In addition to acting as COG’s Chief Product Officer, Thomas is Founder and Principal Architect of ORE Architecture and Technology, based in Brooklyn, New York.
Thomas’ design work balances his experience developing clean-tech proprietary with the project management rigor involved the delivery of award winning buildings. Thomas created the first scheme for a building powered by algae panels winning an international “Energy Revolution” Award in 2003 from the Royal Institute of Architects; Thomas created the first scalable, zero-energy atmospheric water generator named VENA in 2008, which spun off into the clean-tech companies Grow Energy and VENA Water. ORE was founded as a holistic design firm, reaching beyond its foundational architectural services to create new technologies and products that can pave the way for a better future.
Thomas specializes in lateral thinking with common technologies and materials, striving use these to bring health into the everyday experience and beauty into sustainability. ORE’s architectural practice engages in residential, commercial, and urban design, in which Thomas incorporates an integrative building design process to use building systems as that push the boundaries of today’s urban typology. ORE’s work includes 275 South Street Mixed Income Housing (ULI Award for Excellence in development) Riverpark Farm, and Square Roots: a hydroponic farm incubator; GrowNYC’s community, food-education center called Farmhouse. Dekalb Market won the 2012 NYC Design award and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s “Building Brooklyn Award,” the Riverpark Farm has won the Municipal Arts Society of New York’s “City Livability Award”, an Architizer “A+” award and was the Financial Times/Citigroup Ingenuity Award runner-up for revolutionary civic infrastructural design. Thomas recently won design: retail’s 40 under 40 award for his entrepreneurial incubator work in urban neighborhoods, and was named New Talent 2018 by Metropolis Magazine.
Thomas is an integral member of the Sea20 initiative – an international group made of industry leaders and heads of state with the mission to remediate Oceanic/Global pollution via a civic/sea interface redesign.
In addition to ORE, Thomas is currently serving as Chief Design Officer for the Electric Shuttle Company Alpha Mobility new line of Electric Shuttles.
ORE has offices in Brooklyn, NY; Los Angeles, CA; and Seoul, South Korea.
The Change Order Group 