Jeffrey Ramirez, The UP Studio

Name & Title:  Jeffrey Ramirez / Creative Director

Company Name: The UP Studio

What was your most notable project, deal, transaction or professional achievement in 2016?

Our proudest moment of 2016 was breaking ground on our first self initiated development project: a sustainable, modern home located in the heart of the walkable downtown in Long Beach, NY. You can find more info at BuildUPWestBeech.com.

What project, transaction, market trend or product had the greatest impact on your industry this year?

Brand design is becoming increasingly valuable in the field of architecture and real estate development. Brand design helps architects get work built, helps developers display their projects, and helps realtors sell properties by transforming the way they visualize and present their ideas. Good design can add value to each of those phases.

How will you be supercharging your productivity in 2017?

In addition to our ongoing architectural and brand design projects for retail and commercial clients, our firm will continue to focus on self initiated architectural projects which allow us to design and build homes which focus on creating ideal living situations within sustainable designs.

What emerging trends will drive investment and development in 2017?

We believe that brand design studios who work closely with architects, developers, and real estate teams will continue to have a growing impact on getting better architecture built, understood, and sold. We have merged our architecture and brand design practices to stay ahead of this growing need for collaboration, and we’ve written a guide, which is available online at www.theUPstudio.com/designxarch.