Details

Here's Where We're At

Someone visits your site for the first time and they don't know who you are. There's a slideshow, a paragraph, and a footer. No clear mission, no clear methodology, no clear reason to keep scrolling.
You've been getting feedback that it's not clear who Tinkelman Architecture is, what you do, or what you stand for. You put together a whole competitive analysis against KSQ and the main takeaway was that they're clearer about their identity than you are on your own site.
The homepage video feels clunky where it's sitting. There's no dedicated place to tell your story — no Mission page, no firm culture section, nothing that gives someone insight into how you work or why you've been doing this for 30+ years.
The portfolio is buried behind a dropdown menu. There's no landing page for your work. No way for someone to see the full scope of what you do at a glance.
You've got 20+ projects that aren't on the site. An entire Hospitality category that doesn't exist yet — Baright Inn, Madison Resort, Marlborough Resort, Bonura Wedding Cottage — none of them are represented.
The project arrows at the bottom of each page send you to random unrelated projects instead of staying within the category.
Fonts aren't consistent across project labels.
The A&K Elite graphic on the 44 Springside page takes up too much space and overshadows the project itself.
The site feels static. No hover effects, no scroll animations, no sense of movement. You described it yourself — it doesn't breathe.
The News page hasn't been touched because nobody on the team knows how to update it without it being a production.
There's an email sign-up on the site and nobody knows where those submissions go. You wrote it yourself in your notes — "What does Email Sign-up do? Where does this go?"
Your About / Clients page is missing new client names and logos for work you've already completed.
You Googled yourself. You know you're not showing up the way you should. "Architecture firm Dutchess County" — bottom of page one. "Affordable housing architect Hudson Valley" — your bread and butter with NYS HCR and LIHTC projects — not on the first page at all. You have no Google Analytics set up and no way to see who's finding you or how.
The site is on Squarespace. KSQ is on Squarespace too and they've already hit the ceiling of what that platform can do. For the scope of what needs to happen here, staying on Squarespace means workarounds and limitations at every turn.

Here's What We're Doing About It

Platform Migration: The site is on Squarespace. KSQ is on Squarespace too and they've already maxed out what the platform can do. For the scope of what needs to happen here — 20+ new project pages, a new category, a new Mission page, portfolio restructure, custom navigation logic, hover effects, scroll animations, a News system your team can actually use — Squarespace is going to fight us at every turn. We're moving you to the platform we build all our clients on. Everything you currently like about the site — the branding, the fonts, the minimalist aesthetic — stays. Everything that isn't working gets rebuilt the right way on a foundation that can actually support it.
Homepage Restructure: Right now someone lands on your homepage and leaves without understanding who you are. We're rebuilding it so a first-time visitor knows within 10 seconds — this is a 30-year architecture firm that does affordable housing, hospitality, commercial, and community work in the Hudson Valley. Hero slogans from your messaging document integrated above the fold. Image scroll relabeled — Admiral Halsey II correctly tagged as "Affordable Housing," Hudson Valley Wine Village corrected to "Master Planning." Scroll images link directly to project pages instead of dumping people into a category group. Contact form added so when someone is ready to reach out, they don't have to go hunting for how.
Mission / Firm Culture Page: The site has no dedicated place to tell your story. We're building one. Your firm culture copy, your messaging slogans, your design methodology, your approach to client success — all on one page that answers the question you've been getting asked: who are you and what do you stand for. The homepage video gets relocated here where it actually makes sense and supports the narrative instead of sitting there on the homepage with no context.
Portfolio Landing Page: The dropdown menu buries your work. We're killing it and replacing it with a dedicated Portfolio landing page — six category tiles that let someone see the full scope of what you do at a glance: Housing, Hospitality, Commercial, Community, Historic, and Master Planning. Visual balance system so each category displays 3, 6, 9, or 12 projects and always looks intentional. One click and they're into the category they care about.
Project Page Navigation: The arrows at the bottom of each project page currently send people to random unrelated projects. We're rebuilding the navigation so arrows stay within the category. You're looking at a Housing project, the arrow takes you to the next Housing project. Not a commercial building in a different county.
Font Standardization: Project labels across the portfolio are inconsistent. Every label gets brought in line with the same font used on the homepage featured projects. Clean, consistent, professional across the entire site.
A&K Elite Repositioning: The graphic on the 44 Springside Avenue page is overshadowing the project itself. We're moving it to the bottom of the page where it still gets visibility without competing with your work.
20+ New Project Pages: You've got projects that should be on the site and aren't. We're building all of them — each with photo galleries, descriptions, SEO metadata, internal linking, and organized sections for blueprints and renderings so visitors can see your process from concept through completion.
- Housing — 5 new: Newburgh Ministry Legacy House, Marlborough Resort Staff Housing, 110 Mill Street, Logan Residence, Stanford Residence
- Hospitality — 4 new, entirely new category: Baright Inn, Madison Resort Hudson Valley, Marlborough Resort, Bonura Wedding Cottage
- Commercial — 5 new: Via Nova, Ransley Square, Botini 300 Westage, 48 Springside PVEDi Addition, Erie Materials. Adams Middletown renderings replaced with completed photography.
- Community — 4 new: Oakley Street Housing Support Center, Town of Plattekill Town Center, Dutchess County 911 Memorial, Dutchess County Emergency Response Center
- Master Planning — 2 new: Marlborough Resort, Poughkeepsie Waterfront
Hover Effects & Scroll AnimationsThe site feels static. You said it yourself — it doesn't breathe. We're adding hover zoom on portfolio thumbnails and scroll animations throughout so content flows into view as you move through the page. The site starts to feel alive instead of frozen.
News SystemThe News page hasn't been touched because updating it is a production nobody on the team wants to deal with. We're building a simplified system your team can manage directly — post an update in under two minutes, no technical knowledge required. Training walkthrough included so your staff is comfortable doing it on their own. On top of that, when you publish a News post it cross-posts to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram automatically — the same kind of setup Don described running for his nonprofit. Post once, it shows up everywhere.
Email Sign-Up ReplacementNobody on your team knows where those submissions are going. We're pulling it out and replacing it with a functional contact form that goes exactly where you need it to — straight to your inbox, no mystery.
About / Clients UpdateYou've taken on new clients that aren't represented on the site. We're adding the updated client names and logos so your About page actually reflects the firm as it stands today.
SEO ArchitectureYou Googled yourself and you already know the problem. "Architecture firm Dutchess County" — bottom of page one. "Affordable housing architect Hudson Valley" — not on the first page at all. Every project page we build gets structured with schema markup so Google knows what it is, where it is, and who designed it. Portfolio category pages get optimized for topical authority. Internal linking connects related projects across the site. And every single one of those 20+ new project pages becomes its own page that Google can rank — so when someone drives past one of your buildings and searches who designed it, you show up. Google Analytics gets set up so you can finally see who's finding you, where they're coming from, and what they're looking at.

What I'll Need From You

Once we move forward, I'll set up a shared Google Drive folder with everything organized and labeled. All you have to do is drop the files into the right place. Here's what I'm going to need:

Project Photography — Professional photos for each of the 20+ new project pages. For projects that aren't fully constructed yet, renderings work. As construction wraps and final photography comes in, I swap them out.

Blueprints & Design Process Materials — Floor plans, site plans, sketches, any internal design documentation you want showcased on the project pages. Whatever you're comfortable sharing publicly.

Project Descriptions — For each new project, a description of the scope, the client, and what made it unique.