This Santa Rosa-based architectural firm has fostered and nourished a high-performance workspace to attract highly-talented professionals since 1939. By encouraging their employee’s unique skill sets, the fourth-generation owners of AXIA are helping to create the American dream.
Jason Weaver joined AXIA as a draftsman nine years ago. He is now an owner who brings strong attention to constructability and code requirements to the table. Melissa Wadlow was hired as an office administrator more than 13 years ago. She has also worn the hat of accountant and human resources and is now controller and owner. Doug Hilberman, president, began to diversify and grow the company when he set foot in the door in 2003.These are a few of the success stories. The result is a family atmosphere of people who rally around common goals.
“Everyone here is involved in the world we live in to make Sonoma County great,” says Wadlow. “We have a huge commitment to each other in the firm, which carries out to the community.”
Civic-minded businesses create positive impact in local communities. “It’s not necessarily unique to us,” says Hilberman. “We’re learning methodologies from our civic work that in turn makes our corporate work more successful. And, it takes a lot of commitment from staff.” The company has a strong mission of supporting the citizens of the Bay Area that extends beyond designing structures. Not only are they well known, they know the people. “We realize that it takes all of us in lifting our community up. We’ve had three years of crisis after crisis—fires, floods, blackouts and now a pandemic. In each of these cases it’s paramount that community leaders engage their time in a variety of ways of putting together resources.”
As a nine-time winner of the BEST Of award, AXIA doesn’t take success for granted. Instead, the team bands together for self-reflection by reaching out to their clients for feedback. “We’ve been working on rebranding. We started by reaching out to our clients to get their perspective,” says Hilberman. AXIA dives to a deeper level than architectural design when they meet with clients. By delving into the individual and distinct lifestyles of the multiple clients they service, this firm goes beyond mere personal style and taste to seek out more profound attributes of business and residential clients. They listen. They spend extra time to ask questions that generate a depth of knowledge synonymous with the designs of the structures they create. “We work hard to understand what makes our clients tick, and what makes them successful,” he says.
As a company name, the term Axia has Greek origins that translate to value, worth, and merit. The circle of community commitment, good architecture, and a penchant for caring deeply about clientele is passionately embedded in the 81 year mission of this company, and it leaves no doubt as to why this company was voted best of the best in the North Bay.
“I love the fact that NorthBay biz has a category for architecture,” says Hilberman. “We’ve received awards that are specific to individual projects that are explicitly architectural awards. We view this award as more as a reflection of our involvement in the community. Because that is such an important factor in who we and, and we greatly appreciate the fact that it has been recognized and it gives us additional energy to keep contributing on those levels. We live and work in this community and it means everything to us.”
