Anonymous Employee - Anonymous employee Mda Johnson Favaro Employee Review

Work environment is focused, not much work outside of typical hours. Good insurance options and 401k contribution. Interesting projects.

Communication has improved over my time here, but can be better.

The company works diligently to invest in and support staff to gain skills to become well rounded architects. Staff is not pigeon holed into certain roles, but instead is offered opportunities to participate in many different activities during all phases of design, and receive more responsibilities as their skills grow. All employees are encouraged to develop and work through design options to share with their project teams and everyone has a stake in the design process. Weekly office wide meetings keep everyone informed of goings on in within all projects. Small staff of 10-20 is friendly and welcoming, and there is a supportive office culture of helping other employees within and between design teams who ask informally for advice or design judgments. Senior level staff have many years of experience and a lot of technical knowledge they are happy to share with other staff. All staff are regularly asked to provide feedback regarding ways the office can update its practices to become a better and more efficient work environment, and this feedback is quickly implemented. Office is undergoing a renovation, generally there is lots of space for all to work with two floors for a fairly small staff. Principals started the firm with an interest in institutions typically underserved by design--community colleges, public schools, and libraries. The office provides the best of design while embracing the constraints of the limited budgets of publicly funded projects.

If a corporate firm who looks to maximize profit through strict recycling of well worn design tropes is your thing, this is not the company for you. Johnson Favaro is unusual in that it is a fairly small design firm who regularly builds large projects, and also engages in design and material research for each new project. No project is a simple rehashing of old ideas and forms, each is sensitive to its unique site and user group. The office rewards ambition, dedication to technical mastery, enthusiasm to explore design options, and careful material research.