About the Agency

Founded in 2012, ABOVE THE FOLD represents a diverse roster of international talent & firms with a focus on the built environment. Our work makes precedent-setting design more accessible to clients, communities, and cities.

Combining research, history, storytelling, marketing, and curation, we encourage discovery, reduce barriers to entry, and minimize sunk costs for clients and design teams.

Focusing on short-term hits for long-term gains, ABOVE THE FOLD’s approach, methodology, and services have proven to advance the profiles, practices, and portfolios of architects, landscape architects, urban designers, interior designers, photographers, artists, and other creatives.

Proactive, collaborative, and curious, ABOVE THE FOLD has advised on 70+ projects totaling over $10 billion in construction value on six continents since its founding.

  • Founded in New York City, ABOVE THE FOLD relocated to Detroit in 2015 to realize the agency’s interest in curating design teams for clients. For nearly a decade—through writing, volunteering, and advising—the agency has promoted the vital and integral role of contemporary design in the city’s resurgence. Key projects demonstrating ABOVE THE FOLD’s contribution to Detroit’s architecture and real estate include True North (2017/2018); Glass Mural (2021); The Shepherd and Little Village (2024); Building in a Building (2025); and The Canopy (2024/2025), among others.

  • Balancing listening and intuitive thinking, ABOVE THE FOLD’s creative direction services focus on identifying what makes each client unique based on their ideas, interests, and experience. Working on short-term projects and providing ongoing support, ABOVE THE FOLD collaborates on defining clients’ authentic voices, crafting their presence, and amplifying their ability to win opportunities that are important to them and their practice.

  • Approaching architecture as the art of economics, ABOVE THE FOLD curates design teams for clients who might not have the means and/or requirements to join a competition and/or RFQ/RFP process. Honed over many years with a deep understanding of precedent projects, we excel at helping decision-makers discover the right design team, for the right project, and at the right time. Beginning with housing, cultural, and commercial projects in Detroit, ABOVE THE FOLD’s ability to match clients and design teams for a variety of projects is wide-ranging, far-reaching, and unprecedented.

  • Focusing on traditional business development through competitions and RFQs/RFPs, ABOVE THE FOLD proactively leverages insight and a robust network to collaborate with clients on sourcing, tracking, teaming, pursuing, shortlisting, and ultimately being commissioned to design public and private projects in the U.S. and internationally. Our work includes achieving many firms’ “first” project in a new typology or region of the world.

  • Whether working independently or part of a larger team, ABOVE THE FOLD develops and executes public relations campaigns that get clients noticed. Working across all phases of a project or a client’s career, ABOVE THE FOLD strategizes and secures online and print media placements, speaking engagements, exhibitions, publications, events, and other public relations opportunities, catapulting their visibility and expanding their recognition.

  • Academic | Adaptive Reuse | Affordable Housing | Airports | Apartments | Art Galleries | Books | Cafés | Campuses | Cities | Color | Commerce | Communities | Competitions | Construction | Culture | Education | Entertainment | Exhibitions | Embassies | Food | Gardens | Government | Green Rooftops | Headquarters | Hospitality | Hotels | Houses | Housing | Human Comfort | Installations | Interior Design | Landscape Architecture | Libraries | Master Planning | Materials | Mixed-Use Development | Multi-Family Residential | Museums | Net-Zero | New Construction | Parks | Performing Arts | Photography | Public Art | Renderings | Renovations | Residential | Restaurants | Retail | Schools | Senior Housing | Shops | Student Centers | Sustainable Design | Tall Buildings | Travel | Universities | Upcycling | Urban Design | Visualizations | Waste | Wellness | Workplace

  • John Patrick

    FOUNDER

    Originally from West Texas and Seattle, John Patrick founded ABOVE THE FOLD in New York City in 2012 and relocated to Detroit in 2015. He holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Tulane University in New Orleans. Gaining international education and professional experience early on, John has studied abroad in Central America and Europe and worked at some of the world’s leading architecture firms in the U.S., Denmark, and the Netherlands.

    Building on his background in economics, real estate and metropolitan development, John leads ABOVE THE FOLD’s team and oversees all aspects of the agency’s operations and strategies for talent and firms operating in different disciplines and regions of the world. In addition, he is a licensed real estate agent and advisor who has experience designing and developing abandoned buildings. His work has been published and recognized by Crain’s Detroit Business, Cultured Magazine, Commercial Observer, Detroit Design, HOUR Detroit, The New York Times, and The Real Deal, among others.

  • Brooke Dexter © Sue Schaffner

    Brooke Dexter

    PRESS OFFICER

    Born and raised in Michigan, Brooke Dexter joined ABOVE THE FOLD as Press Officer in 2024. She holds a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Michigan in addition to a B.S. in Architecture with a minor in Urban & Community Studies. Prior to joining the agency, she was the Director of Communications at Field Operations, a leading landscape architecture and urban design firm, and a Marketing & Graphics Associate at SITU. During this time in NYC, she was the Co-Chair for the AIANY Marketing & Communications Committee.

    Leveraging her background in architecture and communications, Brooke collaborates with ABOVE THE FOLD’s roster on holistic press campaigns inclusive of interviews, features, awards, speaking engagements, conferences, exhibitions, grants, and other public relations opportunities. During her time at U of M, she was the Editor in Chief for award-winning volumes of the Michiganensian and an editor for Dimensions at Taubman College.

  • Ryan Smith

    PROJECTS COORDINATOR

    Based in New York City, Ryan Smith is a Projects Coordinator at ABOVE THE FOLD. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Architecture. Prior to joining the agency, Ryan practiced architecture at Detroit-based architecture firms. His work involves overseeing projects leads and collaborating with ABOVE THE FOLD’s team and roster on winning work aligned with their goals.

Commentary

“Working with John Patrick was one of the most productive decisions I have made as a developer. After meeting him my body of work elevated to another level with my first ground-up development, True North, being an internationally recognized and awarded project.”

— Real Estate Developer

“ABOVE THE FOLD is like a boot camp for design offices. Not only does the agency offer a unique service, John Patrick offers a unique perspective. He has helped me understand what I do from a developer's perspective, which in turn shaped the way we communicate to the outside world. From a business developmental perspective, he has whipped the company into shape with concise direction on the materials my office issues. Whether in the form of a bullet-point memo, or on occasion jumping on InDesign to setup templates, John Patrick is the perfect storm of insight and action.”

— Bi-Coastal Interior Design Firm

”I am pleased you positioned our team in the way it’s going. I think we have a very good chance.”

— Landscape Architect

“We were connected to ABOVE THE FOLD as we began looking for the right architects for
 an extremely ambitious and meaningful project. ABOVE THE FOLD played a pivotal role in our project’s evolution and progress. John Patrick’s passion and wealth of knowledge 
in design, architecture, and culture are inspiring. He has the rare combination of deep understanding of what constitutes great art, the inner workings of his field, and the best way to handle the press, communications, and marketing. He shepherded us through it all professionally and generously with his time and thoughts, and still is a great ally to our mission of building spaces that embody a sense of well-being and an encounter with a spiritual experience.”

— Cultural Institution