Leadership changes redraw ranks at local architecture firms

Nick Cooper outside the Turning Basin building that’s home to Odell’s Richmond office. (Jonathan Spiers photo)

Some notable moves in Richmond’s architecture scene are redrawing the leadership at several area offices.

Nick Cooper, a longtime Richmond architect who for the past two years has led Norfolk-based Hanbury’s local office, has taken a similar job with LaBella Associates, which entered the local market three years ago when it acquired Charlotte-based Odell.

Cooper, who previously worked for Odell earlier in his career, described the move as strategic and one he couldn’t pass up when the opportunity arose. He said his position as director of LaBella’s Richmond office will be similar to his role with Hanbury, which he helped expand to Richmond in 2022.

“My charge is basically doing the exact same thing I just did for Hanbury, but now I have the resources of a 1,600-person firm and we’re doing work across the globe,” Cooper said. “I’ve got some really great clients that are following me, so it’s going to be a smooth transition but also a little bit of chaos, as you can imagine.”

The move also brings Cooper into the mix of Richmond’s Diamond District project, as the firm in recent months has taken over design of the new baseball stadium that will be home to the Richmond Flying Squirrels.

Odell has taken over design of the 10,000-seat stadium that would feature upper-level suites above concourse seating. (BizSense file)

Cooper, who with Hanbury has worked with stadium consultant Machete Group on its bid for Richmond’s City Center redevelopment, said getting to work on the Diamond District ballpark with Machete and LaBella “was a no-brainer decision.”

“With the Diamond District as part of our project with Odell/LaBella, I feel like we can really take a lot of momentum and bring LaBella Richmond back to what it used to be,” Cooper said. “It’s a challenge, and I love a challenge.”

Among his initial tasks at LaBella is to bulk up its Shockoe Slip office, which he said he’s grown from two designers to 10 since starting with the firm in early March. The office fills about half of the fourth floor of the Turning Basin building at Canal and Virginia streets.

Odell is working with developer Collins Enterprises on the first phase of the Spring Rock Green redevelopment in Chesterfield. (BizSense file)

The Richmond office converted to LaBella when the New York-based firm acquired Odell in 2021. The firm’s other Richmond-area projects include the Commodore apartment building in Manchester and the Spring Rock Green mixed-use development in Chesterfield.

A Virginia Tech School of Architecture alum, Cooper said the opportunity with LaBella came about through relationships he’s maintained since he worked for the firm, particularly with Bradley Bartholomew, whom he worked with a decade ago and who’s now LaBella’s firmwide design director.

Bartholomew, who’s based in Charlotte and is involved in LaBella’s Richmond projects, said the firm is happy to have Cooper back in the fold.

“We tracked each other’s progress even when we weren’t working together, and it came to a point more recently where we were looking to bring somebody on board in the Richmond office to really drive the leadership of the office, both from a client relationship standpoint and a design standpoint,” Bartholomew said.

Cooper addressing attendees during a Virginia Tech School of Architecture event at Hanbury’s downtown office. (Photo courtesy LinkedIn)

“We’re really excited to have him back for both of those things, being a guy who has been in Richmond for over 20 years and really knows the lay of the land and a lot of the people who are so special to the local community and the business community too.”

While his time with Hanbury was comparatively short, Cooper said it was difficult to leave the team he has led and helped build over the past two years. He said the Hanbury office is now being led jointly by Rick Fischl, Natsumi Oba and Sarah Rosenblatt.

“It’s kind of bittersweet, because the team in Richmond at Hanbury is absolutely phenomenal,” Cooper said. “I didn’t want to leave the people, obviously, but I felt so comfortable in the team I built that they’re going to do great things.”

Zullo joins Baskervill

Around the same time as Cooper’s move, Jessica Zullo, a Richmond native and fellow Hokie who has led D.C.-based Hickok Cole’s local office, switched teams to become studio director at Baskervill.

Jessica Zullo has moved from Hickok Cole to Baskervill. (Photo courtesy Baskervill)

Zullo, who had worked at Hickok Cole for 12 years, said she enjoyed and appreciated getting to guide the firm in Richmond over the past eight years but had been looking for her next career opportunity and was ready to relinquish her role at Hickok Cole.

“I was looking for the next personal growth opportunity, and the leadership team at Baskervill is exceptional. I’m looking forward to learning from them,” Zullo said.

“I was part of some incredible things at Hickok Cole and we accomplished a lot. I’m proud of that,” she said. “At the same time, I was ready to pass the baton to the next leader looking for their own career growth opportunity. It felt like the right time.”

Taking that baton at Hickok Cole is John Lang, a six-year employee who has relocated from D.C. to lead the Richmond office. Lang, who has managed some of the company’s projects in Richmond, joins a staff of 12 based out of the firm’s outpost in Scott’s Addition, where it returned to last year after three years in Broad Street’s Arts District.

John Lang (Photo courtesy Hickok Cole)

Lang said Hickok Cole remains devoted to the office, adding that a goal is to grow it both in staff count and regional reach. The company’s projects include the Harp’s Landing apartments at Libbie Mill and Pinecrest Development’s 15-story student housing tower that’s rising in Monroe Ward, as well as other projects in Raleigh, North Carolina, and across the Southeast.

“We are fully committed to our investment in the Richmond office and have experienced an uptick in work in the region,” Lang said in an email. “Our plan is to expand our footprint in the region through a variety of design opportunities, ranging from large-scale mixed-use projects to boutique interiors and branding graphics.”

Zullo, a Deep Run High School graduate, described joining Baskervill as a both a professional and personal move, having maintained relationships with colleagues at the Richmond-based firm over the years. She is working out of the company’s James Center headquarters.

Baskervill’s headquarters at The James Center. (BizSense file)

Baskervill President Bob Clark said the firm had had its eyes on Zullo and jumped at the opportunity to add her to its leadership team.

“We are always looking for fantastic talent, and she is a fantastic talent,” Clark said. “An opportunity presented itself and we were talking, and we’re thrilled she’s here. I have every confidence she’s going to grow here very quickly and be a dynamic leader.”

As studio director, Zullo said, she will be leading a team of designers working on primarily local projects in areas she’s familiar with from her time at Hickok Cole, including workplace projects, commercial office repositioning, and mixed-use and multifamily developments.

Note: This story has been updated to clarify LaBella Associates’ acquisition of Odell.