Multistudio, an employee-owned national architecture, design, and planning practice with a studio in Phoenix, announced the appointment of Amanda Harper and Dan Zeller, AIA, as Co-CEOs. The new shared leadership model positions the firm for its next phase of growth while preserving the entrepreneurial, multidisciplinary, and community-focused approach that has defined Multistudio for the past fifty years.
Harper and Zeller succeed Anthony Rohr, FAIA, who has led Multistudio since 2007 and oversaw its rebranding from Gould Evans to Multistudio. Rohr will work alongside the new Co-CEOs during the transition and continue with the firm as a Principal focused on national business development and client relationships.
“The shared leadership model will allow us to remain engaged with our clients while still being connected to the work,” said Dan Zeller, AIA, Co-CEO and Principal at Multistudio. “For 50 years, we’ve known that great design begins with exceptional client service. By listening to our clients and understanding their challenges, we create solutions that strengthen projects and help organizations succeed. Staying connected to our clients and our design teams will allow us to build on the achievements of the past 50 years as we look ahead to the next 50.”
The appointments bring together two complementary perspectives — one rooted in architecture and client leadership, the other in brand and design innovation. Zeller, an architect who joined Multistudio 31 years ago as his first job out of college, has spent his career guiding complex work and client relationships for organizations, including designing Garmin’s corporate campus and a variety of civic and recreation facilities across the United States. Harper’s path started differently: she answered a Craigslist ad for a graphic designer 20 years ago and joined Multistudio’s marketing team. Since then, she has built brand experience into its own discipline and integrated it into Multistudio’s multidisciplinary practice. Along the way, she worked alongside Zeller on Garmin and built lasting relationships with the City of Phoenix, the University of Arizona, and Arizona State University, where she led branding and wayfinding for Mountain America Stadium.
“I’ve spent nearly 20 years growing alongside Multistudio—from starting here as a young designer to building a practice, serving on the Board, and now stepping into this new role,” said Amanda Harper, Co-CEO and Principal at Multistudio. “What makes this moment meaningful is that I’m not looking at a firm I want to change; rather, I’m looking at a practice I believe in and see opportunity to make more connected and ambitious. Dan and I bring different experiences, perspectives, and strengths to the table, and that is what makes this model exciting.”
That evolution reflects a core part of Multistudio’s approach: bringing together diverse design disciplines and perspectives to address complex challenges. Today, the firm works across architecture, planning, interiors, and brand experience, with projects spanning civic, higher education, K–12, workplace, community health, and urban development.
As Co-CEOs, Zeller and Harper share responsibility for strategy, culture, talent, and growth, while continuing to strengthen collaboration across its network of studios. The model combines the perspectives and responsiveness of individual regional studios with the resources, expertise, and opportunities of a national practice.
The transition comes as Multistudio expands its national portfolio, with 56 projects under construction, 5 studios, and 100 employee-owners. In Phoenix, the studio — celebrating its 30th anniversary — recently completed Central Station, a mixed-use, transit-oriented development in the heart of downtown Phoenix that has been widely published. In 2025, the brand experience team completed wayfinding services for the Town of Gilbert Downtown Heritage District, and this winter, the studio will complete the much-anticipated New Mexico Literacy Institute.
Nationally, the firm’s recent work includes the 390,000-square-foot, $375 million American Royal campus in Kansas City, Kansas, scheduled to open in September 2026 and the Indianapolis Cultural Trail development and design guidelines, a more than 10-mile bicycle and pedestrian corridor connecting downtown cultural districts, historic neighborhoods, and the regional trail network. Together, these projects reflect the firm’s multidisciplinary design approach and its ability to apply that expertise to communities nationwide.
Over three decades, Multistudio’s Phoenix studio has shaped civic and cultural spaces throughout the desert Southwest with particular sensitivity to vernacular and Indigenous communities. Multistudio’s network of offices remains central to its operating model. Each studio brings knowledge of the communities and clients it serves and draws on the broader firm’s collective expertise and resources. The result is a practice that combines local relationships and responsiveness with the reach of a national multidisciplinary organization.
