Innovator and designer extraordinaire, Bob Pineo of Design Develop LLC, a full-service architecture firm, has been working in the architecture industry for over 20 years. The firm he helps manage has offices in Charlottesville and Baltimore. They use SketchUp and Trimble technology to run and grow the business and accelerate their workflow on a variety of large and small design projects. Tune in as we sit down with Bob and the entire DD team and learn all about the company’s background, and their super-efficient process.
Bob Pineo at the Design Develop headquarters.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you got started with SketchUp.
My background is in building construction, and I got more involved in design later on in my career. Around that time, I was using CAD documentation to communicate designs to clients but quickly realized most clients had a hard time understanding these technical, 2D plans.
“I switched to SketchUp and Lumion exclusively because it helped me speak the same language as my clients — 3D. I’ve been using SketchUp for over 15 years now!”
SketchUp is such a versatile tool and allows our team to iterate quickly using direct feedback from clients. With SketchUp, I’m able to take my conceptual ideas and morph them into a design — and then update that design as details change. It’s very fluid and flexible, which is what our company needs. We also use SketchUp as a “training” tool for architects. I believe that the more you conceptualize space and iterate, the better architect you become. There are always hundreds of ways to design something, so it’s good training to be able to explore those options.
