Irvine, California (PRWEB) May 07, 2015 -- Global architectural and design firm WATG has announced the addition of four senior level designers with specialized experience in key design disciplines, underscoring the firm’s commitment to providing seasoned expertise and leadership in High-Rise, Mixed Use, and Urban architectural design. Joining WATG in the role of Vice President is Dennis Rehill, while Chris Hurst joins as Associate Vice President. In addition, Erik Heironimus and Miguel Alvarez have been tapped as Senior Designers. The move is part of an ongoing strategy by WATG to further expand their hospitality and guest experience design to new project types, and enhance complementary-services to the company’s existing design expertise.
The four designers will work as a virtual team with Rehill and Heironimus based in the WATG Seattle studio, and Hurst and Alvarez based in Chicago. The new team members will work closely with WATG’s talented architectural design teams in Southern California, London, Honolulu and Singapore to provide innovation, expertise and leadership in delivering large scale High-Rise, Mixed Use, and Urban design opportunities to the firm’s growing portfolio of outstanding buildings and places. According to WATG Chief Executive Officer and President Mike Seyle, this new group of accomplished designers offers the firm and its clients a unique blend of fresh insight and creativity in an important design segment. “We are delighted to welcome these talented individuals to the WATG family,” says Seyle, “Their track record of visionary design and leadership in high-rise and mixed use projects around the globe is very impressive, and they are also wonderful people to work with. They fit very well with our design-focused employee-centric culture, and we are confident they will make significant contributions to the future of innovative building design.”
Dennis Rehill joins WATG with an extensive background and impressive portfolio of highly sustainable, mixed-use urban design projects, in the Middle East, Asia, North America, and Europe. Most recently, Dennis was involved in directing a pair of high-rise residential towers, as well as major building competitions including Skanska 2&U Tower and 888 2nd Ave Tower. At Gensler, Dennis was the Architectural Design Director and the Northwest Region Tall Buildings Practice Area Leader as well as the Commercial Office Building Practice Area Leader. Prior to Gensler, he honed his sustainable high-rise expertise at AS+GG on a series of highly sustainable supertall towers and masterplans. As design architect for SOM, he worked with Adrian Smith on a number of projects, including the Burj Khalifa, known as the tallest building in the world, and 7 South Dearborn in Chicago. Outside the office, Dennis is also co-chair of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat in the newly formed Seattle chapter.
Chris Hurst comes to WATG from Opus Architects and Engineers, where he was a Senior Architect and Manager of the firm’s Chicago office. His background includes positions of Project Architect and Lead Designer for renowned firms such as SOM, AS+GG and Lohan Anderson. While at AS+GG, Hurst was involved in the design development of the new Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, which will be the world’s tallest building when completed. He brings an extensive expertise on large-scale commercial and residential projects, and holds a Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Environmental Design from Ball State University.
Erik Heironimus has a strong background in high-rise office design. Prior to joining WATG, he was an Architectural Designer and Associate at Gensler, where he focused on high-rise office building design, high-rise residential building design, and hospitality + restaurant design. He earned his Masters of Architecture from the University of Kansas and is the recipient of several industry awards, including the AIA Seattle Honor Award in 2011.
Miguel Alvarez brings several years of broad based, supertall design experience to WATG. Before joining WATG, he was a Senior Designer at AS+GG, where he was responsible for design aspects on several high-rise projects, including the new Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, currently under construction. Alvarez holds a Master’s of Architecture from UCLA and a Bachelor’s of Science in Architecture from Ohio State, where he graduated Cum Laude.
About WATG
WATG is celebrating 70 years of design excellence in 2015. Over the course of the last seven decades WATG and affiliated design studio Wimberly Interiors have become the world’s leading design consultants in the hospitality industry. With offices in Irvine, Los Angeles, New York, London, Istanbul, Dubai, Singapore, and Honolulu, the full-service design firm is best known for creating internationally acclaimed destinations in 160 countries across six continents. WATG offers a broad range of design services including strategy, planning, architecture, urban design, landscape, and interior design for urban, mixed-use, tourism, entertainment and resort destinations. WATG's projects are renowned not only for their design and sense of place but also for their bottom-line success. Explore more at watg.com
Andrea Wagner, WATG, http://watg.com, +1 9492703177, [email protected]
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