Sizeland Evans | 25

th Anniversary | 1

Sizeland Evans a Quarter Century Strong

Patricia Evans was brought up surrounded by generations of family members who worked in the construction industry as well as an array of

fine artists. It only makes sense that she would create her life’s work by putting these two areas together—the creative force merging with the passion for building—by completing a Bachelor of Interior Design and becoming a Licensed Interior Designer with the Alberta Association of Architects. Evans took it a step further and launched her company Sizeland Evans Interior Design Inc. in 1990 and now, 25 years later, it is one of the biggest independent interior design firms in Western Canada.

As an interior design project management firm, Sizeland Evans has evolved over the years, from the early days of preparing manual drawings to now utilizing high-tech, 3-D renderings or animated fly-throughs to quickly and accurately represent a final design. Sustainability is now the first consideration in any design so Sizeland Evans now works with walls engineered to “move” with client’s needs rather than be dry-walled in place and fed into landfills with every architectural change.

While technology and time has evolved interior design in many ways, the fundamentals haven’t changed.

By Rennay Craats

Dunphy Best Blocksom Front Reception

Patricia EvansPhoto: Jager & Kokemor Photography

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Sizeland Evans has always led clients through the entire design process, from helping with building searches, cost analysis, space planning, working drawings, field reviews, and tendering for contractors all the way through to warranty walk-throughs. It’s the expertise along with the care and attention at every stage that has kept clients loyal for decades. Clients are special and are treated as such at Sizeland Evans, which helps foster these incredible relationships.

“We see each company as unique and not by category and the solutions are different for every client,” says Evans. “The look is their brand and not our brand.”

Evans particularly enjoys getting to know a company and its employees and leaders well to determine exactly who they are and what they need. From there she can design a space that ensures a company’s culture is reflected, whether that is with open spaces to encourage collaboration, enclosed offices to facilitate focus work or a combination of the two. In the end, the designers get to understand the client’s business strategy and link the space to their business model.

Sizeland Evans has helped express clients’ brands in 55 buildings downtown and 20 suburban locations with projects ranging from 10,000 to over one million square feet, and the firm is the only local interior design firm that has completed four Calgary projects of over one million square feet each over their 25 years in business. The firm recently completed 14 floors for Pembina Pipeline Corporation and is currently working on a new 220,000 square foot head office building for ATCO in Lincoln Park.

As Evans and her staff celebrate their successful quarter-century in business, she can’t help but look back at the firm’s humble beginnings. She and her former partner Georgi Sizeland started working out of Sizeland’s basement, using borrowed funds to get the company off the ground.

“When I first came here from Manitoba I borrowed one suit from my sister and bought a second suit, and that’s all I wore for two years,” Evans says. They also rented a parking spot downtown not far from their current 5 Avenue SW offices so they could control costs as they went to visit their mainly downtown clientele.

Photos, this page: Pembina Pipeline Corporation

dirtt.net

Congratulations on your fi rm’s many achievements.We’ve always appreciated your commitment, approach, impeccable designs, and willingness to work together to achieve the very best for each client. We want to celebrate all that we have created together and look forward to working with you in the future.

Congratulations to

Sizeland Evansof innovative design

25yearson

Congratulations on your fi rm’s many achievements.We’ve always appreciated your commitment, approach, impeccable designs, and willingness to work together to achieve the very best for each client. We want to celebrate all that we have created together and look forward to working with you in the future.

Congratulations on your fi rm’s many achievements.

SizelandEvans_8.375x11.25_July2015_FINAL.indd 1 2015-07-08 11:53 AM

Sizeland Evans | 25

th Anniversary | 3dirtt.net

Congratulations on your fi rm’s many achievements.We’ve always appreciated your commitment, approach, impeccable designs, and willingness to work together to achieve the very best for each client. We want to celebrate all that we have created together and look forward to working with you in the future.

Congratulations to

Sizeland Evansof innovative design

25yearson

Congratulations on your fi rm’s many achievements.We’ve always appreciated your commitment, approach, impeccable designs, and willingness to work together to achieve the very best for each client. We want to celebrate all that we have created together and look forward to working with you in the future.

Congratulations on your fi rm’s many achievements.

SizelandEvans_8.375x11.25_July2015_FINAL.indd 1 2015-07-08 11:53 AM

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This penny-pinching allowed them to pay back their families’ investment within a year and move the business forward. The contract staff they employed in the beginning eventually became full-time staff as Sizeland Evans made a name for itself in interior design and project management.

