Over the past weeks, Pablo Lempert, Partner & Chief Operating Officer, and Rita Carballo, Project Manager, carried out a strategic trip across the U.S., combining a project kick-off in Seattle with a series of client meetings in Los Angeles.
Beyond the agenda itself, the trip provided a clear snapshot of where the AEC industry stands today, from how projects are initiated and executed, to how firms are navigating uncertainty and rethinking growth.
Seattle Kick-Off: aligning foundations for a high-impact project
In the first stage of the trip, Pablo and Rita joined Michel Hebrant, Partner & Chief Growth Officer at Blend, for a two-day, in-person kick-off of a multifamily high-rise project with the client team. This milestone was key to aligning expectations, processes, and scope from the very beginning.
The hybrid format combined in-person leadership with remote participation from the full project team, creating a highly collaborative environment. This dynamic proved essential to ensure alignment across all stakeholders from day one.
The project itself is a large-scale mixed-use residential development, marking a significant milestone for the client as their first high-rise building. This context naturally fostered a strong collaborative approach, where technical guidance and structured processes played a central role.
One of the most notable takeaways from this stage was the level of trust placed in Blend. The client showed strong openness to receiving recommendations and leveraging our experience in BIM and project delivery.
Los Angeles: market signals, flexibility & emerging trends
In the second stage of the trip, Pablo and Rita joined Jeffrey Bymaster, Partner & Chief Business Officer at Blend, to shift the focus toward market conversations through a series of meetings with both existing and potential clients.
A consistent theme across these discussions was uncertainty around future project pipelines. Many firms are currently taking a cautious approach, avoiding rapid internal expansion until there is greater visibility on upcoming workloads.
In this context, our adaptable delivery models become increasingly valuable, allowing firms to scale their production capacity without committing to fixed structures.
Across all meetings, feedback on Blend’s work was consistently positive, particularly highlighting the team’s ability to integrate seamlessly into client workflows and provide reliable technical support.
This reinforces a key insight: clients are not only looking for capacity, but for partners who can adapt to their processes, understand their standards, and contribute with both technical expertise and operational reliability.
In today’s AEC ecosystem, flexibility and trust are what define Blend. That’s where the industry is heading.