DALLAS, TX AECOM announces the addition of three architects and designers in Texas to expand its rapidly growing Buildings + Places (B+P) practice within the company's Design and Consulting Services Group: Juan Carlos Arias, Senior Project Architectural Designer; Jorge Martinez, AIA, Senior Architect; and, Lorena Toffer, AIA, Senior Architectural Project Manager. 

Juan Carlos Arias, Senior Project Architectural Designer

Arias has more than 25 years of experience designing corporate, institutional, health care, retail, hospitality, and educational buildings. He is a BIM expert with more than 15 years of experience creating digital models to communicate design ideas to colleagues, consultants and clients. His project experience includes both local and international work in Australia, China, India, South Korea, Spain, South America and the Middle East. His projects include The Araba Hospital-Vitoria-Gasteiz in Basque Country, Spain; The Samsung Global Engineering Center in Seoul, South Korea; The Kuwait Correctional Complex in Kuwait City, Kuwait; The Omni Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas; and The Northside Hospital in Canton, Georgia.

He is an International Associate member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and a licensed architect in Colombia. Arias has received several awards including the AIA Dallas Special Juror Commendation for the Sengkang Hospital in Singapore, Excellence in Sustainable Design award for the Samsung Research and Development Center, and the Merit Award for the Samsung Headquarters in Seoul, South Korea.

Jorge Martinez, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Senior Architect

Martinez is a licensed architect in Texas and Colombia. He is an expert in BIM with more than 10 years of experience specializing in a wide variety of projects including civic, education, entertainment, faith, health care, mixed use, office, retail and renovation in the U.S., Central and South America and South Korea. His notable projects include The Omni Hotel in Fort Worth, the Samsung Global Engineering Center & Research & Development Building in Seoul, South Korea, the Roosevelt Field Mall renovation in Garden City, New York, and the Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts & Sciences in Lubbock, Texas. Additionally, he has provided BIM and Revit training to the National CPNAA and XII International Fair of Design and Construction, and has been an international guest speaker at the National CPNAA where he discussed how "BIM changes everything." Martinez has both a bachelor's and master's degree in architecture, and has earned the AIA Dallas Excellence in Sustainability award and the AIA Dallas Merit Award for an unbuilt project.

Lorena Toffer, AIA, Senior Architectural Project Manager

Toffer has more than 12 years of experience as a lead designer, project architect and project manager in higher education, adaptive reuse, museum facilities, corporate, hospitality architecture and medical office environments. She is a licensed architect in Texas and Mexico, and has earned a bachelor's and master's degree in architecture. Her notable client work includes Methodist Health System, DFW Airport, Panola College, The Dallas Holocaust Museum - Center for Education & Tolerance and The Sixth Floor Museum. Toffer is an active member of AIA Dallas and the Dallas Center for Architecture, and has served in various capacities with AIA Dallas Latinos in Architecture, the Foundation for the Education of Young Women and the Public Arts Committee for the city of Dallas, Texas. 

Toffer has been honored as a "Leader of the Future" by Latino Leaders Magazine and has received numerous awards from professional associations including the Young Architect Award from AIA National, the TEXO Summit Award, the Young Architect Award from AIA Dallas and the Diversity Honor Program Award from AIA National. As a graduate of the AIA Dallas Advanced Leadership program, she now serves as a mentor for high school students in pursuit of an architecture career. Recently, she co-founded and serves as advisory board president at CityLab High School, an open enrollment Dallas ISD Transformation School that opened its doors in August to train students for future careers in architecture, urban planning, environmental science, public policy and community development in downtown Dallas. Toffer is the recipient of the 2018 Connect Media Women in Real Estate Texas Award.