Announcing New Partners at Candelaria Design
So much happening and it’s all exciting for sure!
Probably the most exciting news is that I am proud to
announce the official addition of two new principals / partners in our firm,
Evelyn Jung, and Meredith Thomson who will now join myself and Vivian Ayala as
our team of Candelaria Design Owners!!! We are finalizing the paperwork but for
all intentional purposes, this is a done deal. This is not an Elon Musk
publicity stunt – this is the real deal! I cannot tell you how proud I am of
these ladies and what they have done and what they will bring to the future of
this firm. I am not retiring….yet! I still have some miles left to travel,
however, it is great to have the added support, creativity, and productivity at
the Principal level! My goal is to continue to market, design, provide client
relations, and bring management wisdom to our team with my 37 years of
experience in architecture along with continued effort with our Candelaria
Design Tours, cooking, a new book in the works, and continued production of our
show Sketch on The Design Network and Sketch Daily showcasing our team’s work!
Evelyn Jung, has been with me for nearly 12 years and has
been an Associate of the firm for over three years but will officially become a
vested partner this Fall. Evelyn runs the business operations of our company
freeing us to focus on being architects. She is a hard worked, mother of two
boys, a lovely wife and one of my best friends in the world. She has been there
for me through the great times, but more importantly through some of the tough
times too. I am so proud to have her be a part of this company and shows that
EVERY position has a vital importance to the success of our company and very
position has the OPPORTUNITY in our company to allow that person to rise to the
top.
Meredith Thomson joined us in the Spring of 2013 and has
proven herself to be one of the best additions to our company over the course
of our 19 years in business. A Phoenix, Arcadia native, Meredith graduated from
Xavier High School and went on to Norte Dame where she graduated in 2003 with a
Bachelor’s of Architecture and went on to work in New York and San Francisco
then returning home to Arizona. A licensed Architect, Meredith brings her
amazing sketching and design skills, along with her wonderful likable warm
nature all which add to the fabric and soul of our company. Her ability to
bring a vision to reality in an enjoyable and positive manner embodies what
Candelaria Design is about – Inspiring Living!
Vivian Ayala and I are proud to have these two on board and
so our INITIAL team is set but I am thrilled to add that our operating
agreement is so established to allow more to join the team which I fully expect
to happen with our continued growth and success. I have an amazing crew and I
can see the opportunities right there in front of me so there is a LOT more to
come!
Please welcome both Evelyn and Meredith to the Candelaria
Design Management and Ownership Team!!! We will celebrate this magnificent
milestone with a Client Appreciation Party set for October. We expect to have
one heck of a good time – so stay tuned for details to follow!
Meanwhile, make sure to follow our Candelaria Design Tour
Italy departing September 12th! We have our biggest group ever going
on this year’s tour – 24 travelers all ready for the experience of a lifetime! Follow
us here on our blog, on Instagram, Facebook and our Sketch Daily episodes which
will be returning on a weekly basis soon with the addition of our videographer
and social media director, Jessica Seifurth. She is providing our filming,
editing and production of the Sketch Daily episodes and our SKETCH episodes for
Season 3 coming soon to The Design Network https://www.thedesignnetwork.com/series/sketch/
This morning I am typing my blog from the Empress Hotel in
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. What a beautiful place and city. Wow, I
have been to Vancouver many times, but never here to Victoria and I have to say
I really dig it here. Not as big as Vancouver, Victoria has charm and a small
town feel yet with plenty of wonderful restaurants and sights to see,
especially the Butchart Gardens – amazing.
I ended up here purely by a last minute audible by me and my
assistant, Stacey Payne! I was supposed to be in Laguna Beach for meetings with
the Vail Project Team, but they had to cancel at the last second so Stacey
hightailed me up the coast to rendezvous with my wife Isabel and her Mom,
Alette who had already planned a mother-daughter trip to Victoria and so I
decided to crash their little party and surprised them when they landed in
Seattle switching planes. What fun – and what a great time we are having. I fly
home today, but the two will stay until Tuesday so they will still get some one
on one time together.
