TURETT COLLABORATIVE ARCHITECTS
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Bio : James Saisakorn
James Saisakorn
Project Architect
James Saisakorn has worked with Turett Collaborative Architects for nearly five years. He lived and studied in Switzerland at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne (EPFL) before returning to the United States to receive his B. ARCH in 1996 in Architecture and French from Carnegie Mellon University. He was named a Carnegie Tradition Scholar, graduated with College and University Honors, and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honorary Society.
Saisakorn began his career in Pittsburgh with Tai + Lee Architects focusing primarily on affordable and energy efficient housing developments seeking to revitalize neighborhoods under a community development program administered by the Pittsburgh Housing Development Corporation (PHDC) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). This work on energy efficient and green building design contributed to the production and publication of the 1996 Building Design Manual for the Pennsylvania Energy Code.
In 1996, Saisakorn moved to the New York office of William Petrone, a fellow CMU alumnus, looking to incorporate a more refined sense of detail, materiality, and constructability to his work in sustainability and community development. Saisakorn began at Sidnam Petrone Gartner as a designer on small scale residential projects and time-sensitive retail projects for high profile clients such as Ralph Lauren, and during a prolific eight year tenure became a Project Architect, and later, Project Manager, on increasingly larger residential and corporate projects.
Most notably, Saisakorn was the Project Architect for the construction of the 100,000 square foot corporate headquarters for the French cosmetics company, Coty Inc. This 2½-year project involved extensive coordination with a number of engineers and consultants while maintaining a daily presence on site to interface with the contractor in their oversight of numerous trades. This intensive focus in the field was an essential part in assuring that the design –and the all-important details– were executed meticulously and on time.
Saisakorn brought his extensive knowledge of detailing and project management skills to Turett Collaborative Architects in 2004, in a deliberate effort to join a team of designers that fused the community consciousness, green building design, and an attention to detail and execution that had formed the basis of his prior experience.
Most recently this fusion is evident in the design and management for a Greenwich Village townhouse which is slated to be the first LEED For Homes Gold Certified Project in New York City. The collaborative effort between TCA and the client will incorporate the latest in green building technologies, energy efficient plumbing, electrical, and mechanical systems, and a building envelope that is designed to maximize energy savings, while maintaining the attention to materials and details that have always characterized Saisakorn’s and TCA’s designs.
Saisakorn’s role at TCA is that of Project Manager, typically overseeing 7-8 projects in varying phases of design and construction. He is the mediator between client, contractor, and consultants while delegating work to staff members to ensure that jobs are executed in a smooth and timely manner. During 14 years in the field he has maintained a commitment to green design which has been bolstered by an emphasis on continued learning in the field and his connections at the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CPBD) at Carnegie Mellon University.
James has been a Registered Architect in the State of New York since 2001.