215: ‘Proactive By Design’, with Wes Reynolds and Hugh Soward
A conversation with Wes Reynolds and Hugh Soward about how OPN Architects is intentionally shaping its future through digital practice, innovation culture, and the importance of an annual firm retreat for aligning design and technology across their mid-sized firm.
Wes Reynolds and Hugh Soward join the podcast to talk about how OPN Architects is intentionally shaping its future through digital practice, experimentation, and culture-building. They discuss the evolution of OPN’s digital practice group, how they evaluate and adopt emerging technology, and why their long-running annual retreat has become essential infrastructure for aligning design, tech, and people across the firm.
For anyone navigating innovation, change management, or digital strategy inside an AEC organization, OPN’s approach offers a clear example of what proactive firm development really looks like.
Original episode page: https://trxl.co/215
Watch This on YouTube:
Connect with the Guests
- OPN Architects – Official Website
- opnarchitects.com
- The practice behind the firm-wide retreats, innovation culture, and project work discussed in the episode.
- OPN Architects on LinkedIn
- Company Page
- Follow firm updates, project news, and design technology initiatives.
- Wes Reynolds – Principal, OPN Architects
- Hugh Soward – Innovation Manager, OPN Architects
- OPN x Skema AI Charrette
- Lessons from our charrette with OPN Architects – Skema AI
- Shows how Wes and the OPN team experiment with AI-assisted blocking, stacking, and early design workflows.
- OPN Firm-Wide Retreat & Culture
- OPN converges in Cedar Rapids for Retreat 2025
- Shows how OPN uses annual gatherings as a lever for culture building, alignment, and experimentation.
- OPN’s Innovation Lab & Digital Practice Group
- OPN’s innovation work and Digital Practice leadership (including Hugh’s role) are highlighted in their promotions and innovation posts:
About Wes Reynolds:
As a Principal of OPN Architects, Wes has been with the company for 25 years. He founded the Madison, Wisconsin studio in 2013 and has led it to impressive growth. He has a passion for design and a commitment to finding thoughtful solutions that best suit the client's needs. He codeveloped OPN's digital practice and innovation team to focus on design technologies within the firm.
About Hugh Soward:
Hugh Soward is the Innovation Manager in OPN’s Digital Practice Group, where he leads the research and integration of advanced and emerging design technologies across the firm. With expertise in digital fabrication, extended reality, visualization, and reality capture, he helps project teams and clients understand and refine design decisions through clear, data-driven workflows. His work bridges digital and physical processes by streamlining collaboration among designers, contractors, and fabricators, ensuring that the tools and methods adopted provide value. Through a people-focused, practical approach, Hugh and his team foster an innovative culture throughout OPN’s studios, making technology an accessible and meaningful part of the design process.
