Westgroup Designs showed up and showed out at the annual IIDA Southern California Chapter's Fashion Show to great acclaim! Our team’s selection was the adaptation of the musical Into The Woods (the dark version of Grimm's Fairy Tales), for this year’s theme, Broadway on the Beach. Teams had one hour to grab fabric remnants from the available pile and incorporate design material samples into costumes to illustrate the theme! Check out Red and her alter ego, the Wolf, in our entry below! All leftover fabric from the event is turned into tote bags by volunteers, for foster youth, and presented to several local organizations.

For the third time, Westgroup Designs is honored to be named as one of the top Best Places to Work in 2020 by the Orange County Business Journal.

Placing in the top 3 on the list, Westgroup Designs was selected for its quality of Leadership and Organization, Company Culture and Overall employee Trust and Satisfaction. Westgroup Designs dedicates this award to each and every one of its resourceful, collaborative employees who provides the value offered to our clients and project partners every day, who embody the firm’s values with compassion and integrity, and who approach every day with a great attitude, team spirit, passion for design and enthusiasm for discovery.

This county-wide survey and awards program was designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in Orange County, California, benefiting the county's economy, its workforce and businesses. The ranking of the winning organizations was issued in a special section of the Orange County Business Journal’s October 26th issue.

About Westgroup Designs Westgroup Designs (WD) is a comprehensive Architecture, Planning, Interior Design and Branding firm headquartered in Irvine, California, with both National and International clients and projects. Founded in 1989, WD is a woman-owned business that values excellence; certain that the best results come from a strong partnership with clients, and high-quality work is a culmination of attitude & approach, enthusiasm for discovery and passion for design. WD leverages design as a tool to help clients achieve organizational goals and strengthen business outcomes. The firm’s expertise includes projects in Education, Commercial, Civic, Retail, Health & Wellness and Lifestyle sectors, from tenant improvement and renovation to new multi-story buildings and campuses.

Westgroup Designs (WD) received a Merit Award for its design of INDA ACADEMY, at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Orange County Chapter Design Awards Gala, presented virtually on October 1st.

The project is a 25,000 square foot, Pre-K to 6 educational facility for the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD), focused on the goal of creating an inclusive 21st century neighborhood school with an innovative DREAMS curriculum (Design, Research, Engineering, Arts, Math and Science).

Citing the project’s sustainable concept for Adaptive Reuse and design quality, the AIA Jurors unanimously celebrated this project:

The design is well-considered, thoughtful, and nicely executed, including a playful slide that descends along the side of the building. Another great embodied carbon story that encourages the reuse of existing structures.”

The design team delivered a unique solution that would facilitate progressive hands-on learning for 225 students a year, and understand how this solution would enhance the community, leveraging the local climate to support indoor/outdoor educational activities with glazed retractable walls and highly flexible interior spaces. As part of the resilient design concept, WD focused on creating a healthier building, updating the design of the building skin, adding operable windows and a new ventilation system which exceeds energy requirements by 30% and provides 100% outside air for healthier indoor air quality. 

Our responsibility as architects is to both dream and to build responsibly, Westgroup Designs Principal, Dr. Shazad Ghanbari said. “ This will be a transformational environment; an example for our next generation of emerging technology and learning experiences.”

Congratulations to Westgroup Designs (WD) Founder and CEO PariSima (Sima) Hassani on receiving this incredible honor, celebrating Women who have made a distinctive mark in Commercial Real Estate. Growing the firm’s expertise, over the last several decades, to include substantial work in commercial, education, civic, healthcare and lifestyle sectors, Sima affirms that WD values excellence, believing the best results come from a strong partnership with their clients, leveraging design as a tool to help clients achieve organizational goals and strengthen business outcomes. With more than $535 million in successful projects in their portfolio, it’s no wonder that Westgroup Designs has an 80% return-client ratio. The firm is also proud of its commitment to education and diversity of staff, comprised of 50% women and 60% minority, with 75% of professionals licensed in their fields.

Please join us in celebrating Sima and this achievement!
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After 6+ weeks working from home, many are eager to reunite with their colleagues, while some are getting comfortable with connecting remotely. The common denominator is managing change. Staying connected while away makes transitioning back into the office smoother, and for those who will remain a zoom call away, it allows them to feel like an active part of the team.

Our WFH (Westgroup From Home) Wellness Challenge has enlivened and engaged our staff to get and stay connected like never before…and now we’re sharing our secret sauce with all of you! Each Week our WFH Wellness Challenge provides inspiration, a sense of camaraderie and friendly competition, as well as opportunities to be your best self! Weekly goals involving sharing healthy habits, self-care, energy builders, sustainability, environmental resilience, stress relief and creativity earn participant points toward a WD charity donation and, of course, winner’s bragging rights for the week! Staff completes their goal forms and submits them with any photos of their activities; they also post some of these on our Instagram and tag @WestgroupDesigns for some online promo! Sharing the weekly updates with these great submissions serves as a scrapbook of the success along the way, which we will be continuing to do, sharing this at our quarterly all staff celebrations!

Now its YOUR TURN! We’re providing our custom template of our WFH Challenge for you to use with your staff and teams. Have fun with it, and feel free to tag @WestgroupDesigns with your photos…we may just feature YOU and your inspiring activities in an upcoming post!

Sustainable and resilient strategies, for their places and spaces, is a priority that we share with our clients and project partners. As our team, along with all of you, celebrates the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, in support of the efforts to protect our environment, thinking globally, acting locally, we are reminded of what we can do, and continue to do, while we WFH (Westgroup From Home).

Everyone in the WD family is committed to reducing our individual carbon footprint. Here are just a few ways our team members are contributing to ecological resilience from home: