Introducing Lea Design Studio
After an extensive 30 years of experience working as an architect, an architect developer and a developer’s architect, John Lea is returning to his roots having launched Lea Design Studio on the Gold Coast.
The architectural firm will draw on Mr Lea’s vast range of experience and include a Concierge Architect Service.
“After many years working on the other side of the fence as a developer I realised I missed the thrill and excitement of design,” Mr Lea said.
“Now feels like an opportune time to come back into the market to offer services gained from all my experience.”
This experience includes working on a wide variety of residential and resort projects encompassing prestige housing, low, medium and high-rise multi-unit buildings, and the development of innovative new flat pack and modular construction techniques.
His development experience has involved managing the design process and overseeing the design work of some of Australia’s internationally renowned architectural firms to ensure the best design and development outcome was achieved.
He has overseen hundreds of millions of dollars of property developments across the east coast of Australia.
For the past 15 years he has worked as the in-house architect for Resort Corp and MiiGroup designing various apartments and resorts.
“I started my career as an architect then moved into an architect-developer practice and finally morphed into a developer’s architect,” Mr Lea said.
Concierge Architect Services
Lea Design Studio’s Concierge Architect Service enables developers who cannot justify the cost of employing a full-time architect in house, to have architectural expertise on call.
The service means Mr Lea can provide developers with unbiased architectural advice based on his extensive experience.
“It could be as simple as a developer trying to assess the feasibility of a site he is looking at buying where he may need some initial concept designs done before he thinks about appointing an architect.
“And it could also take the role of providing an unbiased assessment of an existing design for a project which already has DA in place.
“As an architect with extensive development experience I’m uniquely positioned if the developer is looking for someone to oversee or manage their project architect.
“Having an architect on the developer’s side means they can get advice as to whether they are getting the best architectural service.”
The Concierge Architect Service also means Mr Lea can offer suggestions to improve existing designs and floorplans where required to ensure apartments are at their most saleable, ensuring sizing is optimised and improving general circulation and planning to maximise layout efficiences.
Mr Lea can also provide assistance in a sales and marketing role creating 3D fly-throughs and presentations to clients as well as working with purchasers who want to customise their internal layouts.
