Senior Design Director

Perhaps because he is a relatively young designer, Jose Nunez thinks a lot about the long life of buildings. 

“I think that working alongside my colleagues to design and build ‘generational buildings’ is important, especially while implementing sustainability and adaptive re-use tactics for longevity,” he says. “I would love to leave an impact when my career is over and not just have a portfolio full of projects that only lasted 5-10 years just because new trends came into play. A generational building can ultimately adapt with the evolution of program needs over time.”

“The thought of laying the foundation for a building that will be multi-generational is exciting to me.”

He gets the opportunity to do that every day in his work with Gro. As a senior design director, he feels his talents are strongly geared toward the end user, “making consumers happy,” as he puts it. 

Nuñez’s resume includes work in housing – luxury and affordable, structures and landscapes – retail, commercial, and even a chain of veterinary hospitals. But it is retail environments that he finds most stimulating. “I was always interested in the experiential aspect – the notion of guiding the customer through a series of experiences that are both subtle and underlying when undergoing the journey,” he says. “You work through the five senses to draw attention.”

As a child, he sat with his grandfather on family-owned land in Spain as he drew houses he’d like to one day build on the property. Nunez earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the New York Institute of Technology, and a diploma of Spanish mastery from Agrupacion de Lengua y Cultura Españolas de Nueva York.

Nuñez learned to swim competitively at the YMCA in his childhood, and later played soccer and baseball. “It’s motivating for me to take part in the design for athletic facilities because I feel we also have the responsibility to usher in new generations of talent,” he says.