flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

Leo A Daly hires hospitality-design veteran to lead its Dallas office

Architects

Leo A Daly hires hospitality-design veteran to lead its Dallas office

Ken Martin views this sector as an incubator of innovation.


By John Caulfield, Senior Editor | September 13, 2017

The Marriott Downtown in Omaha, Neb.'s Capitol District is one of Leo A Daly's recent hospitality projects. Its new managing principal Ken Martin foresees hospitality seeping into the firm's other practices. Image: Courtesy Leo A Daly

Ken Martin, AIA, NCARB, has joined Leo A Daly to lead its Dallas office as Vice President and Managing Partner.

Most of Martin’s 25-plus-year career in design, planning, and management has focused on hospitality, which happens to be the Dallas office’s largest market. He joins Leo A Daly from DLR Group, where he was that firm’s hospitality and convention center expert. He reports to COO John Kraskiewicz.  

Martin assumes his new post at a time when Leo A Daly has several large-scale hospitality-design projects in the works or just completed. These include the five-star 285-room Hotel Talisa in Vail, Colo.; the 582-room Ritz-Carlton Orlando Grande Lakes in Florida; and the 12-story 333-room Marriott Downtown Omaha in Nebraska, which opened last month as the first phase of that city’s entertainment Capitol District.

“Hospitality, I would argue, leads a lot of innovation,” says Martin in a video that Leo A Daly released to announce his hiring. “You cannot be reactive in this business.”

He praises his new employer as “one of the preeminent design firms in the hospitality industry,” and talks about the importance of sustainability and meeting guest expectations in hospitality design.

In a recent article he wrote for Hotel Business Review, Martin shared his thoughts about adaptive reuse as “a key piece of many [hotel] brands’ strategy,” and how authenticity in the redesign of existing buildings is “something of the Holy Grail.” On such projects, Martin said he asks the following questions to guide his teams’ designs: “What has that neighborhood been? Where is it going? Culturally, what are the drivers, and who are our local patrons going to be? What do they value? Who are the guests, why are they traveling to this city (or this neighborhood), and what are they looking for? That is to say: How do you integrate?”

 

Ken Martin was considering his professional legacy when, at 50, he switched firms. Image: Leo A Daly

Martin began his career as a museum exhibit designer for University of New Mexico, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture. He spent nearly 27 years with DLR Group, rising to the level of Principal and National Hospitality Leader. One of the projects he was working on for DLR before he left was the renovation of the 16-story, 250-room Laylow Hotel by Marriott Autograph in Waikiki, Hawaii.

The 50-year-old Martin tells BD+C that several factors drove his decision to switch firms. For one thing, he and his wife are recent empty nesters, which gave them flexibility to relocate.

Martin was also giving more thought to his professional legacy. “I know there are is a finite number of projects I’ll get to do. So you start to ask yourself—blue sky—how can I make the biggest impact?”

He became aware that Leo A Daly was looking for a managing principal as Patricia Miller, its corporate director of hospitality, was moving into a global practice leader role for the firm. During the interview process, Martin was impressed with the projects that Leo A Daly was working on “that hint at a new level of design for the firm. This is a place where I can do signature work.”

He says that he brings a different approach to architectural programming and design, having been on the front end of DLR’s large conference center/hotel projects.

Leo A Daly is strong in the civic market. And there are other specialties across its 30 offices “that are begging to be infused with hospitality design and energy,” says Martin. The convention center/hotel sector is one of these; global healthcare and aviation are two others.

“Enlisting the strength of our hospitality teams in those projects and pursuits is a great avenue to doing great work,” says Martin.  

Related Stories

| Jun 4, 2012

KBE Building and CTA Construction awarded Project of the Year from CMAA

Award given for work done on the renovation of Beverly High School in Beverly, Mass.

| Jun 4, 2012

Pressley promoted to Senior VP and CIO at Hill International

Pressley will be responsible for managing all of Hill's information technology systems and software worldwide.

| Jun 4, 2012

Stalco Construction promotes Scott Pavick to chief estimator

Pavick manages the estimating department and is responsible for developing cost estimates and budgets, value engineering, and subcontractor bid evaluation and negotiations.

| Jun 4, 2012

HBD Construction to build new training campus in St. Louis

Larger campus facility will expand training opportunities for plumbers and pipefitters.

| Jun 1, 2012

New BD+C University Course on Insulated Metal Panels available

By completing this course, you earn 1.0 HSW/SD AIA Learning Units.

| Jun 1, 2012

Caruso to lead Gensler’s Asia talent development

Caruso will be based in Shanghai and working with the Gensler offices in Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and India until the spring of 2013.

| Jun 1, 2012

AIA 2030 Commitment Program reports new results

The full report contains participating firm demographics, energy reduction initiatives undertaken by firms, anecdotal accounts, and lessons learned.

| Jun 1, 2012

Robert Wilson joins SmithGroupJJR

Wilson makes the move to SmithGroupJJR from VOA Associates, Inc., where he served as a senior vice president and technical director in its Chicago office.

| Jun 1, 2012

Gilbane Building's Sue Klawans promoted

Industry veteran tasked with boosting project efficiency and driving customer satisfaction, to direct operational excellence efforts.

| Jun 1, 2012

Ground broken for Children’s Hospital Colorado South Campus

Children’s Hospital Colorado expects to host nearly 80,000 patient visits at the South Campus during its first year.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category




Resiliency

U.S. is reducing floodplain development in most areas

The perception that the U.S. has not been able to curb development in flood-prone areas is mostly inaccurate, according to new research from climate adaptation experts. A national survey of floodplain development between 2001 and 2019 found that fewer structures were built in floodplains than might be expected if cities were building at random.

halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021