Founding Architect
Jonathan Elmore
Jonathan Elmore is the founding architect of Design Intelligence, an architecture studio in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Before returning home to the River Valley, he spent a decade leading design and visualization teams in New York City — managing projects for Rockwell Group, directing studios at Binyan and Visualhouse, and leading workplace design at Architecture + Information — work that took him from Hudson Yards towers to a casino atrium in Macau. He brings that caliber of design back to the people and places he grew up with.
The Long Road Home
Jonathan’s path to architecture ran through the back of a CH-53E Super Stallion. As a Marine Corps crew chief (2001-2006) he earned three Air Medals and Combat Aircrew Wings before trading the flight line for the drafting table — first at University of Arkansas Fort Smith, then a Bachelor of Architecture at the Fay Jones School of Architecture in Fayetteville.
From there, New York: at Rockwell Group he managed high-end hospitality and commercial projects worldwide and developed custom furniture alongside the firm’s lead designers. In Denver he designed single-family and multifamily housing. Back in New York he became a senior manager at Binyan Studios (2018 Client Services award) and then director of Visualhouse’s New York studio, running CGI, animation, and branding productions across London, New York, and Los Angeles. At Architecture + Information and later Mancini Duffy (through 2024) he led teams of architects and designers from concept through construction — including the Publicis Le Truc creative floor, winner of Interior Design’s Best of Year Award, 2023 Small Creative Office.
In March 2026 he founded Design Intelligence in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Selected Experience
Publicis Le Truc (Best of Year 2023) · MGM Cotai “The Spectacle” · 15 Hudson Yards · Chef’s Club NYC · Pernod Ricard HQ · 60 Guest St Boston · US Bank Tower LA
Credentials
Registered Architect, Arkansas
B.Arch, Fay Jones School of Architecture, University of Arkansas
AAS, Architectural Drafting & Design, University of Arkansas Fort Smith
United States Marine Corps, 2001-2006 — CH-53E crew chief, three Air Medals
A note from Jonathan —
After fifteen years designing high-rise tower spaces and global hospitality brands alongside world-renowned firms, I came home. Design Intelligence is built to work the way people actually live now: fully remote, running the same AI-integrated design tools I used on Manhattan projects, which means I can serve clients anywhere in the United States without an office between us.
But the reason this studio exists is closer to home than that. Rural Arkansas deserves high design — the River Valley is full of people building real lives who have never been offered the kind of architecture the big cities take for granted, and I intend to change that.
Whether you need a single visualization, a site study before you commit to a piece of land, or full architectural design from the first sketch to the final walkthrough, reach out. I will gladly come to you — we can walk your site, talk through your ideas, and figure out together what is possible. The first conversation costs you nothing.