WRNS Studio Promotes 35: Expanding and Diversifying the Firm’s Leadership Amid Market Uncertainty
WRNS Studio has named fourteen senior associates and twenty-one associates to expand leadership and grow capabilities across offices in San Francisco, Seattle, Honolulu, and New York. The promotions represent talent in a variety of disciplines, recognizing leadership and expertise in projects for schools, colleges and universities, civic and cultural institutions, high-tech workplaces, healthcare providers, and the scientific community, among others. The new leaders help create a thriving studio culture and deliver architecture that serves the greater good.
“The elevation of these architects and interior designers demonstrates our commitment to empowering employees from all of our offices and at all levels of experience to assume personal responsibility for the success of the studio,” says partner Sam Nunes. “These new leaders help WRNS Studio stay nimble, creative, and design-forward amid market uncertainty.”
The promotions expand the firm’s leadership to twenty-three senior associates and thirty-five associates, under fourteen partners. They reflect the firm’s non-hierarchical, sociocratic governance structure, which distributes authority and decision making across an evolving ownership team and empowers leaders within our studio to personally guide and make decisions about each project, initiative, and core business function. As a result, WRNS Studio is a team of incentivized, incredibly creative, nimble and innovative leaders, with an average year-over-year growth of 26% since its founding.
Dale Diener, David Gutzler, Tim Jonas, Emily Jones, Jonas Kellner, Jon Kershner, Natalie Kittner, Crispin Lazarit, Rodney Leach, Ben Mickus, John Schlueter, Laura Stedman, Susanne Susheelan, and Lily Weeks have been named senior associates.
The twenty-one new associates include Melissa Babb, Mel Figueroa, Arman Hadilou, Branden Harrell, Audrey Harris, Ninoshka Henriques, Christopher Hunter, Michael Jak, Milena Kim, Kayleen Kulesza, Mee Lee, Rudy Letsche, Eli Linger, Brian Mulder, Andrea Nickisch, Chris Niewiarowski, Christopher Pfiffner, Andrew Reynolds, Jeremy Shiman, Meinani Villareal, and Terra Wegner.
“These new associates advance our nationally recognized thought leadership in equity, sustainability and collaborative delivery methods,” says partner and director of human resources, Melinda Rosenberg. “In the new associates we see the future of WRNS.”
WRNS Studio has twice been named Top Firm in the U.S. in Architect magazine’s annual ranking of firms across design, sustainability, and business and the firm was recognized as a 2020 Fast Company Most Innovative Company. Notable projects include the Sonoma Academy Durgin Guild and Commons and Microsoft’s new campus in Silicon Valley, both of which were recognized with AIA COTE awards.