Gresham Smith Celebrates People, Projects and Practice at Annual Firmwide Event
Gresham Smith employees gathered virtually on Thursday, April 22, for the firm’s annual Celebration. The online event, which was broadcast live from a studio in Nashville, 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 14 new owners, 20 new senior associates and 36 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 continues to be a top priority, and I’m proud that we have kept our tradition alive with this virtual event to celebrate our accomplishments. While we may be separated by distance, we remain united in spirit, purpose and commitment, and I look forward to a flexible return-to-office approach for our firm very soon.”
Power of Collaboration Awards
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 two groups of recipients. The first recipient group was the project team responsible for designing Ultium Cells—General Motors’ and LG Chem’s zero-emissions, all-electric battery manufacturing facility. The diverse team includes over 180 employees from the firm’s Building Engineering, Corporate + Urban Design, Industrial, Land Planning and Water + Environment markets and serves as an example for other cross-market, cross-discipline teams in the future. Additionally, the firm’s Corporate Services market, which consists of the Accounting, Corporate Communications, Human Resources, Information Technology, Marketing Operations and Risk Management departments, was honored for the way their quick thinking and collaboration enabled employees to easily transition to working from home due to the pandemic.
Innovation Award
Gresham Smith’s Innovation Award recognizes an individual or group who have demonstrated leadership by leveraging technical tools to advance our practice-led business model and challenge the status quo. This year’s award was presented to Anna Claire Vawter, NCIDQ, and Ashley Wood, RID, NCIDQ, IIDA, interior designers in the firm’s Healthcare market, for developing a virtual planning tool in Revit that can be used among planning groups to create high-quality graphics that can easily transition into final design documents.
Sustainability Leadership Award
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 Maria Sanchez, RID, NCIDQ, IIDA, LEED AP ID+C, an interior designer in the firm’s Healthcare market. Maria is embracing her passion for sustainable design by serving as the LEED administrator for multiple healthcare projects, educating her colleagues on sustainable practices during firmwide webinars and conducting research on industry trends, as well as emerging technology and tools as part of the firm’s innovation incubator.
Community Impact Award
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 Tanya Buba, purchasing manager, for sewing nearly 800 face masks in her free time at the beginning of the pandemic, when masks were not widely available. Her compassion and generosity has helped hundreds of people navigate a year of uncertainty.
Showcase Projects
The firm also announced that six projects will be featured in this year’s Showcase program—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 projects, images and videos will be unveiled externally later this year.