Sarah Troutman is the Vice President of the Interiors Group and a principal of the firm. She started in 2006 and became manager of the interiors group two years later. She considers herself the cruise director of the group, always planning fun events employees enjoy going to, such as stress days, potlucks, and costume contests.
She enjoys the fact that the work still challenges her. One of her favorite projects to work on was one of her most recent ones for Syneos Health. Their global headquarters project in Morrisville clocked in at over a quarter million square feet and was challenging, which reminded her how great it was to work at a place over 12 years and continue to learn and grow. It’s not just an office or a paycheck but something that she gets excited to be a part of every day. It seems to be a popular theme with other employees too: employees are treated like family here and it’s evident. She sees how excited people are to come to work, and although that shouldn’t be unique, it feels like it is, and she feels very honored to be a part of that. So much value is placed on relationships with clients and employees, which she thinks makes for better work. After all, if you’re going to spend most of your week at work, you should enjoy it.
Aside from the culture, Sarah enjoys interior design for its variety and challenges.
One of the popular trends in corporate interior design she is seeing is “residential style” offices. Since you are spending such a large amount of time at work, you want it to feel somewhat like home. “I think people are realizing that and want to make office spaces more comfortable and inviting,” says Sarah.
Design is something a lot of people do well, but it’s got to have a purpose. Sarah states at HagerSmith, “we like to dive deeper and almost do a ‘personality test’ on clients to really understand the desired culture of the firm, their long-term aspirations, environment their trying to create, so we can create something that looks great but is also functional and rewarding.”
There are a lot of great design firms out there but she thinks one of the things that sets HagerSmith apart is that they value their client relationships just as much as the quality of work they produce. In the next 40 years, Sarah hopes that HagerSmith keeps the original intent of the firm – good designers who do good work, for clients who want to continue to come back. “I think we’ve got a good system in place, just want to continue to improve on the principles that have been set up from the beginning, stay to true to who we are, and value our employees.”
Watch the video above to learn more about Sarah Troutman.
Stay tuned for our next spotlight on Sharon Scroggin, Landscape Architect, and Principal.
Also, check out our 40th Year Anniversary Page with more employee spotlights and our story!