I knew that running a design + construct firm would involve an immense amount of multi managing, which honestly, I thrive on. But multi managing also means knowing when to delegate wisely. What Jeff and I discovered early on as business owners is that having the right people in place is imperative to just about everything. Filling a position is not always about immediate need. It’s about projected need and constantly being on the lookout for great people.
Even with Jeff managing the build side and having an excellent team in place at SweisKloss, continued business growth made me realize that I needed a righthand person to help me manage the design side. I kept envisioning someone who would be highly skilled, disciplined yet creative, and detailed yet able to comprehend the big picture. Someone I could trust and could somehow channel my thinking—no small feat. We needed to create a new role of a Studio Director.
Imagine my excitement when I chatted with Franziska Garcia, a Senior Project Manager who previously worked for us, about the position and she was intrigued by the possibilities. Later during a SK party, Franziska commented on what a nice group of employees Jeff and I have…I knew then it was a done deal. Fast forward to her now being the new Studio Director.
Her days have been filled with redlining, which is the crucial stage of marking up plan drawings for accuracy. She meets with clients, Superintendents, Designers and Project Managers to go over project plans, details, budgets and scheduling. She helps to guide the design staff and answer questions. Her knowledge and leadership skills have been invaluable with everything she has been tasked to do.
Franziska will jokingly say that staff lunches are her favorite thing at SweisKloss, but she loves using her engineering and design skills on projects. As highly proficient as she is with architectural software programs, she will just as easily put pen to paper and sketch out an idea. “I have a background in fine arts and engineering, which you would think are total opposite interests. But it is a wonderful combination for understanding architecture,” Franziska says then adds, “which essentially means I scrutinize every tiny technical detail while still wanting it all to be really beautiful.”
