Sometimes the greatest gifts come poorly wrapped. After being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in January 2022, health and healing took all my focus. Eight months later, I returned to work life with the gift of clarity: what we do best and what we love most came into perfect perspective.
I have always valued building meaningful connections in the community and mentoring young talent. While assessing the next move, I realized that bringing our sister studios Western Design+Build and Design District together would not only provide the opportunity for longer lasting connections, facilitating the creative cross-over between commercial and residential practices would allow our team to take on more complex projects and better support our clients.
Western Design+Build is a uniquely integrated studio of Registered Interior Designers who are experienced, licensed and insured as General Contractors. This innovative structure ensures our clients establish a deep and trusting relationship with the same designer/project manager/construction manager for the duration of their commercial project.
Fusing the Design District team into our Western model means that those relationships can progress further. We can continue to build on genuine connection as we move between our clients’ commercial projects and carry on serving them in their residential spaces. Our designers’ experience will be more well rounded; their creativity stimulated in new ways; their knowledge expanded.
While reprioritizing, I realized that I truly love investing my time and energy into opening doors for the next generation of talented young people in construction. When we create a studio structure that ensures each team member has opportunities to expand and progress, we simultaneously ensure that our clients will be supported by enthusiastic and capable staff.
When the team has a great place to work and opportunities to grow, that happiness spills over into how they treat our clients, our tradespeople, and our suppliers. When we lift each other up, we all win.
Moving the whole team into the beautiful, bright office at 577 Pembroke St, will allow us to serve our clients better. Western’s former location was small and utilitarian; our new home is flooded with light and laughter thanks to its huge windows and enough room for all 14 of us to come together. Our new location also has enough space for an inspiring library of product samples, which encourages our clients to immediately get involved in the creative adventure. Instead of ordering online, you can touch and feel your way through all the samples in the showroom right away. We also use the space for educational events for the design community and – most important of all – to host parties!
All these big changes are such an amazing way to kick off the New Year! Here at Western Design+Build, we are renewing our commitment to foster strong connections, empower women in construction, and make our community better. Thanks for being part of our journey!
More ‘Everyday Awesome’ coming this way! – Ann Squires Ferguson