The architecture and design firm Andrew Franz Architect PLLC has announced the promotions of a top designer and architect to the level of Associate, where they will take on expanded roles in leading the firm and its building projects. According to the firm’s founding principal, architect Andrew Franz, the new appointments respond to the firm’s growth path and expansion of capabilities, with new commissions for cultural, institutional, multifamily residential and commercial clientele.

“We’re fortunate to be growing and taking on new challenges, including new houses, workplace projects, community facilities and hospitality settings,” says Franz. “These two associates have helped shepherd and nurture some of our most significant design challenges, and their diverse and valuable skills – matched with patience and pragmatism – have been valuable assets for our clients.”

The new Associates named by Andrew Franz Architect include:

Jaime Donate, AIA, LEED AP

Elevated to Associate for the firm, Donate’s promotion formalizes his role as a project leader and head of quality control for the firm’s project deliverables. Donate also applies his considerable experience to the management of major construction projects for the firm. Among his top accomplishments has been his role as project manager for a new house on Cape Cod and the acclaimed Tribeca Loft, which has been published internationally. He joined the firm in 2011 with prior experience on private residences and commercial and civic projects in New York, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe, and he has administered construction and engineering work overseas. These skills and his role as Technical Director benefit the firm’s diverse client base and increasingly international profile. Jaime studied at Carnegie Mellon and Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and he is licensed in New York and accredited as LEED AP by the U.S. Green Building Council.

North Keeragool, M.Arch

Expanding his role as Assistant Design Director, as Associate Keeragool will serve in a broader design leadership capacity, maintaining design standards and ensuring a consistent vision throughout the body of work by Andrew Franz Architect. He continues to lead new projects, helping cultivate the firm’s design portfolio and image, including one of the firm’s largest to date, a headquarters office in Manhattan, and the firm’s launch of an interior furnishings collection, OTTO by Andrew Franz. Keeragool joined the firm in 2010, bringing experience in large public and private architecture projects as well as high-end residences and hospitality works. He is also adept with new buildings, having worked on a high school, a hotel, a corporate technology center and Deloitte University with previous firms.

With the new firm Associates, the firm’s increasingly experienced and recognized design team address a growing roster of new building projects cultivated by Franz, who has achieved international recognition in the last several years. Increasingly diverse, the most recent projects include new buildings, workplace interiors, a variety of residences, and a several larger-scale projects including the new headquarters of a major hedge fund in a historic Manhattan loft building, and the riverside LaMarina redevelopment on the Hudson River, which has been part of the mayoral waterfront plan.

A detail-oriented firm known for originality, design excellence and responsiveness to client needs, Andrew Franz Architect has developed a successful design process that blends craft, beauty and passion with a pragmatic, trusting client relationship. “These new appointments will help us further expand our roster of projects for nonprofit groups, larger employers and civic and arts organizations,” Franz adds. “It seems that our process serves them well, and it will even more so with two new Associates who can expand not only our visibility but also our leadership and design capacity for increasingly complex architectural commissions.”