Industrial & Engineering Technology: Certified Kitchen Designer, CKD
Industrial & Engineering Technology
Certified Kitchen Designer, CKD: Rick Cowan
By Alice Keesing • Photos by Scott T. Kubo
Rick Cowan, co-owner/president of Archipelago Hawai‘i, CKD, had a hammer in his hand way back in small-kid times. He’s had an interesting and eclectic career since then—he’s worked in restaurants, for an environmental chemical company and as a windsurfing instructor—but the common thread has always been construction and design.
It started when Rick’s dad—an airline pilot, who was also very handy—built the family home on Maui.
“We all helped out, whether it was clearing land, nailing boards, painting—you name it, we did it,” Rick says.
Thanks to his mom, Rick also gained an early interest in the arts. While at Kailua High, he was heavily into ceramics and remembers how the school became the first to participate in the popular windward Raku Ho‘olaule‘a ceramic workshop.
After he graduated from high school, Rick was leaning toward a career in the arts, perhaps as a writer, actor or artist. For a time he worked in restaurants and did some side jobs in construction. He did more construction work while he was living in Los Angeles in the mid-’80s. And when he returned home to the Islands, he got a full-time job with a Maui contractor who was doing ground-up construction. He started off picking up scrap wood and making dump runs and ended up doing framing, tiling and finish work.
“That gave me a good solid foundation of what construction is about from beginning to end,” Rick says.
Rick veered back into his education in the ’90s, earning a geography degree at UH-M?noa. But when he graduated, he got back into construction. While he was with John Cook Kitchens, Rick learned about the world of kitchen design and how to manage high-end contracts.
“The kitchen is one of the most technically involved places in the home, next to the home entertainment center,” he says. You have to know the appliances and their space and electrical needs, there’s the plumbing to deal with, the countertop material, the cabinetry …
In 2004, Rick was trying to get hired as the showroom manager at kitchen and bath design company Studio Becker when the owner decided to sell the business. Rick and his sister, Tiare Cowan, who had her own interior design business, took the plunge and bought it.
Two years ago, they merged their two companies to form Archipelago Hawai‘i, which provides full design services—fine cabinetry, appliances, furnishings, fabrics and finishes. The award-winning design company also has become an industry leader in promoting the use of green products.
To run the company, Rick pulls on all the skills that he has learned in his diverse career path. The arts influence his design work. His writing interests help him with client contracts, office management and working with the media. His restaurant work gave him invaluable customer service skills. (It should always be about what the client wants, he says.) And knowing the construction business is a major asset when pulling a project together.
“I’ve had the tool belt on and I’ve banged nails and I’ve tried to install cabinets according to someone else’s plan,” he says. “I’ve seen the pitfalls and mistakes, how something can look great on paper, but in the field it doesn’t work. That all helps me now while I’m designing.”