Employee Spotlight:
Andy Jarvis, AIA, LEED AP
Cancer Care Expert & Principal of our New York Office
Explain your role at EwingCole and what a typical day is like?
I lead the New York office and work to raise our profile in this region and nationally. I also specialize in cancer care facility design. My typical day is spent communicating with clients, potential clients, industry experts, potential collaborators, and others within our office.
How did you decide you wanted to work in the A/E industry?
My uncle was an architect who designed modernist buildings in Scotland, and when I was eight years old and visited a house he designed, it amazed me and I decided I wanted to be an architect, too. That same year, Vincent Kling designed a new chapel for Episcopal Academy in Merion, PA, where I lived and went to school because my father was a teacher there. My father volunteered to raise money for the chapel and kept Kling’s balsa wood model on our dining room table in between his forays to present the project to potential donors. I loved watching the chapel under construction, gradually taking the shape of the model. My grandfather was a hydraulic engineer, who gave me all his drawing tools from 1914 when I entered architecture school, which I continued to use when I joined EwingCole in 1983.
What is your favorite part of the job?
It is highly satisfying to be selected to design a new building, solve the early spatial puzzles that will make it work, present new ideas to clients, and work with other people to bring a building to life. I also enjoy teaching younger architects.
What defines success for you?
Success is being valued for your ingenuity and having clients ask you back to design for them again and again.
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
I love Philadelphia and New York. New York is full of vitality and energy; Philadelphia is green and comfortable. Now that I spend a lot of time in both cities, I have become an expert in New York and Philadelphia accents.