When her former employer, Rice Brydone, decided to close its Calgary branch office, it created a great opportunity for the fledgling firm. “We inherited a lot of projects at that time. Rice Brydone needed someone to take care of their active projects when they closed – like North Canadian Oils, a 100,000 square foot project—we were fortunate to have been given those opportunities,” she says.

The company grew as it landed merger projects in the early 2000s, boosting staff to 37. Sizeland Evans rode the ebb-and-flow market, peaking at 51 staff and settling between 30 and 42 over the years. Launching in a low market and then weathering several more down times throughout the 25-year history has made the firm strong and enduring. In fact, in many ways it was the low times that shaped the company and challenged the professionals within it to excel.

“That’s when you improve your processes, when you come up with innovative ideas, when you change the way you’re doing things that actually strengthens you to be more competitive in the future,” Evans says.

And now Sizeland Evans is riding out the most recent economic downturn with the spirit of grit and solidarity that got them through those that came before it. A diverse client base ranging from telecommunications to oil and gas, medical offices to hotels helps soften the blow of industry-specific downturns. And through it all, it remains important to Evans to keep her staff intact, even in tough times. In the slowdown in 2009, the firm didn’t downsize and while it was a rough year, Sizeland Evans was one of the only firms ready with adequate staff and experience to take on large projects on the other side of it.

“We landed two projects over one million square feet near the end of that year, and that wouldn’t have happened had we not hung in there together.”

Staff is a priority for Evans and it shows in everything from her commitment to their employment as they

Above: Brookfield Residential Head Office

Right: The BOW Floor 54 Skygarden (in conjunction

with Gensler)

Sizeland Evans | 25

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Haworth.com

CongratulationsSizeland evans

25 Successful Years in Business!

labbeleech.com

IDEAS NEED SPACE TO GROW, AND STRONG PARTNERSHIPS BUILD

THE BEST SPACES. WE’VE BEEN PROUD TO CALL SIZELAND EVANS

INTERIOR DESIGN OUR PARTNER FOR 25 YEARS.

HERE’S TO ANOTHER QUARTER CENTURY OF BIG IDEAS.

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‘hang in there together’ through economic slowdowns all the way down to the employee perks enjoyed at the office. That explains why so many of her staff have been with the company for 10 to 15 years.

Sizeland Evans employees are encouraged to be involved in the community through paid volunteer time to work at non-profit organizations of their choice as well as within the industry. Sizeland Evans is a member of organizations including BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association), IFMA

(International Facility Management Association), NAIOP (National Association of Industrial and Office Properties), as well as being an Action Partner with Calgary Economic Development. These memberships allow the firm and its staff to participate in their initiatives and contribute as board or volunteer members of committees as well as lead presentations for them.

Participation in these professional associations helps Evans stay abreast of industry changes and developments locally, nationally and globally, which allows her to be familiar with the industry benchmarking while internally benchmarking her own projects as well. Her clients benefit from this compilation of information and application of global standards.

Employees are also encouraged to maintain a good work/life balance and to that end, they are offered the opportunity to work from anywhere for eight hours a week. With upgraded technology and IT specialists to link employees and their devices to the system, staff can work from home (or any other place they need to be).

Calgary Economic Development Global Business Centre

Norm Landry

Alta Interiors

Congratulations Sizeland Evans Interior Design

on being part of Calgary’s

for the past 25 yearscollaborative energy

www.calgaryeconomicdevelopment.comwww.aiccal.net

ALTA INTERIOR CONTRACTING (SERVICES) LTD.

Congratulations Sizeland EvansInterior Design on your 25th Anniversary!

4021 4 Street SECalgary, Alberta T2G 2W4 T 403.243.7444F 403.243.2623

aiccal@telusplanet.net

Sizeland Evans | 25

th Anniversary | 7

CED

Element

Your Deadlinesare OUR business.

• copy • print • scan • design

Print Partner to Sizeland Evans for 25 years

Congratulations

on your 25th Anniversary!

Calgary • Edmontonwww.carboncopydigital.com

Thank you to Sizeland Evans for your partnership and congratulations on your

25th Anniversary!

Congratulations to Sizeland Evans Interior Design

on achieving a major business milestone.

We look forward to continuing to work with you over the next

25 years.

L A W S O NP R O J E C T S

CONSTRUCTIONEXECUTIVESON CALL

#102, 7101 - 5 Street S.E., Calgary, Alberta T2H 2G2Phone: 403-265-2000 • Fax: 403-269-4244

www.lawsonprojects.com

Element Integrated Workplace Solutions Ltd. would like to thank Sizeland Evans Interior Design for 25 years of partnership and congratulations on your 25th Anniversary!

