Hello; thank you for viewing my professional portfolio. My name is Brian Bussie, and I am a Residential Designer from Bossier City, Louisiana and now based in Ames, Iowa, with a professional design and drafting career spanning over 25 years.

At a very young age, I developed an interest in building design and construction. At about the age of 11-12, my interest in building design began to surpass my interest in construction, and I began to seek out books on the subject. Every chance I got, I would ask my parents to take me to the public library where I would check out books on design and drafting.

There were many times - pretty much every day - when my friends would want to go out and do things, and I would pass just so I could stay home in my den and draw houses on my mother’s antique library table. That table became my favorite spot. I would stand over it, as if it were a drafting table, and draw house plans. Little did I know, this would set off a lifetime love for building design.

When I got to high school, I signed up for drafting and shop classes, hoping to hone my skills more. While I would eventually discover that neither of these classes actually focused on building design and construction, the techniques learned in both classes were helpful in my future career. Basic drafting and construction principles, the tools to use for both, and the thought processes involved, would further shape my young mind, leading me further down the road I wanted to be on.

While in my Junior year in high school, I was given the opportunity to join some of my fellow students in taking adult vocational classes at the local Vo-Tech school, where I chose to take Drafting & Design Technology as my course. I learned to draft by hand and on AutoCAD from a great instructor, who has since passed away, and I will forever be grateful to him for his kindness, knowledge and leadership.

At age 19, I was offered my very first drafting job, where I learned to draw house plans, do material takeoffs, and ultimately, design homes. I learned from a man who was a life-long carpenter and a great designer. To him, as well, I will forever be grateful. He took me under his wing and taught me more about construction and design, and took me to job sites to show me more of how everything went together. During this time, I also took it upon myself to take a carpentry course at the local community college and learned the basics of carpentry. We learned to frame floors and walls, cut rafters, cut stairs, etc. This helped me when I designed homes and did material takeoffs, and has stuck with me all these years with making design decisions.

Over the past 15 years, I have worked in the oil & gas industry, the civil engineering industry and the agricultural industry, but I always return to home design. Even while working in those industries, I continued to design homes on my own. I have done work for architects, builders, and private clients. Over the years, I have worked on home designs in Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Iowa, New York, Arizona, and North Carolina. Some of my favorite designs were in the Texas Hill Country, where I worked on three different multi-million dollar home designs for an architecture firm. I was not the design lead on these three homes, but I gained a lot of knowledge on high-end custom designs through my time working on these projects. I have worked on designs ranging from around $100,000 to nearly $5,000,000.

Thank you, once again, for taking the time to read about my experience, from the early years to the present. I hope this helps you to realize that residential design is my absolute passion and something I plan to do until the day I can no longer work.