Better Together: Collaboration Day 2024

For more than a decade, Ayers Saint Gross has held periodic Collaboration Day events to help employees build connections, share ideas, and have fun. The purpose of these meetings is to gather as a firm and discover new ways in which we can work together to achieve our goals.

This year’s event, which took place in October, was the first in-person Collaboration Day since 2019, with employees traveling from around the country to Baltimore for two days of workshops and networking. The highlights of the event included a presentation on our firm’s history by longtime Principal Adam Gross, a speed networking event, our annual Lex Schwartz Collaboration Award announcements, our 2024 MakerFair, and a wide range of breakout sessions focused on topics related to design, business goals, and our employees’ success.

Lex Schwartz Award Winners

Named for long-time mentor and master collaborator Lex Schwartz, who worked at Ayers Saint Gross for more than 40 years, the Lex Schwartz Collaboration Awards are given every year to recognize the highest level of leadership in collaboration for the betterment of our projects and clients, our firm and employees, and the communities we serve.

This year’s Lex Schwartz Collaboration Emerging Leader Award was given to Kevin Miller, an architect in the Baltimore office. Nominators described Kevin as “an incredible collaborator, who approaches every task with a careful and professional touch” and “someone that always makes time to stop and help.”

Senior Associate Amanda Hodgson, the firm’s business development manager, was honored with the Lex Schwartz Collaboration Legacy Award. In award nominations, Amanda was described as “a true knowledge sharer and empathetic, listener,” with “a positive personality that draws people together with a sense of excitement, humor, and ease.”

MakerFair 2024

Collaboration Day also marked the conclusion of this year’s MakerFair competition, which invited individuals or teams of designers throughout the firm to design and manufacture one-of-a-kind, fully functional chairs.

Kevin Miller won first place with “The Stack,” a curled cardboard chair, while Oriana Gil Perez earned both second place and people’s choice with “The Void,” a chair constructed of soldered metal rods and cords. Timothy Smiroldo won third place with “Two’s Company, Four’s a Party,” a two-in-one wooden chair that can provide extra seating as needed.