As architecture and design firm Odimo marks its fifth year in business, founder and CEO Amy Slattery celebrated the occasion by adding a dynamic, new partner who adds diversity, dimension and increased service offerings.
Jesús Torres-Sosa has joined Slattery as a principal of the firm and will help lead Odimo’s healthcare efforts.
“I'm excited about working with Jesús because we dovetail well,” Slattery said. “His talents are really strong in the technical and project management aspects of our work, and he brings us new opportunities with healthcare.”
Since 2015, the Kansas City architecture and interior design practice has earned success and a reputation as a new business model for architectural practice. In 2019, Odimo (meaning “to navigate”) was named AIA Kansas City Architecture Firm of the Year, based on extraordinary leadership in advancing the cause of architecture and its role in improving the quality of the built environment. That same year, Odimo was named a Top 10 Small Businesses by the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.
"We've achieved so much in these first five years with our work in higher education, affordable housing and office design. For some time now, I have looked at healthcare as a target market," Slattery said.
"We have an opportunity right now to leverage our work at the University of Missouri and expand our higher education focus into university healthcare. Jesús brings healthcare as well as medical office building experience which will also open new possibilities together with our commercial office work,” Slattery said.
“In working 20 years and exploring what I want to do, I've always had an entrepreneurial streak, but I've never wanted to look at being a sole owner of a practice. I work great as part of a team. And for me, the magic, the secret sauce, is finding the right person to work with -- someone whose personality and mine mesh really well,” he said. “Amy and I have taken a lot of time to get to know each other personally and professionally. We understand what we each bring to the table and how we balance each other out,” Torres-Sosa said.
Torres-Sosa comes to Odimo as the former director of architecture at Pulse Design Group.
The Kansas State University graduate has worked on numerous projects in his career, including the Sporting KC soccer stadium, the Bartle Hall Grand Ballroom expansion, and most recently as project manager of the Lawrence Memorial Hospital – Health West project.
“I'm excited to bring this element of health and healthcare design to our design approach - whether it's a hospital, a lab environment within the university or even our housing work,” Slattery said. “Design for health is more important now than ever, in all that we do.”
Slattery and Torres-Sosa see Odimo’s mission as threefold; in addition to creating beautiful impactful spaces driven by their client’s vision and goals, Odimo works to forge strong community partnerships as well as being an example of change in the AEC industry.
Slattery views Odimo’s role as leading the conversation on how elevating quality architecture can impact Kansas City’s neighborhoods equitably.
“That important, impactful work must prioritize sustainability, community health and what the neighborhood and community needs,” Slattery said.
Torres-Sosa is also heavily involved with numerous community and business organizations, including the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Centurions Leadership Program, and the non-profit City in Motion Dance Theater.
Openness to inclusion, welcoming all points of view, and making people feel heard are attributes of Odimo’s approach to clients and the community.
“Maybe people don't need an architect for a building. Instead, they may need an architect to help them think about how to reuse their space differently. Perhaps it's an operational question rather than a physical need. Or it's a community engagement conversation rather than a new community building. We work to ask the right questions and look for the right solutions for our clients and the communities we work in… and the solution may not always be a building,” Slattery said.
For more information about Odimo, visit Odimo.Us.