Brian Pignanelli

Brian Pignanelli started with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Architecture from Tulane University. After pursuing Architecture for several years in both Colorado and New York, he stumbled into the world of systems architecture (kitchens). In 2001, at the behest of ArcLinea, he opened his first showroom in Cambridge and then eventually moved it to Boston. In 2004, he took his kitchens on the road to San Francisco, Santa Fe, and eventually back to Colorado, as he earned his architectural license in 2006. In 2014, now as a practicing architect, he completed an MBA at CU Boulder with the misguided notion that he could somehow leave design behind. Shortly after graduation, a good friend offered him this sage advice: “Now go do something you already know well, but do it better.” Being as he knew nothing better than kitchens, that advice led him straight back to systems architecture and the founding of Rifugio Modern, his new Denver design showroom. There he offers kitchens (ArcLinea), baths (Agape), closets and doors (Rimadesio), and furnishings (Zanotta). He’ll tell you without hesitation that this showroom has been in his head since 2002 and that it was simply inevitable. When design is in your blood there is no escaping it.