Design Development

Can strict technical requirements and elegant design coexist? Jay Siebenmorgen says yes. As Design Partner at NBBJ, Jay has spent over 30 years working on hospitals, research labs, and higher education buildings — some of the most technically demanding spaces in architecture — and made beauty a non-negotiable. Jay walks through the exploratory design process behind 325 Binney Street — Moderna&apos...

When James von Klemperer joined Kohn Pedersen Fox, the firm was still early in its story: growing quickly, defining its culture, and creating real opportunity for young architects. Today, the firm has reached 50 years in business, with hundreds of employees across nine global offices, and James has helped carry forward a culture built around authorship, opportunity, and the belief that great archi...

Paul Zeckser didn’t follow the traditional path into construction. He’s not an architect, engineer, or contractor – instead, he built a career in tech. But as the Co-Founder and CEO of LightTable, he is solving one of construction’s most expensive problems: helping project teams catch drawing and coordination issues before they become RFIs, change orders, and delays. LightTable was built around an...

Four years into his architecture career, Stefano Basso returned to school for a Master's in Construction Management. Not to change professions.  To better understand how contractors think, what they need from architects, and where friction between the two begins.   This decision reflects how Stefano has approached much of his work at SV Design: with curiosity about the full project process, n...

Addie Grady has built her career at the intersection of housing, sustainability, and urban development. Today, her expertise is focused on a very specific location: Bunker Hill. As Senior Vice President and Partner at Leggat McCall Properties, a Boston-based real estate firm with more than $3B in assets developed as principal and an active pipeline of $1.5B, Addie serves as Executive Director of t...

Nick Pasquenza has spent more than 25 years in commercial real estate, leading complex projects and the teams behind them across design, construction, and delivery. Throughout his roles, he has developed a deep expertise in the full arc of urban development, establishing a clear conviction: if you don't understand how buildings are valued, you don't truly understand the impact of the dec...

Fred Kramer joined ADD Inc. when it was a 15-person operation focused entirely on suburban Boston office buildings. Over the next three decades, he rose to President, blending his business discipline with design ambition.  Under Fred's leadership, the firm diversified into multifamily housing, higher education, and interior design - scaling into a 250-person multi-sector powerhouse before its...

In 2008, Greg Minott and co-founder Troy Depeiza launched DREAM Collaborative with a clear conviction: architecture, planning, and real estate development should exist under one roof.  Now, seventeen years later, DREAM stands as Boston's leading minority-owned integrated design and development firm with a portfolio that has transformed neighborhoods across the city.  Greg joins Rens on Design...

When Mill Creek Residential launched in 2011, it didn't look like the typical startup. Roughly 75 people came together to form the company with capital relationships already in place, construction expertise in hand, and a clear thesis on multifamily development. Fifteen years later, their vision has scaled into a national platform serving 29 markets across the country with $11.3 billion in as...

Nothing in Celeste Tanner's background suggested a future in real estate. Before rising to President and Chief Development Officer of Confluent Development, she majored in English in college, had no ties to the industry, and was starting in an administrative role at Opus Northwest. Her first assignment - reorganizing the paper filing system - became an unexpected introduction into CRE. By rea...

When Toby Banta stepped in as Executive Managing Director at Eastern Real Estate nearly six years ago, the firm was hitting its stride. Even as COVID sent markets spinning, Eastern closed twelve deals in just two years - spanning multifamily, industrial, commercial, and hospitality - not only in New England but across the country.  Then, the market shifted.  Over the next three years, Eastern clos...

Few people begin as interns and rise to Chief Architecture Officer at the same firm.  Robin Bellerby is one of them. Over nearly 26 years, Robin has advanced through six roles at Humphreys & Partners Architects (HPA). Starting as a Project Manager, she oversaw more than 10,000 units and $1 billion in construction costs, and subsequently became Vice President. Her excellence in this position le...

In 2008, Philippe Saad was handed his first senior living project. It wasn't the market sector he envisioned pursuing, but he had to take the opportunity in light of the great financial crisis. This decision unexpectedly became the foundation of everything he's built since. Seventeen years later, Philippe is not only a Principal at DiMella Shaffer; he's also the Co-Founder of Projec...

