It’s happened often here in Arizona. The charismatic founder of a design firm steps away due to a serious illness or dies, and employees are left scrambling to figure out what to do with the business. Chaos ensues, and the outcome isn’t always great. Today, though, savvy design practices have put succession plans into place,
ensuring years of stability and future growth. We spoke to the principals of three
high-profile design studios—Wiseman & Gale Interiors, Swaback Architects +
Planners and Jones Studio—to learn how they are making sure their legacies last another
generation or more.
“When we looked into it, we realized that there were four options for our practice,” says architect Neal Jones, president of Tempe-based Jones Studio. “We could lock up and leave, merge, sell or put together a succession plan. We chose a succession plan.”
Jones Studio was founded in 1979 by Neal’s brother, architect Eddie Jones as a sole practice after he was asked to design and build a home just east of the Arizona Biltmore. “I worked out of a spare bedroom in my house, which was designed by Ralph Haver, and I had client meetings in the dining room, which leaked during rains,” remembers Eddie Jones with a laugh. “I used to drive a VW Beetle to sites, but I had so many speeding tickets that I lost my driver’s license.”
Always wanting to work together, Neal joined Eddie in 1986 after he earned his master’s in architecture and an MBA from the University of Illinois, followed by five years at a large architectural practice in Atlanta. “There was like one house on the boards and no money,” recalls Neal of his first months onboard with Eddie. Focusing on his business education, Neal began bringing in the business, responding to RFQs and getting Jones Studio’s name in front of decision-makers. With Eddie as the principal designer, Jones Studio’s breakthrough project was the 1988 Homolvi State Park’s visitor center, just outside Winslow.
That began a steady flow of work from government entities like the BLM and GSA (for which the studio has done several land ports of entry at the Southwest border), ASU and UA, and, perhaps their most high-profile project, the Cardinals football team’s training facility. Residential, religious and public art work came in as well, as did hundreds of design awards. As the firm grew, so did the need for space. Several years ago, they designed their own freestanding building in downtown Tempe, 6,700 square feet of light-dappled modernism.
But a little more than a dozen years ago, the brothers began thinking about the future of the firm, particularly when architects Brian Farling—who joined the firm in 1998—and Jacob Benyi, who came on as an intern in 2002, expressed an interest in becoming principals and, eventually, owners. “I admit, we were not a big corporation and weren’t thinking about the long-term,” says Eddie, “but Brian’s initial request triggered us to think about it. We realized it was irresponsible not to have a plan.”
Neal began studying the process, reading about succession plans, going to seminars and hiring a consultant who helped with the firm’s valuation and putting a process in place. “We wanted Brian and Jacob to have a path to ownership if they wanted it,” says Neal, “and we didn’t want to leave them high and dry financially.” In 2014, Brian and Jacob were made principals and given 5 percent stock in the company, a percentage of which has increased over the years, giving the younger architects full ownership of the 21-member Jones Studio today. Under the succession plan, Jacob will become the next president of Jones Studio when Neal steps down and Brian will become principal designer when Eddie steps down. “We are now four decision-makers at Jones Studio,” says Neal, “and we are the luckiest people in the world because we did not have to struggle to find the talent to carry on Jones Studio. I fully expect Jacob and Brian to change the firm and run it differently. That’s okay. It’s a good thing.”
“Swaback Architects + Planners may be one of the oldest firms in the Phoenix area that has not been bought or merged,” says John Sather, the firm’s managing partner. “We are 45 years old, which is older than Taliesin Associated Architects, the afterlife of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural practice.
The firm’s history, as well as its longevity, is rooted in the principles and teachings of Frank Lloyd Wright, Sather explains. Vern Swaback spent more than 20 years at Taliesin—including a few years of being taught and mentored by Frank Lloyd Wright himself. Wanting to push the architectural envelope, Swaback established his own practice in the late 1970s, living and working out of a small guest cottage on a Paradise Valley estate. Swaback was Sather’s teacher at Taliesin’s Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, and Sather soon joined his former mentor in the new venture. “Vern slept on a cot in the back room of the cottage,” remembers Sather, “and I lived in a tent on the grounds. That’s really how the company started. Musician Charles Lewis lived in another guest cottage on the property and played piano all day long. It was a creative, magical place and time.”
