Zach Downey, RA LEED AP BD+C
Chief Innovation Officer,
Director of Research and Strategy
With over 11 years as an innovator, architect, business owner, and software developer, Zach has a depth of experience in architectural and construction technology. Zach is focused on new ways of looking at old problems, utilizing technology to change the construction industry, and shift the paradigm for how buildings are made.
Zach is the founder and a contributor to Designalyze (www.designalyze.com) an innovation and technology website for the past 8 years and serving as an experimentation platform for researching new technologies. Last year Designalyze was spun out into a podcast that now boasts 40 episodes with leading figures in the design technology community and over 30,000 downloads featuring interviews with design technology leaders from across the industry which have helped position Zach as a leader in design technology, innovation, and discourse.
Prior to working at Full Stack Modular, Zach Downey received his Bachelor of Architecture from Virginia Polytechnic and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia (2005). He worked at SMBW Architects in Richmond, Virginia (2005 – 2007) where he contributed to the firm winning the 2007 Virginia Firm of the Year award. While at SMBW he worked on 403 Stockton Street, was the lead designer of the Manchester Design District Masterplan which won a state AIA Honor Award for un-built work, was a designer on the Luck Stone Corporate Headquarters and then became the project manager during the construction of the headquarters.
Zach joined SHoP Architects in 2007 and has assisted in a various number of projects in the office as a Digital Design Specialist helping teams achieve specific project tasks. He has conducted workshops and lectures nationally on design technology and parametric modeling, most recently at Columbia University, Parsons, The University of Arizona, University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech and has also been an adjunct professor at Columbia University and City University of New York (CUNY) College of Architectural Technology. He has written for several publications, including A+U u0026amp; Yale University’s Constructs. In 2009 Zach became the Director of the Applied Technology Group at SHoP and has since been involved in many projects to orchestrate Building Information Modeling deliverables.
Zach left SHoP in Late 2011 to cofound Parabox. Parabox is a technology company focusing on exploiting emerging technologies to provide seamless data management for all processes directly related to the construction and facility management process, including initial designs, procurement information, as-builts, and engineering specifications for Ou0026amp;M.
Zach successfully transitioned Parabox to CASE / WeWork in an acquisition in 2015. While at CASE / WeWork, Zach served as a Senior Building Information Specialist and Product Manager, where he worked with a team of developers to build a real estate platform and internal business systems.
Zach Joined FC Modular in 2015 as the Technology and Innovation Manager. While at FC Modular he developed tools to optimize module layouts and configurations for buildings. These tools allowed FC Modular to surface insights to make business decisions and strategically target building sites and configurations to optimize the factory production efforts.
His responsibilities will include:
- Identifying new and emerging markets and market disruptions
- Building, researching and testing innovation tools and processes to assist product development from sales to delivery
- Utilizing design automation to minimize effort and maximize effect