Finally, I will end on a somber note as I got word, as many
of us did on this past Thursday of the passing of our good friend and a client
for me, Art Cunningham. We were all shocked to learn of this sad ending to his
life – a life filled with creativity, good times, and ALWAYS that famous smile
and laugh we all loved. I loved working and collaborating with him and we had a
nice project in the works – in fact I had just sent him a proposal Thursday
morning for the next phase of a project we had started in 2015. So many
wonderful memories and especially some of the best on Lake Coeur d’Alene on his
Stancraft boat. We will all miss you Art as you were well loved, and well
liked, by so many! I especially want to send my heartfelt condolences to his
lovely wife Janet whom I have known for 36 years and is just the sweetest gal
ever. We are all there for you Janet in our thoughts and prayers and if there
is anything Isabel and I can do just say it. 
Ceremonies will be this coming Thursday at Brophy Chapel at
10 am. God bless you my dear friend.
Well we blazed through July and now we are into August and
two of the toughest months of the year if you are in Arizona. Summer is just
half over by August 1st as we have really until Halloween before we
truly erase the 100º temps. We all know that, but never want to fully acquiesce
to that fact and hence why we schedule our Candelaria Design Tour Italy for
September. It’s the perfect time to escape.
Speaking of our Italy Tour, this will be our 15th
Tour Italy and our 17th Candelaria Design Tour overall now that we
have added Spain. This will be our biggest group ever with 23 travelers making
this year’s journey and we kicked it off with two fantastic Pre-Trip Dinners
the first at Tomasos’s and then the second at our home for those that could not
make Tomaso’s – yes and all included in our tour package!
We have travelers coming from Long Beach, Denver, and as far
away as Orlando, Florida! Our tour departs on September 12th where
we will fly into Florence for two nights and then we will take our convoy to
Umbria and our agritourismo farmhouse compound which will act as our hub for a
week of exploring Umbria and Tuscany. From there our convoy will drive across
Italy to Venice where we will ditch the cars and get on a water taxi to the
Hotel Danielle switching from the rustic farmhouses to utter luxury. Three
nights in Venice and then its by train to step it up even one more notch with a
grand finale at the Villa d’Este on Lake Como where Isabel’s and I will
celebrate our 5 year anniversary at the very spot we tied the knot on the last
day of our Candelaria Design Tour Italy 2013! You never know what might happen
on this year’s tour but I can tell you we have a real exciting group going! Follow
us here on our blog, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. We are planning quite the
coverage of this year’s journey.
I am typing away from 30,000 altitude somewhere over Kansas
on my way back from a weekend in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin where we are just
starting the long range master planning process on an amazing property right on
the lake for clients we did work for in Cupertino, California. Such a cool
project and wonderful people How about someone that cooks for me!!! Now we are
talking! My Associate, Damon Wake joined me and we measured, sketched, and
ventured in basements and crawl spaces to get all the data we needed. Of course
when you work hard, you have to play hard so we made sure we did get some down
time in!
Meanwhile, in July I did make it to my 40th High
School Reunion in Durango, Colorado! What an kick that was. Reconnected with a
lot of wonderful classmates and was able to say a final farewell to one of my
all time favorite teachers, Mr. Bruce Branson. I was fortunate enough to visit
him Saturday morning before our reunion picnic and he passed on the following
Thursday. Again as I have said so many times in these blogs every moment is to
be cherished and that visit was one I will never forget. The reunion was
another great memory and had the wonderful opportunity to reconnect with a lot
of classmates I had not seen in years. Very special for sure and I even had the
opportunity to prepare my paella for a group and their mothers the night
following! Again – all great lasting memories!
Plenty going on at Candelaria Design that is for sure. It
has been one of the busiest summers I can remember and I get the feeling this
fall will just keep it going. We currently have projects going in 8 states and
all over Arizona from Tubac up to Flagstaff and some unbelievable projects
right here in Phoenix and Scottsdale.
Make sure to check out our beautiful home in the summer
edition of Country French Magazine now on the newsstands nationwide. We are
also excited to have been ranked #14 in the nation and number one in Arizona
for luxury residential architectural firms by Bond Custom using a criteria of
cost per square foot of projects, total square footage of projects, number of
awards received and gross billings. Very proud of my amazing, and unbelievable
hard working team. They have been cranking all year and especially all summer.
It seems I can swing by the office any time day or night and there is someone
there burning the midnight oil. They are all proud of their work and the WOW’s
prove it!
We look forward to what we have under construction,
especially several just wrapping up – some in design and construction for over
twelve years, and wait until you see what we have on the boards! Get ready –
its going to be an exciting and very productive second half of the year!
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