Founder, Managing Partner
Dyke Nelson founded DNA Workshop in 2012 with a conviction he picked up early at Gensler — that architecture is a service industry, and the best buildings come from architects who genuinely understand their clients’ businesses. Today, DNA is a 50-person firm with offices in Baton Rouge, Dallas, and Richmond, licensed in 35 states and recognized as a national leader in affordable housing architecture.
As Managing Member, Dyke leads the firm’s work in LIHTC, HUD, historic tax credit, and mixed-use development. He brings a deep working knowledge of how these projects come together from pro forma to punch list — the financing structures, the underwriting constraints, the agency requirements, and the operational realities that determine whether a project gets built and how it performs once it does. That fluency shows up in DNA’s design: scopes that align with sources, drawings that hold up in construction, and buildings owners can run efficiently for decades.
Dyke has been in continuous practice for 30 years. Before founding DNA, he was a Partner and Lead Designer at Chenevert Architects and began his career at Gensler in San Francisco. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Auburn University. DNA’s adaptive reuse of a 1919 warehouse in Mid-City Baton Rouge received the top honor at the AIA Louisiana 2021 Design Awards