Laura Gollinger has spent 13 years at The Collaborative Companies (TCC) advising clients on decisions that make or break a project. Rental, condo, or hybrid? How big should the units be, and who will they be built for? What will residents be willing to pay? What kind of parking is necessary, and what amenities will actually be used? Across billions of dollars in real estate, she's learned exa...

Brett Powell started his career as an architect who consistently dug into the numbers behind every project he designed.  Today, he is the Chief Financial Officer of a 120-person firm.  As Partner and CFO of Cline, Brett sits at the point where architecture and business decisions collide. He and Rens explore what it takes to manage the financial side of a design firm, from understanding a P&L t...

Mark Seck had a job offer at Fidelity Capital Markets waiting for him when he graduated from college. Then the financial crisis hit, and his start date was pushed back - indefinitely.  A temporary desk at a family friend's real estate firm changed his trajectory, and when Fidelity called back, he turned down the finance career he had been planning to pursue for years. That decision changed ev...

Stephen Skolas went from designing 96-story skyscrapers to figuring out how to fund, permit, and deliver projects at that scale. This skill range is rare in the industry. It's exactly what Davis brought him into leverage. Now Managing Director and Head of Residential Development at Davis, Stephen's career has been interdisciplinary from the start. He holds a Master of Architecture from W...

When Ryan Noone joined EMBARC, it was a start up of a mere four people, and he was an architect with just under three years of experience. Now they're an office of sixty-five, and Ryan is a Principal. EMBARC is a renowned architecture and interior design firm based in Boston. Ryan works across some of their most complex projects - commercial offices, restaurants, breweries, cannabis dispensar...

Andrew Bisbee is Principal at Cranshaw Construction leading the preconstruction and estimating. department. As their longest-serving employee, he has built deep expertise in construction technologies, project types, and industry complexity. Appointed to the firm’s Executive Committee, he leads estimating and preconstruction for healthcare, laboratory, multifamily, hospitality, industrial, retail,...

Dave Snell is an architect with a focus on creating great places for people to come together, live, work, and play. He is a Principal at Prellwitz Chilinski Associates (PCA), a leading architecture firm with a strong focus on mixed-use developments and innovative design solutions. Dave began his career at PCA as a co-op student from Northeastern University and has over two decades of experience in...

Liz von Goeler is a Principal of Interior Design at Sasaki, a globally recognized design firm shaping environments for more than 75 years. With over 25 years of experience, she has led high-profile workplace, lobby repositioning, retail, restaurant, and multifamily projects for brands including Toast, PepsiCo, and Microsoft. Liz approaches every project with people at the center. She aligns space...

Ben Hansen is a profitability specialist, award-winning entrepreneur, and speaker who helps business owners stop the financial bleeding and restore healthy profits and cash flow.  Known as The Profit Doctor, he specializes in curing Profititis - when the revenue is there, but the profit isn’t. A 5x Inc. 5000 founder and former Fortune 100 executive (Dell, Microsoft), Ben built an eight-figure staf...

Ray Tse’s first fascination with architecture came by looking up - way, way up.  A native of Hong Kong, Ray spent a good deal of his youth gazing up at the city’s striking, monumental skyscrapers, like architect Norman Foster’s HSBC Headquarters and I.M. Pei’s Bank of China building. Ray and his family later moved to New Orleans, where the famous architectural heritage sits much closer to the grou...

Jonathan Garland is the President and Founder of JGE, a Boston-based 100% minority-owned architecture and design firm with a comprehensive portfolio comprised of multi-family housing, mixed-use development, academic, life sciences, commercial, and university projects.  JGE Development focuses on transforming underperforming assets and underutilized parcels into stabilized income-restricted, and ma...

Phil Cohen, Principal at Boston Communities, has over a decade of affordable and mixed-income housing development experience working in both the public and private sectors. Phil’s projects include over 4,000 units of housing and leverage local, state, and federal resources to create affordable and market-rate rental and ownership housing for families and elderly adults. Phil has worked with Low In...