About August

Projects

Agape — Agora Essence

The team also presented research for Agape, a senior living and adult daycare project in Fairfax County, focusing on cultural context, demographics, and community needs. The guiding concept Agora Essence was chosen, inspired by the Greek tradition of gathering spaces that foster connection and belonging. The Design Team is now developing the interiors, while the Creative Team prepares the next stage of naming — building on the strong foundation set by the research phase.

Construction Spotlight: Calya

Calya Provenza continues to make steady progress, with the first floor slab complete and construction on the second floor now underway. Columns are in place, consultants have delivered their 90% packages, and coordination with contractors for woodwork, windows, and finishes is moving forward. The project team is keeping a close eye on design and construction details as momentum builds toward the top-out milestone later this fall.

Academy of Hope — Design Sprint Success

This month, the team completed a full RFP design proposal for Academy of Hope, an adult charter school in Washington, D.C., developing concepts and interiors in just one week. The proposal reimagined the reception, conference, security, and lounge areas, blending the school’s brand identity with warm and welcoming finishes. On Tuesday, the team presented in a client interview, marking an exciting step forward. Kudos to the RFP team for another strong submission, the Design Team for quick and creative concepts with renders, and the Creative Team for standout diagrams and the landing page.

Watch Project here

Arcola — Bridging Histories

This month, the team presented research for Arcola, an affordable housing project in Loudoun County, examining the site’s heritage, demographics, and community role. The guiding concept Bridging Histories was selected to emphasize contextual connections such as Dulles Airport, the John G. Lewis Memorial Bridge, and Vestals Gap. The Design Team is now advancing the interiors, while the Creative Team leads the naming process — with the first round of options for Arcola presented today in a successful client meeting.

Updates

SOPs, ClickUp & AI Integration

The team is rolling out standardized processes (SOPs) and training sessions via MOYA Classes. A new project management platform (ClickUp) is also being launched, alongside stronger integration of AI tools to speed up workflows.

Project Documentation with Loop

Gabriela and Daniela introduced an interactive project plan using Loop in Teams — a centralized space to track project history, deliverables, roles, and decisions. This tool is designed to enhance collaboration across all departments.

Big Opportunities on the Horizon

Two major prospects are in motion: the long-anticipated stadium project, with clearer direction expected by the end of September, and the Baltimore RFP — a multi-use development combining a hotel, office building, and art center — where MOYA is one of four teams being considered.

Welcoming Nelson Ruiz

We’re excited to welcome Nelson Ruiz as our new Finance and HR Controller. Nelson brings experience across industries like mining, oil & gas, and insurance, and is eager to support the team in achieving greater financial efficiency.

Team Buzz

Celebrating Our People

August brought plenty of reasons to celebrate! 🎉 We kicked off the month with Daniela Morris on August 6, followed by Neil on August 18, and wrapped it up with Renata De Miguel on August 29. Each of you adds so much talent, energy, and joy to the team — we’re lucky to celebrate another year around the sun with you. 🥳

A Shoutout to Catie

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) invited Catie Balagtas and her coauthor to write a second edition of their 2020 book Nature Inside: A Biophilic Design Guide. Although they asked for four months, RIBA gave them just 2.5 — with a tight deadline of October 31st. We’re excited to cheer Catie on as she races toward the finish line!
Check out her previews book here.

Sending Strength to Fer

Our thoughts are with Fernando, who recently underwent his third surgery. Despite the challenges, he remains in good spirits and continues to stay connected with the team. Let’s all send him our best wishes and positive energy for a smooth and speedy recovery — a quick message or hello can go a long way in lifting his spirits. 💙

A Rare Moment — Carola Speechless!

During the meeting, we celebrated Carola’s 4-year anniversary at MOYA. When asked to share a few words, she simply said “thank you”… leaving the team joking that it might be the first time Carola has ever been out of words! A milestone worth celebrating — both for the anniversary and the moment of silence.

BIM Tips #2: Use Schedules for Quality Checks

Welcome to our BIM Tips series!

Schedules aren’t just for quantities, they’re one of the most powerful tools to review and control the quality of your model. Instead of manually clicking through views, a well-prepared schedule can quickly reveal missing data, inconsistencies, or errors.

Here are 3 practical ways to use schedules for QA/QC:

Check completeness: List all walls, doors, or rooms to confirm that key parameters (like fire rating or room number) aren’t empty.
Spot inconsistencies: Use conditional formatting to highlight unusual values or missing fields.
Create review snapshots: Export schedules regularly to track changes and keep a record of model health.

A clean schedule = a reliable model.

A big thank you to everyone who submitted nominations—and a huge congratulations to this month’s recognized team members!

It’s always uplifting to see kindness, collaboration, and hard work celebrated.

Remember, recognition doesn’t have to be for something huge—sometimes a simple gesture, a helpful hand, or a moment that brightened someone’s day is more than enough.
Let’s continue to lift each other up and celebrate the everyday wins. We hope to see new faces here every month—everyone’s impact matters.

MOYA Shelf

Marisa’s Favorite Thing

“This is a little random, but I couldn’t resist sharing! My favorite thing for this newsletter is Isabel Klee, who fosters dogs and shares the journey on TikTok. It’s absolutely wonderful — pure feel-good content at its best. I (along with about 3 million other people!) was very emotionally invested in her rescue pup Tiki, who has now been successfully adopted and is living his best life. 🐾 Highly recommend checking her out at

Isabel Klee (@simonsits) | TikTok

Paola´s recommendations

Movies: Superman / love the humor and the doggy.

Series: Chief of War / beautifully filmed, love the intentionality of showing the culture as authentic as possible.

Podcast: How to Loose Fat & Gain Muscle With Nutrition / mind blowing data on protein intake, time of intake, time to exercise and other health facts.

Tech recommendations

Notebook LM: your personal assitant that read and analize documents for you.

Napkin AI: Connect your loose ideas and transform thoughts into projects.

Eleven Labs + HeyGen : Your digital clone that speaks and moves like you.

Daniela S´s recommendations

I wanna recommend to start considering doing room signage that includes floor plan graphics as part of the braille part (e.g. Public restroom room signs). I’ve been seeing them more often and I think is a really cool feature that we can take the lead on and adopt as a Moya Standard. Some client may opt not to have it but I think most would jump on board.