With Kohler in Wisconsin as a major client, Swaback’s sole proprietorship business grew and added more architects, planners and support staff. “Soon into our growth, it became clear that some of us had become important practitioners in the company,” says Sather of the firm that now numbers 40 employees, “and that we were fully capable of running our own firms. Vern sought counsel and approached me and architect Jon Bernhard to become partners.” The initial three partners opted to keep the Swaback name as it became part of their brand identity. “We didn’t have three names that went together magically, and we didn’t need to have all of our names on the door,” says Sather of the naming decision.
Under the trio’s guidance, the firm moved into Scottsdale offices of their own design, angled around a landscaped courtyard. Studio V, an interior design practice, was launched and then spun off as a separate entity. The award-winning architectural and planning work kept coming steadily and from far-flung locales. In addition to Kohler Village in Wisconsin (an ongoing client), there were signature projects like the master planning and designing of homes at Martis Camp in California, the Big Horn golf clubhouse in Palm Desert, the Univision television station in Phoenix—the largest rammed earth house built in modern times—and work on repurposing buildings at historic Fort Apache in northeastern Arizona to serve the needs of the Apache community.
In recent years, the three Swaback partners began coming to terms with their lives and the more distant future of the practice, bringing in architect Michael Wetzel and landscape architect/planner Jeffrey Denzak as partners. Not long ago, Vern Swaback stepped down for health reasons but remains the founding partner. “Here at Swaback, we have nurtured very talented architects and planners who are groomed to be the next generation of partners,” says Sather. “Whether they want to or not is up to them. We talk about transitions frequently and we make room for others. Just like when we started, Swaback Architects + Planners has never acted a single day as if our existence is guaranteed. Our work ethic is still that of a startup, focusing on doing good work.”
In recent years, the three Swaback partners began coming to terms with their lives and the more distant future of the practice, bringing in architect Michael Wetzel and landscape architect/planner Jeffrey Denzak as partners. Not long ago, Vern Swaback stepped down for health reasons but remains the founding partner. “Here at Swaback, we have nurtured very talented architects and planners who are groomed to be the next generation of partners,” says Sather. “Whether they want to or not is up to them. We talk about transitions frequently and we make room for others. Just like when we started, Swaback Architects + Planners has never acted a single day as if our existence is guaranteed. Our work ethic is still that of a startup, focusing on doing good work.”
By 2002, Scott remembers, Anne Gale began thinking about retirement and a succession plan. “She didn’t have any obvious family members to pass the business down to,” he says, “so she approached my mother and interior designer Sue Calvin about taking over the practice.”
By then, Scott had a successful career in management consulting after a degree in finance and an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. “I was working in Germany at the time, and my father sent over the proposal for the Wiseman & Gale succession. “I put together a business plan and wrote myself into it,” says Scott with a smile. “I’d always wanted to have a family business, and this was the ability to work with not only family, but with people who had been lifelong friends.”
With Scott handling the business end of the practice, his mother and Calvin focused on the design work, bringing in new clients and projects that won awards and were published locally and nationally. Anne Gale remained on board, helping with the transition and still working with clients almost to the day she passed away in 2023. “Anne was a great teacher and mentor to the designers here, and set up the collaborative process we still use today,” says Scott. “She taught the designers when to know that a project was ‘done,’ and she set up the business to make it easier for our transition to happen.”
Now with a staff of 20, including designers and support people, Wiseman & Gale has come even farther in the ownership succession. Sue Calvin and Patty Burdick have retired, but interior designers Jana Parker Lee and Holly Ogden have joined Scott as the newest partners. “What has been passed down here is good design,” says Scott. “That’s why our clients keep coming back.”
