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TZL: What role does your family play in your career? Are work and family separate, or is there overlap? LC: As a third-generation, family-owned firm, there is no separation! Celebrating our 40th anniversary this year, I’ve been reflecting on what family means as well as what it means to “grow up” in the business. My parents joined my grandfather in Chicago and started the architecture firm in earnest in 1979. For a long time, it was just the two of them working together with a handful of employees until growth took off in the early ‘90s. They would come home from work every day and we would talk about our days around the dinner table, which always ended in talk about work. This history allows me to have a holistic view of the industry and how we can most successfully run our business, from architectural and design expertise to the personnel items that pepper the week. Even though my parents are no longer involved in the daily operations, my brother, Kyle, and I are proud to carry on the firm’s legacy. TZL: What, if anything, are you doing to protect your firm from a potential economic slowdown in the future? LC: Our firm is well-known across the restaurant and retail sectors, growing brands nationally while providing architectural expertise. In the last decade, we have focused on becoming known for our design expertise as well, in addition to growing smaller brands and providing the infrastructure stability and process development they may not internally have on staff. We are continuing to diversify across sectors, successfully developing hotels, multi-family residential properties, and senior living communities. Cross-training our team members and making sure they are well-rounded allows us to be prepared to respond quickly and be an agile company in the next recession. TZL: What novel approaches are you bringing to recruitment, and how are your brand and differentiators performing in the talent wars? LC: We pride ourselves on a flexible workplace and the ability to truly reach a work/life balance in an industry that has historically consisted of late nights and weekends in the office. With flex hours, summer hours, and investment in a
mobile workflow, we invest heavily in our company culture to create an atmosphere of appreciation and transparency. We are proud to cater in hot breakfast every Monday morning, provide free yoga instruction Friday morning, and host four to five events every month, including athletic leagues, wine and cheese socials, and the always popular National Pickle Day! We believe that an environment where our team members feel valued is an environment in which they will thrive. “All of our leadership members have a unique skill set that makes them indispensable to the firm, however a number of things set them apart: design and/or architectural expertise, TZL: Is change management a topic regularly addressed by the leadership at your firm? If so, elaborate. LC: I am honored to be able to work with my brother, Kyle, who is our process manager. You have never met a man more adept at leading and communicating change management. Working with team members one-on-one as well as addressing holistic challenges on a firm-wide level, Kyle finds solutions through custom- developed platforms for addressing every facet of our business, from our QA/QC process, project scheduling, accounting set-ups, and tracking the passage of time as well as developing tools for our clients to streamline their internal processes. He has spoken on panels and written white papers for such CDA-implemented platforms including Smartsheet, Bluebeam, and Miro. TZL: Research shows that PMs are overworked, understaffed, and that many firms do not have formal training programs for PMs. What is your firm doing to support its PMs? LC: In growing our team members and the accounts on which they work, we have created numerous training and mentorship programs including CDAcademy (monthly, targeted training sessions for every level of team member), Lessons Learned (catered lunch series See STRONGER TOGETHER, page 8 leadership and mentorship excellence, and the innate ability to problem solve.”
HEADQUARTERS: Chicago, IL NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 145 employees YEAR FOUNDED: 1979 NUMBER OF OFFICE LOCATIONS: Five offices in five states: ❚ ❚ Chicago, IL ❚ ❚ Los Angeles, CA ❚ ❚ Atlanta, GA ❚ ❚ New York, NY ❚ ❚ Denver, CO OUR SERVICES: ❚ ❚ Architecture ❚ ❚ Interior design ❚ ❚ Branded environment ❚ ❚ Visualization ❚ ❚ Prototype development ❚ ❚ Sustainable design ❚ ❚ Kitchen planning ❚ ❚ Lighting design ❚ ❚ National site adaptation of prototypes ❚ ❚ Property improvement plans OUR MARKETS: ❚ ❚ Retail
❚ ❚ Hospitality ❚ ❚ Restaurant
© Copyright 2019. Zweig Group. All rights reserved.
ember 23, 2019, ISSUE 1313
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