499 Words About Me

With a multi-cultural upbringing and a privileged education that exposed me to music, languages, art history, and world travel from an early age I could have gone into anything but I chose to become an architect because it didn’t require passing organic chemistry and promised a lifetime of learning with no short cuts to mastery.

At Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture and Planning I was mentored by Eugene Raskin, Alex Kouzmanoff, James Polshek, Charles Gwathmey, and Romaldo Giurgola. They were among the best architects of our time and their creations reflect a profound respect for historical precedent and a love for the human condition. Most of all their work inspired and informed people’s lives and made them better. In their greatness I found humility.

An early decision to choose an entrepreneurial career path taught me that design as a service offered tangible value, not just financially but also in terms of helping enterprises across all industries express their culture, value proposition and brand identity: in corporate workplaces; in entertainment, dining and lodging venues; in retail, wellness and healthcare environments; and in airports where visions of the future are assembling these occupancies across a global network of regional and international transportation hubs, bringing the distant corners of the world ever closer. 

All organizations large and small, mature or nascent, serve two clients - one internal and the other external. Both are equally important to the ability of an enterprise to prosper, evolve and fulfill its mission. If you want to know how a company will treat its customers look at how it values its staff. This is especially important for a service provider like a design firm that relies on customer loyalty for repeat engagements and staff retention for continuity and quality control. Happy staff members mean happy customers.

“Treat employees like they make a difference and they will. “

(Jim Goodnight, CEO, SAS)

TSAO Design Group’s portfolio encompasses a spectrum of work, a range of clients and an array of design strategies which inform each new assignment with the experience and inspiration cultivated over more than three and a half decades. As my personal journey embraces diverse interests so has my firm been enriched by a diversity of projects and clients. The value of resisting specialization has become evident especially in recent years as technology and other drivers have brought about a convergence of data, information and knowledge, allowing us to see connections. Lessons learned from residential projects are applicable to office renovations; retail design concepts find expression in healthcare environments; the collegial aspects of academic campuses like collaboration, teamwork, and social values have replaced yesterday's closed and fixed hierarchies in today’s transparent and flexible workplace. This is an exciting time to be a designer and to see the world through our eyes as we learn from the past and design for multiple futures. TSAO Design Group will continue to thrive on diversity in all of its forms. In a world increasingly drawn to specialization we are generalists by design.