LPA Promotes Keith Hempel to CDO

LPA Design Studios elevated industry veteran Keith Hempel to chief design officer, where he will help guide the firm’s integrated design process. Hempel’s experience working across market segments including work in commercial, civic and education projects make him uniquely qualified for the CDO position, says LPA CEO Wendy Rogers.

Hempel, who started with LPA in 1995, is a sustainable design leader and an advocate for including engineers, landscape architects and interior designers at the earliest stages of the process.

“As CDO, Keith will be an advocate for ensuring everybody at LPA is fluent in the language of sustainability and design excellence. He really is one of those people in the firm who epitomizes what it means to work together as a team. He encourages every voice at the table,” said Rogers. “And he’s going to elevate performance in all of our work to help solve the greatest problem of our time: climate change.”

Hempel says his primary goal will be to bring consistency to every aspect of the design process and a focus on research and data.

“We want to deliver the same rigor to every project, day in, day out, regardless of the size or budget, across all our project teams,” Hempel says. “My role will be to help guide the design teams and connect them to the resources that will make their design solutions stronger. As an integrated firm, we want to take a much more holistic look at what’s important about design.”