Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ashley Mayou. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Ashley, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.
My parents always taught me how to be independent. My fathers family owned a farm when he was growing up so I was taught how to garden and grow crops at a young age. Additionally we also built planters and dog houses. That may be where my love of the built environment came from before I even knew what an architect was. My parents were always there for me but if I ask a question I was encouraged to look for the answer myself first. This allowed me to have a research focused mind, always looking for how things worked before asking for additional information from others. My parents also always put their trust in me to do the right thing and to succeed so that is something I always wanted to live up to. They never had a specific job in mind for me, they always encouraged me to follow any path I desired.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am Ashley Mayou, a California Licensed Architect and a Certified Interior Designer with the NCIDQ. My path to architecture started in 5th grade. We had a class project where we designed the concept for our own straw bale house. We didn’t build the house but we did model it our of foamcore and plan out all the room locations, the best roof pitch for solar panels, the wall thicknesses and so forth. This got me thinking about design and how architecture can be a career. Straw bale was a really nice concept to get your head around the built environment as a 10 year old since it is very easy to visualize straw bales and how you could cut and carve it into the shape you desired.
This led me to eventually go to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where I received my Bachelor’s of Architecture in 2019. Prior to graduating I had a number of architecture jobs, most notably at studio 2G Architects where I am now a part owner. I knew I was planning to stay in the area upon graduating and studio 2G felt like an environment that was routing for me to succeed and valued my insights and options. I always like to say that the firm does any architecture job except hospitals and public K-12 schools. We have a wide array of project types from Residential, to Wineries as well as doing work with Civic and Federal Governments such as the City of San Luis Obispo, the General Services Administration, and Vandenberg Space Force Base.
Something I am proud of at our company is our attention to detail and swift communication. We make sure the whole team is involved throughout the process of designing and permitting your project. We don’t ever want people wondering ‘did they receive my email?’. Additionally we are also proud of our listening skills and our track record of providing designs to our clients that meet all their expected needs and more, while also having a timeless design.
We don’t have one architectural style, our final designs are really driven by the project site and our clients needs. We don’t come into a project with an ego, it is all about the team and the end result.
(you can probably find a bit more about what we generally do from the website)
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Making sure to not over promise and under deliver. Along with that not making excuses when things go wrong but being honest about the situation. This fosters open communication and when you are dealing with someone’s property and typically the largest amount of money they will ever spend they need to be able to trust you to tell them the truth and use your expertise to give them the best outcomes.
We also have weekly trackers that are live and shared with our clients so that at any time they can see the progress of the project and access any of the shared documents related to it. This goes in line with our open communication and also makes sure that no comments / tasks fall through the cracks.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Keeping the lines of communication open. That is a theme in our business not sure with our clients but with our employees as well. We have multiple ways we do this. One is to have 4 check in reviews a year. Twice a year is when we evaluate their overall performance and if any raises or promotions are in order, and the other two reviews are shorter but a good time for people to bring up any other issues. These are important because otherwise in a fast paced work environment people can find it hard to find a time to talk about any issues they may be having. Along with that we also have a mentorship program where people in our office are paired up for 1 year at a time and they are given monthly budget to go out to coffee together and get any additional questions answered or insights on how they handle situations in the office. It also helps with employee bonding. We also have quarterly events, this year was water coloring in Q1, seeing tidepools and a picnic in Q2, we are still deciding on our Q3 event but in the past we have done rock climbing or bowling, usually something active, and Q4 is our holiday party with the annual white elephant gift exchange. We typically have a theme for the white elephant as well, last year was the 5 sense.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.studio-2g.com/
- Instagram: @studio2garchitects
- Linkedin: studio 2G Architects, LLP
Image Credits
David La Lush