140, 4411 6th Sreet SE • 403.444.7390 • elementiws.com

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“We find this gives the needed flexibility for people to look after family members, whether aging parents or young children,” Evans says.

Staff also benefit from Evans’ experience and training. She is continually learning on a variety of issues including environmental topics, leadership and building codes. She expects her staff to do the same.

“I don’t want people staying in the same spot. My expectation of my staff is that they be continually improving,” she says.

To aid in that endeavor, she ensures that her designers learn the entire scope of the work at every phase of a project. This level of access is uncommon at other larger interior design firms or architecture firms, where designers often only use a fraction of what they learned in school. At independent firms

like Sizeland Evans, however, designers are pushed to learn all aspects of the business and follow projects through from start to finish.

“We feel the client is getting value because the same person is going completely through the project, therefore communication is stronger,” Evans says, and she is ardent about ensuring interior design remains an independent profession in order to offer superior service to clients while developing highly skilled designers.

Top: Design Concept Rendering

Above Left: Heritage Business Interiors

Above Right: Fairmont Palliser Gold Wing Floor

Right: Downtown Corporate Daycare

Sizeland Evans | 25

th Anniversary | 9

Building with ConfidenceCommercial Office Interiors • Computer & Data Centres

Educational Facilities • General ContractingConstruction Management

Corporate Headquarters3 Skyline Crescent N.E., Calgary, AB T2K 5X2Ph:(403) 295 6100 | Fax: (403) 274 1370info@tribuild.com | www.tribuild.com

Sizeland Evans Interior Design**Congratulations!**

For 25 Years of Designing the Way We Work

(403) 262-7400 • 700 – 110 - 12 Avenue SWwww.mulvey-banani.com

Congratultions Sizeland Evans Interior Design.It has been a pleasure working with

you over the last 25 years. We look forward to the next 25!

siftoninterlake.com | 403.243.1233

CongratulationsSizeland Evans Interior Design

on your 25th anniversary!

w w w . i t a l i n t e r i o r s . c o m

C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s S i z e l a n d E v a n s I n t e r i o r D e s i g n !

5746 Burleigh Cres. S.E.800.661.1208 • 403.259.3467 • www.tierrasol.ca

Congratulations to Sizeland Evans Interior Design

on your 25th Anniversary!

C a l g a r y • E d m o n t o n • V a n c o u v e r • S e a t t l e

CONGRATULATIONSSIZELAND EVANS INTERIOR DESIGN

LIGNUM INTERIORS IS PROUD TO PLAY A PART IN YOUR SUCCESS

Lignum Interiors has provided over 30 years of exceptional service in Calgary

Project Management Construction Management General Contracting

LIGNUMINTERIORS.COM

124, 6227 - 2nd Street SE • 403 261 4774www.cougar-contractors.com

CONGRATULATIONS SIZELAND EVANS INTERIOR DESIGN

ON 25 YEARS!

Premiere Office Movers congratulates Sizeland Evans Interior Design on their

25th Anniversary!

1-877-671-6683 • premierevanl ines.com

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These highly skilled designers are the firm’s future, and this anniversary milestone has Patricia Evans looking forward as much as back. A recent renovation of the two floors in her own office space has created a physical reflection of what she and her design team do every day for clients; a design studio, library and conference space invites clients in so they can fully understand what the designers are doing and providing examples of what’s possible.

“It’s a demonstration centre to showcase design concepts and workplace strategy,” she says.

She’s also looked at the future of the company itself. In the next several years, she plans to bring internal members of the firm into the business and they will start taking a larger leadership role in the company.

But for Evans, leadership is not hierarchical but rather a product of teamwork. While Sizeland

Evans may be the umbrella under which all of the consultants and contractors work, each team member is valuable and crucial to the process. The firm often takes an empty shell of a space and specifies every aspect of it and the designers are the main coordinators of a large group of engineers, consultants, and contractors hired to fill out that shell. Evans sees herself and her staff as only part of this integrated team of professionals working together to exceed the client’s expectations.

And the team is what has led to Sizeland Evans’ success over the past 25 years. Evans credits her amazing staff, the supportive and talented consultants and suppliers, and the incredible long-term relationships with clients for the firm’s place near the top. Now with 25 years under their belt, Evans and her staff are looking forward to continue growing as they serve Calgary clients for years to come. •

403.266.2110www.sizelandevans.com

Olympia Trust