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Daniel Ayars, AIA
Principal | Commercial Market Leader
Daniel Ayars, AIA
Principal | Commercial Market Leader
With 11 years of experience in Seattle and six years in Shanghai, Dan Ayars has become a design leader in mixed-use developments around the world. Now based in Columbus, he is building an international commercial practice with a local presence in Central Ohio.
As the design leader for NBBJ’s Shanghai office, he integrated urban design, planning, landscape and architecture to deliver large-scale mixed-use developments at high quality despite tight schedules. This has given him an insight into how live-work-play environments influence the urban realm beyond the boundaries of their given sites.
While leading the Shanghai studio he focused the design culture around computation and data-driven design. Now he applies his expertise in the United States and abroad, with a value-based approach to commercial projects that seeks first to understand the client’s goals and constraints, then to identify strategic, unexpected opportunities for greater return. His personal design aesthetic tends toward clean and simple lines, innovative materials use and the interplay between interior and exterior, always with an emphasis not on a building’s form but on the human experience within and around it.