As we celebrate our 50th year in 2024, our practice is a testament to longevity and innovation. From our start in Lawrence, Kansas, to our current status as a collective of 150 employee-owners, our journey from Gould Evans to Multistudio signifies a rich history of dedication and transformation. We are thrilled to announce the well-deserved promotions of four associates to principal, five to associate principal, and three to vice president.

Four New Principals Join Leadership

The elevation of our newest Principals underscores our organic growth and commitment to design and a shared future. These newly appointed leaders embody our core values of collaboration, innovation, and enduring impact. Their collective vision and inclusive design ethos serve our mission to deliver exceptional work that centralizes the communities and clients we serve.

Principals

Kelly Dreyer, AIA, LEED AP, NCARB, Kansas City, leads design across typologies and scales with expertise in higher education and innovative multi-use design solutions. A highly regarded project designer and engagement leader, Kelly collaborates across all national Multistudio locations and leads many of the studio’s highest-profile projects. His skill at taking complex problems and providing beautiful yet accessible design solutions is recognized by clients, partners, and colleagues alike. With a commitment to innovation and design excellence, Kelly’s work has earned numerous national awards and speaking opportunities, including Multistudio’s most recent National AIA Award for Southeast Community College’s Academic Excellence Center. Kelly is passionate about improving design effectiveness through evidence-based design practices, paving a path toward a sustainable future, and strengthening Multistudio’s distinct design culture.

Emily Harrold, AIA, NCIDQ, NCARB, Kansas City, leads with design and studio culture at the forefront of every interaction while delivering notable projects spanning architecture, planning and interior design. Emily focuses on the creation of holistic environments that elicit wellness and resiliency to elevate human experience, create a distinct sense of place and feel iconic and enduring within their contexts. Her design contributions to high-profile projects include two regionally AIA-recognized projects in 2023, the Engagement Center and the State Historical Society of Missouri Center for Missouri Studies, underscoring her invaluable role in shaping our studio’s design reputation.

Aaron Herring, RA, LEED AP, NCARB, Phoenix, leads engagement in design as a means of layering experience and integrating perspectives into a complex and widely representative response. He has collaborated with ambassadors of the discipline, nationally renowned artists and scientists, and the varying constituents experiencing the spaces he co-creates. Aaron’s research often focuses on forms of cultural representation and how buildings can invite interpretation rather than foreclose or delimit meaning. His meticulous approach and notable projects, including the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Justice Center and the Southeast Justice Courts (SEJC), have garnered widespread architectural recognition and helped solidify the national design reputation of our Phoenix studio. Additionally, Aaron teaches at Arizona State University Design School, where he received his master’s in architecture and was awarded the Henry Adams Award for academic excellence.

Graham Smith, AICP, Kansas City, leads the studio’s thriving City Design practice, which engages communities in all aspects of city-building to enable places to develop incrementally and organically in ways that improve quality of life for all. His holistic approach to city design and planning has helped catalyze healthy community development across the Midwest and beyond, as his leadership in this practice area is often solicited and applied across Multistudio offices. Through the preparation of community, area, neighborhood, corridor, special project plans, design guidelines, and regulations, Graham provides the communities and clients he engages with visionary, implementable plans for the future. One constant among Graham’s work has been the innovative and involved stakeholder engagement, from defining the vision to creative implementation. This work by Graham and team led to recognition from the American Planning Association Missouri chapter in 2023.

“Emily, Graham, Kelly, and Aaron have collectively been responsible for some of the most successful and important work in multistudio’s recent history. They are passionate about discovering the best solutions for our clients and their constituents, regardless of scale or program. They are trusted leaders and will lead us well into the future.”

– Anthony Rohr, FAIA, National Managing Principal

Associate Principals

Steve Valev, Matthew Pauly, and Gwen Gigous embody leadership excellence across the diverse cities of Phoenix, San Francisco, and Lawrence. Their dedication to architecture and design is visible through their contributions to respective projects such as Central Station in downtown Phoenix, Chorus and 395 3rd Street in San Francisco, and the University of Kansas Gateway District & David Booth Memorial Stadium.

Julie Charvat, also recently elevated to Marketing Director, is based in our New Orleans office and brings architecture and interior design training to her 25+ years of experience as a graphic designer, storyteller, and marketing strategist. Her work at Multistudio has helped foster the firm’s success through winning complex projects and establishing a presence in the New Orleans community.

Over the past decade, Matt Wilson has led IT initiatives throughout the studio during a time of unprecedented change, between hybrid work environments, expanding studios, and the emergence of new technologies impacting our industry. A representative of the firm with the AIA’s Large Firm Round Table (LFRT) IT group, Matt has steered the ever-evolving trajectory of IT initiatives for our national practice.

Vice Presidents

Tom Perica and Patrick Franke, our newest vice presidents representing the architecture practice, bring invaluable expertise to our Phoenix and New Orleans offices, with Tom’s deep involvement in delivering Central Station in Phoenix and Patrick’s work including projects as diverse as The Rabbit hOle in Kansas City and the LSU New Orleans Health Science Center Medical Education Building Lab Renovation with Perkins Eastman.

Carrie Mabee, a marketing professional who began her tenure with the studio in our Lawrence location, has led countless successful submissions and helped facilitate the marketing team’s expansion and success for two decades.

These strategic advancements reflect our enduring commitment to excellence and the future of our studio. Thank you for being part of our legacy as we continue shaping communities and cities for another 50 years.