WDA Named a Best Place To Work For the 3rd Time in 4 Years

A firm with a lot of skill, class and creativity in its DNA received well deserved recognition.

WDA Named a Best Place To Work For the 3rd Time in 4 Years

We are honored to have been named a San Francisco Business Times 2023 Best Place to Work. Read the full article, including quotes from Director of Operations, Phoebe Lam here. For more on what makes us a Best Place to Work, check out our Best Places to Work (BPTW) reels series on Instagram.

Press Release

William Duff Architects (WDA) makes history with its placement on the prestigious San Francisco Business Times‘ (SFBT) Best Places to Work 2023 list. The sole architecture firm on the 2022 and 2020 lists, WDA is also the only architecture firm to place consecutively in the last five years. The list is based on anonymous employee surveys administered by SFBT. This year, WDA is joined by three other architecture firms – indicating signs of a cultural shift.

“We’re grateful our team has once again recognized our collective efforts to always strive for a better version of WDA,” states Phoebe Lam, WDA director of operations. Lam is also a firm owner, along with founder William S. Duff, Jr, AIA, Jim Westover, AIA, Residential practice leader, and Jonathan Tsurui, Hospitality practice leader. WDA’s leadership team also includes David K. Plotkin, AIA, former Commercial practice leader who now heads the newly created Community practice, and Sarah Mergy, director of business development and marketing.

WDA’s employee benefits package highlights include: a formal mentorship program, profit sharing, bonuses, annual education stipend, hybrid working, summer hours and yoga. Lam also notes that projects are staffed to mitigate the long-hours often associated with the profession, and staff authorship of firm initiatives is encouraged — an example is Arch Camp, a free course for high school students, with priority registration for historically underrepresented groups (HUGs), on becoming an architect.

“A firm with a lot of skill, class and creativity in its DNA received well deserved recognition,” remarked Fran Coiro, a former Commercial practice client.

Stacy Williams, the Executive Director of the San Francisco chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIASF), describes WDA’s achievements as pivotal and emphasizes that all four firms are members of AIASF. Williams also notes that while their colleagues in the construction industry have consistently made the Best Places to Work lists, she hopes to see more architecture and design firms in the region place in the future, as this will only serve to strengthen the industry.