When Maura Newell and her husband, Emmanuel Juan, decided to go into business together last year, they named their architectural firm 72 Architects. “We thought it was a fun name,” Newell said. “Emmanuel and I were born in 1972, and we have an informal network of architects and designer friends born in that year. And maybe someday we”™ll have 72 architects working here.”
In fact, Newell and Juan hope to grow out of their home office in Danbury into a medium-sized architectural firm over the next several years. “We”™d like to grow in a controlled, smart way, hiring talented people as our project load requires,” Newell said. “We”™re not in a rush because we”™re here for the duration. We don”™t want to balloon up too fast. If for the first five years we could hire one person per year, we”™d get a better feel about where we are and where we”™re going.”
The couple is on their way to that one-a-year growth rate. “We hired a full-time intern,” Juan said. “She works out of her home in Queens, and takes the train up here two times a week.”
The intern will help them work on their current projects in Danbury, Bethel, Ridgefield and New Canaan, including a major expansion of the worship space at Walnut Hill Community Church in Bethel, and the renovation of a 30,000-square-foot building in downtown Danbury for a faith-based nonprofit.
“A number of architects have retired over the past years and there was a real need in the market,” Newell said of their decision to start a new firm. “We were fortunate with good timing when we stepped in.” They formed 72 Architects in February 2006, worked on a dozen small projects ”“ office renovations and consulting work ”“ until September, when they were hired to design the expanded worship space for Walnut Hill.
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Lincoln Logs
The Walnut Hill contact came through a local contractor who had worked with Newell when she was with a Ridgefield architect for five years. “I”™m not sure it works into any kind of beautiful story, but the truth is my first husband was transferred down here,” she said. She joined David Coffin Associates in Ridgefield ”“ “a young, dynamic firm working on exciting projects” ”“ in 2001 and stayed with them until early 2006, when 72 Architects was formed.
Coffin Associates was her third employer after she graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1994 with a bachelor”™s degree in architecture and from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1996 with a master”™s degree. She moved back to Buffalo to begin her three-year apprenticeship with a firm she had heard about while at SUNY. “Architects have to be in an internship, like a medical residency, working for a licensed architect,” she said. From Buffalo she moved to the Albany, N.Y., area to finish her internship, and then to Danbury.
Architecture, she said, “was what I always wanted to do. I didn”™t have a backup plan. My grandmother said it was because she bought me Lincoln Logs. I was into building stuff, forts and tent cities out of sheets and cardboard, worlds for myself and my siblings to play in.”
While at SUNY Buffalo, Newell had a passing acquaintance with Juan, who was also attending architecture school there. “We weren”™t good friends necessarily,” she said, and didn”™t run into each other again until 2004, when both were invited to a classmate”™s wedding in Chicago.
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Timing is everything
At the time, Juan was living in New York City, working his way through a series of architectural firms. After graduating from SUNY Buffalo in 1994 with a Bachelor of Professional Studies degree in architecture, he earned a master”™s degree in industrial design at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1996.
His first job wasn”™t in architecture or industrial design but “something in between,” he said. He joined Lucent Technologies in New Jersey designing exhibits for trade shows showcasing Lucent products. “I traveled around the country, to Mexico, Canada,” he said. “It was a fun job, but after a year I realized this was not what I wanted to do. It was very corporate.”
He joined a smaller trade show design company, then transitioned into an intern position with a Manhattan architectural firm that specialized in hotels and restaurants, stayed a few months and then moved on to two other firms until he joined a 150-person firm in Manhattan in 2005. “Because I moved through all those firms, I was able to gather knowledge and bring it into our own firm,” Juan said. Even the experience in the exhibit industry helped him understand office dynamics and how a firm works, “all those little things that come together when creating your own company.”
In 2004, Juan was invited to a wedding of a SUNY classmate in Buffalo, where he saw Newell. “We didn”™t get to speak,” he said. “She was living in Connecticut and I was in New York at the time. She was going through a divorce and I had been married as well. Timing is everything. We became reacquainted and sparks sort of flew,” he said. Then, after a moment”™s hesitation, “Not sort of. They did.”
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A wonderful year
Newell and Juan were married in March 2006, after Juan left the Manhattan firm. Originally the couple thought Juan would keep his New York job until 72 Architects was established. “At the time we had a couple of small projects and I thought we”™d wait until we got something larger,” he said. “We thought it would be great if one person had a steady income and (they would) not have to worry about the firm and living from month to month on a cash flow basis.”
But timing is everything, and the contacts Newell made while working at the Ridgefield firm began to pay off. “I worked in town for six-plus years now and did a lot of community service work and met a lot of people,” she said. “In my last position, I built up a strong reputation regarding code issues and built a reputation for professionalism with clients and town officials alike.”
That reputation landed her a consulting job at the Philip Johnson glass house in New Canaan when the house was converted from a residence to a museum earlier this year and “they needed a change-of-use permit,” she said. And most recently, 72 Architects was hired to design a luxury seven-building, 280-apartment complex on the city”™s west side on what had been part of the former Union Carbide Corp. property.
It”™s the second phase of the apartment project, “and we”™d like to introduce a New England vernacular esthetic,” Newell said. “We”™ll be designing the apartments through next spring and construction will start next summer.”
As for their home office, “we”™re quickly growing out of this space,” Juan said. In addition to the new intern, the couple are parents to a son, 10-month-old Anselm Juan. “What an amazing year it was” Newell said of 2006. “We were married, started this company and had a baby. It was all wonderful.”
But “we”™d like to start looking for space as early as next year,” Juan said, to give their 72 Architects room to grow. “We”™d like to be a medium-sized architectural firm with between 30 and 50 people,” Newell said. “The big ones have hundreds, even thousands of people. That”™s too much.”
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