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April 24, 2014

Lord Aeck Sargent Promotes Texas Office Director to Principal

John Kisner discusses state of the office and vision

AUSTIN, Texas, April 24, 2014 – Lord Aeck Sargent (LAS) has promoted John Kisner, AIA, LEED AP, director of the firm’s Texas office, to a principal of the architecture and planning firm.

Kisner joined Lord Aeck Sargent in 2008, relocated from Atlanta in late 2011 to become associate director of the Austin office when the firm acquired the assets of TWC Architects, and became office director in 2013. He attended Rice University, where he earned his master’s degree in architecture, has lived and worked in Houston, and for LAS has worked on several renovation projects at the University of Houston.

“When we acquired our Texas office, its existing specialty matched one of our areas of expertise – the rehabilitation, restoration and adaptive reuse of historic buildings,” said Joe Greco, Lord Aeck Sargent president. “However, we saw additional growth opportunities in a wide variety of projects for colleges and universities, also our traditional markets. John’s college and university experience – including a range of residential and student life, science laboratory, classroom, and adaptive reuse projects – along with his familiarity with Texas, made him the ideal person to relocate to the state.

“John has played a major role in helping us to broaden our client base,” Greco continued. “He has strengthened our existing client relationships, built new ones and has been instrumental in bringing the collaborative culture of Lord Aeck Sargent to our Texas office. We look forward to his continuing to serve Texas clients as our firm’s newest principal.

“We are currently working on a number of historic restoration, education and science projects and are actively pursuing multifamily housing and mixed use, urban planning and arts and culture projects,” Kisner said. “We also have established IDIQ (indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity) contracts with Austin Community College and the University of Texas at San Antonio.

“One exciting project for the Texas Historical Commission is a new sustainably designed visitor center at San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site, a site dating back to the early 1800s. Another project is the design, in collaboration with HarrisonKornberg Architects, of a $44 million urban student housing project for Texas Southern University.”

Kisner also addressed his vision for the Texas office. “Short-term, we will continue to foster the Lord Aeck Sargent culture and implement the firm’s practice methods in Texas. We have a solid core of people who already work well as a team and share the firm’s value of providing our clients highly responsive design. As we grow, we plan to build on that reputation and to develop relationships in our key practice areas, paying careful attention to team dynamics so that all will develop professionally while continuing to enjoy what we do each day.

“We are committed to the local community with the goal of making positive contributions as professionals and stewards of our natural and built environment – and we are excited about our move earlier in April into larger downtown office space.”

Kisner has 24 years of experience in architecture. In addition to his degree from Rice, he studied architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Virginia. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects; the Society for College and University Planning; the Mid Tex Mod chapter of Docomomo International, a group dedicated to the preservation of significant modern architecture; and the Association of Preservation Technology International (APTI), where he serves as Austin/San Antonio Region co-chair and sits on the state board. He is also a LEED Accredited Professional.

About Lord Aeck Sargent
Lord, Aeck & Sargent Inc. – dba Lord Aeck Sargent – is an award-winning architecture, design and planning firm serving clients in academic, historic preservation, scientific, arts and cultural,multi-family housing and mixed-use, and urban design and planning markets. In 2007, Lord Aeck Sargent was one of the first architecture firms to adopt The 2030 Challenge, an initiative whose ultimate goal is the design of carbon-neutral buildings, or buildings that use no fossil-fuel greenhouse gas-emitting energy to operate, by the year 2030. Lord Aeck Sargent is also calling for increased transparency in the building products industry by urging manufacturers to disclose the chemical components of their products utilizing the Health Product Declaration,™ an industry standard format for conveying details about product content and associated health information, or Declare, the “nutrition label” for building products launched by the International Living Future Institute.

Lord Aeck Sargent has offices in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Atlanta, Georgia; Austin, Texas; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Lexington, Kentucky; and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit the firm at www.lordaecksargent.com.

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