Name: Joe Yacobellis

Job Title: Senior Associate / Director of Design

Company Name: Mojo Stumer Associates

What was the biggest lesson you learned while working during the pandemic?
Diversify your work. When the commercial and corporate work slowed down, our residential studio was busier than ever. We got through the pandemic with zero layoffs, and without ever slowing pace, in fact we’ve grown and are continuing to grow. We’ve always practiced in all typologies, and not being reliant on any one particular sector of the market helps make it through these tough times. It’s great to see commercial work has steadily been returning over the last 6-12 months and our ratio of commercial projects to residential is almost back to its pre-pandemic balance.

How has your working environment changed over the last year?
Much of the last year we’ve been mostly back to normal. Yes, we have more zoom meetings now, and some people occasionally work from home as needed, but for the most part our team wants to be together in the office. We returned to the office in May of 2020 and haven’t looked back. We operate in a highly collaborative design environment, and as well as Zoom and other virtual meeting platforms work, its not the same as gathering around a table with your team to exchange ideas.