Best Places to Work 2014: TLCD Architecture

SANTA ROSA -- TLCD Architecture's plans to move its offices into the significantly reworked former AT&T building downtown point to where the 29-employee firm has been going in fostering more open, frequent and personal communication as it takes on more significant and varied projects.

"As we prepare to celebrate our 50th year in business in Santa Rosa next year, we see the results of several years spent actively reinventing our firm," said Don Tomasi, who with Alan Butler is a managing principal architect for TLCD.

Founded in 1965, TLCD is set to move into new offices in the Museum on the Square project in downtown Santa Rosa. The offices will have an open floorplan -- no private offices and no cubicle walls. That will help communication and creative flow, Mr. Tomasi said. The office also will have a "maker space" for creative approaches to 3-D design, including model-making.

Part of this shift came with the contraction of demand for architectural services with the slowdown in local construction several years ago. The firm had shrink to match the project pipeline, but in the process the firm became considerably less corporate, Mr. Tomasi said.

But in the past few years the firm has been bustling with a string of sizable projects, such as the Doyle library at Santa Rosa Junior College, Museum on the Square, Luther Burbank Savings' new downtown branch and administrative offices, and American AgCredit's 120,000-square-foot headquarters facility under construction now.

"The management is open and honest about our present and future prospects," one employee said. "We are given the freedom and the trust to be responsible to accomplish our work effectively without being micromanaged or nit-picked."

TLCD offers paid leave plus travel and lodging expenses at key employment milestones.

Fees for taking professional credential exams are covered, along with a $5,000 award when licenses are secured. Half of dues for belonging to professional trade organizations are covered. Costs for certain professional activities and seminars are covered.

For recreation, there's the weekly "Wine Wednesday," at which personal and professional presentations are made. The firm also hosts a summer family picnic, barbecue dinners, a family camping trip and tours of local buildings and attractions.

Community involvement includes sponsoring the Human Race and staffing the water table with volunteers, participating in Giving Tree, offering volunteers for Santa Rosa Creek cleanup, hosting Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce's Algebra Academy program and offering the firm's conference room for nonprofit organizations to use.

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