By Ben van der Meer
Design and architecture firm LPA has a new studio director at the Sacramento office who’s heading up what will be one of the more visible Downtown projects in the next few months. Julian Watt offered his overview of what his architecture firm is up to, the local market and more.
As the newly named studio head, how do you see the job?
"It’s one that I was anticipating taking on from starting with the firm. We knew there was going to be a transition time to give me time to learn the ropes, but it’s very similar to a role I had in my last job."
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What are your priorities for this office?
"It’s all about winning your work, and you can’t do that without talent. Finding talent is so much harder when you have such low unemployment, and Sacramento doesn’t have an architecture school. It’s an issue across the industry, same as the lack of availability of construction workers. It’s no different for design teams and engineers. Despite that, we’ve been fortunate to make some great hires, and we’re able to move into new markets."
