Culture & Core Values

Culture & Core Values

Team building and a focus on young professionals and their experience

KG hosts on a continuous basis for college and high school interns with concentrations in architecture and interior design and other disciplines.

The chance to be immersed in the responsibilities of day to day practice are offset by other experiences that include opportunities for design learning.

This year a late summer design competition for a wooden structure being erected on our Harding site was the subject of an intern effort that was juried by the full staff following a mid-day lunch and design presentation.

The range of talent in our intern staff has ranged over the years from architectural and interior design students, to real estate school interns, urban planning and urban design students from such schools as NJIT, NYU, Rutgers Bloustein, Catholic University, Syracuse, Univ. of Virginia, Columbia and others.

Continuing education and professional advancement

KG supports our staff’s professional development with regular webinars and lunch and learns focused on product development and technology.

For professionals on the license track we provide financial and hands on support in exam prep, as well as refresher courses and time off to prepare for these important examinations.

Community and STEM learning

Our team also provides significant efforts to our community organizations and local school access to our expertise in sustainable practice and education. This year Sarah Heffner and Meghan Barlotta of our FFE purchasing and procurement division, Workspace, Inc. taught a series of classes at the Morris Plains Elementary School relating to interior design and color theory.

That session was followed with a day long summer camp program with the Pingry and Harding Schools focused on environmental science. George Kimmerle and William Kimmerle, along with Cindy Cui, Meghan Barlotta and Sarah Heffner used our award-winning Harding building as the proof of concept for sustainable design practices.

Remembering the average age of our campers ran between 10-12 years old, Bill’s question, “what did you eat for breakfast today”, traced all the energy and emissions associated with a bowl of “Fruit Loops” to help illustrate his point about carbon footprints—Followed by lunch on our rooftop deck overlooking Wightman’s Farms, both being the students highlight of their day.

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Environmental sustainable practice

Who is the Paul Winter Consort and why their song “Icarus” is the background theme for our voice mail system.

Founded in 1970, the Paul Winter Consort performed at various college campuses in the early seventies including George’s alma mater, Washington University in St Louis (the school would ultimately become both Robert’s and William’s undergraduate college as well).

The early seventies saw the birth of ecology and environmental sciences and Winter’s music became synonymous with that emerging movement.

Icarus, the mythological figure from Greek legend, who attempted to escape domination by a Crete King, with a pair of wax wings fashioned by his father Daedalus. Icarus, ultimately failed because in “flying too close to the sun” his wings melted, and he fell to the sea and drowned.

The story has become synonymous with unchecked ambition and reaching beyond ones means to ignoble ends. From the perspective of the environmental movement this translates to working within the limits of environmental consciousness and retaining a sense of balance and proportion.

For KG’s leadership and staff, the song serves as a lesson and reminder of sustainable practice and environmental responsibility, an approach with obvious deep and long-standing roots in the practice.

Thrust it serves as a theme and a daily reminder about issues of sustainability and an acknowledgment of the need for balance in natural systems in building, planning and community development.

Opportunities to work in two dramatically different cultural settings.

KG maintains offices in rural Harding Twp. NJ and the urban environs of NYC’s Chelsea neighborhood. While our mix of projects is truly regional and national in scope the ability of staff to shuttle between office locations is a wonderful benefit of working with the KG team.

Both offices are fully equipped, and computers and software are linked to central servers providing continuous access and support.

Team project kick offs occur at both sites and weekly project meetings are located at the site most accessible to our clients, staff and co-consultants.

Access to industry events, showroom visits and other locations is afforded by this diversity and our dual business locations.

Business diversity as a watch word for the practice.

The diversity of our practice team affords the opportunity for staff to collaborate with professionals in real estate, planning, urban design, architecture, interiors, graphics, project management, finance and other related areas of practice.

That diversity is endemic in the project types we pursue and emerges from a “transaction” based perspective or point of view related to project feasibility and development.

We have been termed in the past “deal makers” not “deal breakers” by the real estate brokerage community, and while that description fails to address the entire range of interests of the practice it does point toward our deep understanding of the real estate and construction industry which our array of practice areas is directed.

Our depth of experience and understanding is a fundamental aspect of our firm, which forms a larger benefit for staff looking to expand their breadth of exposure that KG provides all its team members.

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Kimmerle Group