TZL 1401 (web)

ON THE MOVE WAREMALCOMBANNOUNCES JIMENA FERNANDEZ NAVARRA HAS JOINED FIRM AS DIRECTOR, INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN IN MEXICO CITY Ware Malcomb , an award-winning international design firm, announced that Jimena Fernandez Navarra has joined the firm as director, Interior Architecture & Design for the Mexico City office. In this role, Fernandez is responsible for the growth and management of the Interior Architecture & Design Studio and oversees all interiors projects for the Mexico City office. Fernandez brings more than 18 years of interior architecture and design expertise to the Ware Malcomb team. She has designed more than 2,000,000 square meters of projects, and has extensive experience in the office, hospitality, retail and residential sectors. Fernandez is well known as a thought leader in the design industry and has led many award-winning projects throughout her career. “We are excited to welcome Jimena to our team in Mexico City,” said Andres Galvis,

regional director, Latin America. “Her thought leadership in the design industry will elevate our interior architecture and design offerings in this dynamic market.” Fernandez was recently named Top 10 Best Architects in Mexico by Expansion Magazine and El Heraldo de Mexico in 2021. She is a LEED Accredited Professional and actively participates in several commercial real estate industry organizations, including membership in CREW Network. In addition to her industry involvement, she has a passion for teaching. Fernandez teaches interior architecture and design courses at two universities in Mexico, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and Universidad Anáhuac. She also helped create the curriculum for the interior design course at Universidad Anáhuac Puebla. Fernandez holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Universidad Anáhuac and a master’s degree from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in Advanced Technology Buildings. She is currently pursuing a second master’s

degree in interior design from Instituto Científico Técnico y Educativo. Established in 1972, Ware Malcomb is a contemporary and expanding full service design firm providing professional architecture, planning, interior design, civil engineering, branding and building measurement services to corporate, commercial/residential developer and public/institutional clients throughout the world. With office locations throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico, the firm specializes in the design of commercial office, corporate, industrial, science and technology, healthcare, retail, auto, public/ institutional facilities and renovation projects. Ware Malcomb is recognized as an Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private company and a Hot Firm by Zweig Group. The firm is also ranked among the top 15 architecture/engineering firms in Engineering News-Record ’s Top 500 Design Firms and the top 25 interior design firms in Interior Design magazine’s Top 100 Giants.

MATT HOYING, from page 9

the field through conversation with experienced staff and/ or in your regular project update meetings. Then make it the mentee’s responsibility to ask the mentor if he or she can come along. This not only gets the less experienced staff on the job site, but also provides opportunities for them to step out of their comfort zones and ask for help from people who may seem like wise, old veterans. Of course, this only works if said veteran is willing to teach. Make it clear that helping a younger or less-experienced coworker learn is both well worth the time and effort for the individuals and the firm. ❚ ❚ Provide the time. Recognize that the activities mentioned can take considerable time, both for your construction experience champion to research and facilitate and for those who are participating. Perhaps participants will be driving an hour to a site where bridge beams are being set or an experienced project manager will be spending an extra 30 minutes on-site giving less-experienced coworkers a rundown of what’s happening and why. Be OK with that. Make sure your people understand that this will take time “on the clock” and that’s intentional. Nothing says, “this is not important” like “don’t use any of your regular hours/production time to work on this.” Firms already can’t afford to lose construction experience to retirement or turnover, let alone excuses that this initiative isn’t a productive use of resources. Any investment requires giving of something now for tomorrow’s gain, and this is not different. Do we want to be better at our jobs next year or not? While construction experience isn’t something that can magically happen overnight, or even over a couple of years, putting systems in place to help expose less experienced staff to more construction environments and processes will be worthwhile. Use the resources you have – your people and your projects – to create a learning environment for all. With a firmwide commitment and some intentionality, this too is a challenge we can design a solution for. MATT HOYING is president at Choice One Engineering. Connect with him on LinkedIn .

one is excited, you may have a bigger problem than lack of construction experience.) Seek out that person (or a team of people) and give them the opportunity and the freedom to make construction learning experiences a priority for the company. Have them organize field trips to your firm’s construction sites on key construction days, set up tours of fabrication facilities (a pre-cast structure manufacturer or asphalt plant, for instance), bring in contractors to review what challenges they had turning the plans into reality, and research videos of construction applications and methods to share firmwide. Keep in mind that the champion of this initiative does not have to be someone who has a lot of construction experience – you can let him or her learn along with the others. Indeed, someone without a lot of construction experience will ask great questions and will potentially have more drive to help both themselves and others. “Understanding how construction is accomplished helps engineers consider construction during design, aids in conversations with owners and contractors, and creates a better set of plans for a project that a contractor can have confidence in bidding tighter.” ❚ ❚ Put the responsibility on the mentees. We want to imagine that our firm’s seasoned project managers will remember (and desire) to take a less-experienced designer with them each time they head into the field. Realistically, however, we have often overwhelmed these people with other responsibilities, and this may not happen without a lot of reminding. Put that responsibility on the less-experienced employee. Help the less experienced recognize opportunities to get out in

THE ZWEIG LETTER JULY 26, 2021, ISSUE 1401

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