Scott McClelland is a rare find and we at SDG Architecture are so grateful to have him on our team. An architect by trade but a humanitarian at heart. Not only does he design spaces for our clients, but he also creates space to welcome, nourish and provide for those less fortunate. He embodies the character we all strive to have. His background is unique and starting off as a draftsman at the young age of 15 puts him at over 40 years of experience.

Scott was fortunate to work under his mother, Phylis Wolf as she worked her way up from draftsman to Mechanical Engineer at Burton & Rolley Consulting Engineers. He started drafting the mechanicals for the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, this is when he realized he wanted to go into the design field. It wasn’t until he was given a job at Kimbrough & Associates that he was able to really start to understand architecture. Churches and schools were his first break into architectural drafting.

In 1991 Scott attended the College of Architecture at the University of Florida. Only 8 out of 30 that applied got in based on their presentations using their models, renderings, and grades. He became licensed in 2007 while working for Hoffman Architects where he was designing schools. Right after becoming licensed, the great recession hit.  Luckily Scott was able to stay afloat doing remodels and additions for the Subway shop chain. Funny fact about Scott, he eats a subway sandwich every week.

A Heart for Serving

During this tough time, Scott was very saddened by the homeless in his community. He took it upon himself one lunch break to walk over and meet Dee Chastain, owner of Beacon Street Ministries. He helped with free architectural services for their newly donated space in Largo and started volunteering to feed the hungry on Friday and Saturdays. Scott has been doing this now for over 10 years and helped them get a Saturday market going to provide free groceries for those in need.

 

Becoming the qualifying architect in 2010 for Inside Out Group, he was able to work on the Clearwater Aquarium which was a project he really enjoyed. He also worked on the most residential projects of his career while with Inside Out Group. SDG has Scott as the qualifying architect for the residential division, Shorelines Design Group. Scott mainly designs new homes as well as remodels and additions. “I feel comfortable with residential projects, it’s a more manageable scope. Commercial projects can run wild, and it’s hard to manage time frames. It can be less personable with commercial design since you hand off to so many consultants, residential allows you to interact with clients more which I really enjoy,” says Scott.

Times have changed so much over the past 40 years. “Technology has expedited design and construction. This can be a good and bad thing in my opinion. It is good when sharing ideas and important details for collaboration, but it’s bad because quality can get lost. The typical quantity over quality starts to happen,” says Scott. We at SDG know how important quality is and always strive to make this happen for our homeowners, developers, builders, and consultants.

photos by: Suzie Lopes Photography