Swetha Makkena
Interior Design - Technical Director
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About
I am currently the Interim Director for Katerra Designs (KDPL) – a subsidiary of Katerra India Pvt. Ltd (KIPL). KIPL is known for their precast construction in the industry. Although we (KDPL) are their design wing, we have been operating separately on our own with our own client base and projects.
We have very minimal interaction with KIPL unless there are some institutional changes that need to be discussed with them. As the head for the design wing, I am the whole and soul in-charge of design and deliverables for all the projects in hand, involve in the company’s marketing strategies in getting projects which were mostly based on my previous professional relationships and further with the help of the company’s business development team and run the company’s HR, administrative and accounting efforts. I cross-check the P&L statements for all the projects and ensure that on an overall the company is running in an efficient manner.
I attend management level meetings to give an overall performance report to higher level management (Country Head-KIPL) and to make suggestions / take suggestions on the way forward.
Currently I lead a team of 15 - architects, Interior designers, landscape architects – working on architecture, interiors, and master planning. We coordinate and work with various consultants for structures, services (mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire), and other specialized services for signage, IT, AV, graphics, kitchen etc. I chair most of the cross functional team meetings and attend all client meetings to ensure smooth working and timely delivery of projects.
Our current portfolio includes design of commercial buildings for Prestige, Aragen Pharma, Fortius, Phoenix Ascendas etc. and interiors for GMR Goa Airport Retail Development, Offices & Lab for Aragen Pharma etc.
Before this role, I had been in the capacity of Associate Director, Interiors with the same company for about 3 years doing pretty much the same on project front and have been the face of the company for all the interior projects that I worked on in the last 10 years. I have been mentoring my team to align themselves with the company’s vision and vice versa. I have also created a separate interiors studio with BIM capabilities and have successfully completed 6 corporate projects from design development till handover of the projects (with areas ranging from 50000 Sq.ft. to 2.5L Sq.ft.) in a matter of 2 years with 10 resources.
Along with several years of management experience, I have exposure to multiple projects ranging from Residential to Commercial to Airports and almost everything in the middle, be it corporate, retail, healthcare, educational, or hospitality. I have dealt with different scales of projects that range from 3000 Sq.ft. to 3 Lakh Sq.ft. I have also been a flag bearer in creating technical standards for the company to ease out the everyday working processes in CAD and REVIT and deliver a quality product to the client.
I have a total of 19+ years of experience in architecture/Interiors field of which 16+ years are with Katerra (earlier KGD). With the kind of exposure that I have, I am sure I will add value to the position and company if given a chance. I am attaching my CV herewith. I look forward to a meeting with the concerned to discuss my qualifications for the position further. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Swetha Makkena
Experience
- Interim Director
- Full responsibility of general management of office including ongoing project involvement, managing budgets, acting as a lead designer, business development and maintaining client relationships, development of marketing strategies, recruitment, retention, assessing training and development needs.
- Associate Director-Interiors
- Organizational leader assisting the Director at maintaining company P+L and other administrative responsibilities.
- Face of the company to client maintaining cordial and professional relationship which led to client coming back with other projects.
- Responsible for project scheduling, project P+L management and resource management which includes qualified interiors designers, architects, draftspersons, QS Engineers and 3D visualizers. Day-to-day task analysis and managing the team to achieve the tough deadlines.
- Project Manager / Project Manager – Associate / Associate Director-Interiors
- Face of the company to client
- Responsible for project scheduling, project P+L management and resource management which includes qualified interiors designers, architects, draftspersons, QS Engineers and 3D visualizers. Day-to-day task analysis and managing the team to achieve the tough deadlines.
- Assistant Project Manager
- Provided Design Development and Construction Documentation for multiple projects.
- Led a team of 50 working on a world class University project for 18,000 student population with 250,000 sq.m of academic facilities, 102,000 sq.m staff accommodation & 380,000 sq.m student accommodation in Jubail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
- Job Captain / Architect – Project Architect, Fentress Architects India Studio
- Provided Schematic, Design and Construction Documentation for clients in USA, Middle East.
- Worked on various projects ranging from airports, museums, colleges to office buildings and residential towers.
- Urban Planner (Sub-Planning Consultant), District Urban Development Authority
- Prepared Perspective Plans for Pasighat, Aalo, Yingkiong, Basar & Daporijo towns in Arunachal Pradesh, India
- Prepared City Development Plans for the same towns.
- Research Assistant, Regional Economic Development Corporation (REDC)
- Researched on the discussion of two alternative proposals for light rail transit (LRT) alignments in the city of Memphis; Used ArcGIS for case study analysis.
- Assisted in preparing various research papers and articles.
- Created and updated professor’s profile on the university website using Front page and FTP.
- GIS Specialist - Updated the campus map using GIS (Arc Map).
- GIS Specialist - Created a new student housing project 3D module (Arc Scene).
- GIS Specialist - Conducted study on student housing requirements & their relative locations on various campuses in U.S.A
- Planning Intern, Land Development Division, Growth Management Department
- Assisted planners mainly in case research and analysis for projects that range from site plans and planned developments to Developments of Regional Impacts.
- Carried out site surveys cross-checking with land use codes and comprehensive plan.
- Research Assistant/Adjunct Studio Coordinator, REDC and Dept. of City and Regional Planning (CRP)
- Built a discussion on the economic and land-use impacts of Light Rail Transit on Station Area Neighborhoods for the alignments in the city of Memphis.
- Inventoried the sources of information from a wide variety of studies and used that information in combination with a case analysis of Memphis to accept or reject the null hypothesis – LRT has little or no impact on station area neighborhoods.
- Coordinated Site Planning Studio by assisting the class in principles and practices of planning.
- Intern Architect
- Generated various design concepts for residential and commercial projects including temples, farmhouses and shopping complexes in AutoCAD.
- Prepared detail floor plans including electrical, plumbing, kitchen and toilet working drawings, perspective views (all in AutoCAD) and conducted site supervision.
Education
- Master of City and Regional Planning, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA
- Graduate Geographic Information Systems Certificate, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA
- Bachelor of Architecture, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, AP, India
