate directly from our 3D model and avoid conflicts and errors in the construction drawings, which would be hard to detect otherwise. Our office prides itself on being tech savvy, we are available for any method of communication to engage with his clients and keep the dialogue going throughout the project.