DLR Group announced that Pamela Touschner, FAIA, and Peter Rutti, AIA, have each been appointed a DLR group managing principal.
Touschner is the firm’s California region leader and a member of DLR Group’s board of directors. Rutti is DLR Group’s chief design officer. Both are members of the firm’s 15-person executive leadership team, collaboratively managing the operations for DLR Group’s 1,600 design professionals and 33 global locations.
“A collaborative leadership culture has been a constant thread in the growth of our 100% employee-owned firm. Instrumental to that culture is mentoring leadership capital at all levels of our firm,” said DLR Group CEO Steven McKay, AIA, RIBA. “Pam and Peter embody this culture and are ready to step in to lead the firm as part of a planned leadership transition initiated over the past two years. Pam and Peter are talented, inspirational leaders committed to creating a culture of equity, diversity and belonging and to leading as DLR Group embarks on a new era for the design industry.”
Touschner joined DLR in 1993, was named a principal in 2000, senior principal in 2012 and California region leader in 2018. She leads 290 employee-owners and manages operations for the Los Angeles, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco and Sonoma offices representing more than $75 million of revenue.
Based in Los Angeles, Touschner is passionate about the practice of architecture and attracting the next generation of design professionals. She served on the national AIA Board of Directors from 2008 -2010, and in multiple leadership positions for AIA Los Angeles, AIA Inland Empire and the AIA California Council. She is active in NOMA at both the national level and Southern California NOMA chapter.
Rutti joined DLR Group in 2012 as a principal. He is a recognized expert in the design of performing art centers and cultural institutions and is instrumental in leading the global growth of DLR Group’s Cultural+Performing Art practice. Based in Phoenix, he was named Southwest region leader in 2017, responsible for operations in Colorado Springs, Denver, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Rutti was appointed a senior principal in 2020 and chief design officer in 2022.
He has been a faculty associate and juror at the Design School of Arizona State University since 2011 and serves as a visiting critic at the UCLA School of Architecture & Urban Design and the University of Arizona School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture.
