David Dowell has been a partner at architecture firm El Dorado for more than 25 years. He founded the Design+Make Studio at Kansas State University 12 years ago, the latest iteration in a teaching career that spans back to 1991 at institutions from the University of California, Berkeley (MArch, ’94); the Technical University in Dresden, Germany; Kansas City Art Institute; Washington University in St. Louis (BA in Architecture, ’89); and the University of Kansas.
Established in Kansas City in 1996, El Dorado is an integrated architecture, urban design, curatorial, educational, and fabrication practice. Their ethos is born of the Midwest: its frugality, its pragmatism, and its commitment to allowing and cultivating risk. But they go where projects and people take them, which is why they opened a second studio in Portland, bringing their accessibility and penchant for big ideas to the US West Coast.
El Dorado’s history with the Crossroads Arts District goes back to the earliest days, even before a name for the district existed. The very first iteration of El Dorado at 1712 Main Street consisted of a small architecture studio, a steel fabrication shop, and a 4000 square foot gallery / community space. This cross-disciplinary, multimodal set up established a DNA that is still active today, put into action across the United States and internationally. To date, El Dorado has completed dozens of architectural, urban design and streetscape projects in the Crossroads including the TWA Corporate Headquarters rehabilitation, the Crossroads Hotel, the Freighthouse Site (home to Lidia's, Grunaer, and Jackstack BBQ), Pedestrian Strands, 20th Street Concept Plan & Implementation Oversight, Baltimore/Wyandotte Streetscape (in need of support from CCA to implement), Novel restaurant and, soon, another fantastic concept restaurant for two of Kansas City’s culinary superstars.
El Dorado’s work has been broadly published in Places Journal, The New York Times, DWELL, Architect Magazine, Metropolis, Vogue, Architectural Record, Architectural Digest, Landscape Architecture, and Aeroflot Inflight. Their projects are routinely posted on Architizer, ArchDaily, Treehugger, Dezeen, Slate, and Inhabit.
Awards and peer-reviewed accolades include A/N’s 2022 Best Small Firm-Midwest; #5 Design Firm, 2019 Architect 50; Curbed Groundbreakers; Emerging Voices, Architectural League of New York; four 2023 PLAN IT Awards finalists; multiple AZ Awards, a handful of American Architecture Awards; numerous local, regional and national AIA Awards; multiple Interior Design Best of Year awards, one SCUP Award; one SEED Award; two Les Grube Memorial Design Awards; one Canadian Architecture Award; one National Historic Preservation Honor Award; and multiple ACSA Design Build awards.
