Gresham Smith Celebrates People, Projects and Practice at Annual Firmwide Event
Gresham Smith employees gathered virtually on Thursday, April 30, for the firm’s annual Celebration. The online event allowed employees to hear from executive leaders and honor achievements of colleagues and projects over the past year while following the firm’s work-from-home policy. The firm also named seven new owners, 18 new senior associates and 32 new associates during the event.
“Our Celebration event is a hallmark of our firm and it’s become a tradition that each of us looks forward to in the spring,” said Al Pramuk, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “The safety of our employees is a top priority, and I’m proud that we kept our tradition alive while protecting the health and well-being of our staff. While we may be temporarily separated by distance, we remain united in spirit, purpose and commitment,” he added.
Gresham Smith’s Power of Collaboration Award recognizes individuals or teams that are living out the firm’s core value of Teamwork. This year’s award was presented to the project team designing a major expansion and renovation to The Straz Center for the Performing Arts and Patel Conservatory in Tampa, Florida. The diverse team involves employees from the firm’s Corporate + Urban Design, Aviation and Healthcare studios and serves as an example for other cross-market, cross-discipline teams in the future.
The annual Sustainability Leadership Award honors an employee or group of employees who embody the firm’s commitment to a clean, safe and healthy environment while developing innovative and sustainable solutions for projects and clients. This year’s award was presented to the Baptist Health Care Pensacola Brent Lane Campus project team. Before beginning the design process, the cross-market team assessed the greenfield site to understand how the new campus could be impacted by current and future climate risks. The team is using the information to implement design strategies that will decrease the campus’ vulnerability and increase its resiliency, ultimately creating an asset for the Pensacola, Florida community that will be able to weather the storm.
The annual Community Impact Award recognizes an employee who had positively impacted his or her community and possesses outstanding leadership, passion, self-motivation and commitment to service. This year’s award was presented to John Horst, P.E., a project manager in Gresham Smith’s Nashville office. A seven-year member of Monroe Harding’s Board of Directors, John has dedicated countless hours to furthering the Nashville, Tennessee non-profit’s mission of providing homes, healing and opportunity to young people in Tennessee’s child welfare system.
Additionally, the firm announced that 17 projects will be featured in this year’s Showcase, Gresham Smith’s annual collection of internally-nominated, externally-judged projects highlighting a variety of disciplines and markets. Projects were judged for their complexity, innovation, social and environmental responsibility, and client satisfaction and success. Showcase stories, images and videos will be unveiled later this year.