Page 18 - RE-NJ Nov.2021 #59

16 NOVEMBER 2021
BUILT FOR THE FUTURE
DMR eyes continued growth, pipeline diversity as design firm marks 30th anniversary
Lloyd Rosenberg walks through the halls of the Frank J. Gargiulo Campus in Secaucus
with an obvious pride, pointing out everything from the color scheme and curvature of the hallways to a fully equipped teaching kitchen for students at the 350,000-square-foot high school.
His affinity for the space is understandable. Completed in 2018, the $150 million complex is not only a signature project for his firm, DMR Architects, but the largest of its kind for a practice that has spent
three decades designing educational facilities.
“The firm was founded doing schools,” said Rosenberg, DMR’s CEO and president. “If you look around this building, you see that ... it has a great number of elements — colors, materials, acoustics — that are a higher end of creativity than a typical school building.”
Education remains a cornerstone of DMR’s business, as evidenced by the state-of-the-art vocational school, but the firm is now every bit as prolific in sectors such as
multifamily, government, health
care and interiors. That growth has helped it build a portfolio of more than 3,000 projects since its founding — as the practice marks its 30th anniversary — and a current pipeline that spans 200 projects valued at more than $1 billion.
That means there are likely
more milestones to come for the Hasbrouck Heights-based firm, which has grown from a team of three to 45, whose services now range from design to redevelopment planning.
“We’re busier than we’ve ever been — across the board,” Rosenberg said.
The Jersey City native started
his career in the mid-1960s after attending the acclaimed College of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma. Fittingly, his first major project after returning to New Jersey was the new Glen Ridge High School, he said, recalling a design that involved a large cantilever overhang at the main entry and a central library surrounded by classrooms.
Rosenberg would spend the next
By Joshua Burd
Lloyd Rosenberg, CEO and president of DMR Architects, recently visited the Frank J. Gargiulo Campus in Secaucus as he reflected on the firm’s 30-year history and its roots in the education sector.
Photo by Aaron Houston for Real Estate NJ