Strategic management planner to become Design Workshop’s new chief of operations

30 Apr 2006

by: Design Workshop

DENVER, COLO. — An architect with a broad background in sales, marketing and strategic planning will become chief of operations (COO) May 8 at Design Workshop, an award-winning urban design, community planning and landscape architecture firm. Douglas R. Parker, AIA, will work as a firm-wide resource out of the firm’s Denver office. He inherits the position from Gregory Ochis, who has worked as both president and chief of operations for several years. Ochis remains with the firm as president.
“We’re grateful to have Doug coming on board,” Ochis says. “We believe that by helping support the firm’s operations, he will make a significant contribution to our efforts to advance our vision of creating legacies for future generations.”

Parker comes to Design Workshop from his post as principal and senior consultant for Greenway Consulting, a management consultant and research firm in the AEC industry. He spent 18 years at Steelcase Inc., the world’s largest furniture manufacturer, where he was director of sales and marketing to architects and designers. Before joining the Grand Rapids, Mich., company, he was vice president of design at RNL and a principal and founder of his own architecture firm. Parker has been the keynote speaker at many industry and associations events and a featured speaker for corporate sales and marketing development sessions. He has been a featured writer in Design Intelligence and other association publications and has lectured at numerous architectural and design schools, including Harvard University, California College of Arts and Crafts and Montana State University. Parker earned his bachelor’s degree in architecture from Montana State, with later work in strategic planning at Columbia University and Development Dimensions International (DDI) of Pittsburgh. He is a registered architect.

Parker’s professional affiliations include serving as a board member of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID); leader of the ASID Industry Advisory Council; co-chair of the development of International Interior Design Association’s (IIDA) Design Congress I & II, and member of the IIDA Industry Advisory Council. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects and has served on its Interior Architecture’s Professional Interest Advisory Committee. For exceptional service to the development of the design professions, he was awarded honorary fellowship in ASID, honorary membership in IIDA, honorary membership in The Interior Design Educators Council, and senior fellowship in the Design Futures Council. He was awarded the prestigious Star Award by IIDA for his leadership and contribution to the industry.

In his position as COO of Design Workshop, Parker will have responsibility for the operational performance of the firm’s seven U.S. offices, working with the president, the management team and local operations managers to maximize firm resources and develop strategies and systems to boost quality and profitability in support of the firm’s vision and mission. “I am very excited about joining Design Workshop and supporting a firm with such strong commitment to design excellence,” Parker says. “This gives me a unique opportunity to combine my business experience and design background.”

Founded in 1969, Design Workshop practices sustainable design and planning on sites ranging from urban infill, parks and open-space projects to brownfield redevelopment and resorts. The firm, which has been honored with more than 120 awards for design and planning, has offices in Aspen, Denver, Santa Fe, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, South Lake Tahoe and Asheville, N.C.

|