Joe Yacobellis, AIA, Mojo Stumer Associates

Name: Joe Yacobellis, AIA

Title: Senior Associate / Director of Design

Company Name: Mojo Stumer Associates

What aspects of working from home did you enjoy most?
It was great to be able to get in a full work day while at the same time spending good and quality time with my kids and my wife.  The kids sat in on Zoom calls, (and got to know some clients) or looked over my shoulder while I was working on something interesting.  It definitely opened our minds to more flexible ways of living, working, and even learning.

What was your most notable project, deal, or transaction in 2020?
We’re very excited to see our work at 5Pointz coming to life, especially over the past few months as much of the millwork and finishes were being installed. Our role in that project started back in 2016 and has been a great experience from the start, and an incredibly unique project.

What was the most challenging part of working during the pandemic?
While working from home was a lot more productive than we ever would have imagined, we missed the collaborative nature of working as a team in a shared space.  Our work is the result of expertise and contribution from all disciplines within our office – architecture, interiors, production – and not being able to physically gather around a table and share ideas was unfortunate.  We made our way using Zoom and some great collaborative design tools, and produced a lot of great work in that time, but there is are certain elements of working in a team, in person, which you can’t replicate over a screen.