30 March 2017
To Whom it May Concern: I was a pleasure to have had Mikel Sagarminaga as part of our design studio, and I enjoyed working with him very much. During the time he was with my firm, I found his architectural and design talent, as well as his personal character and demeanor to be excellent. I observed Mikel to be a young man of very fine character. I found him personable, steady, reliable, adaptable, and willing to put in the extra effort to make projects successful. He worked well with the many different people he encountered, and possesses excellent communication and people skills. Because of his temperament and interpersonal skills, he handled himself admirably in front of clients, as well as with the team of people in our office. This was not always easy in our multicultural and multi-lingual work environment in Beijing, but Mikel interacted with others with professionalism, integrity, and poise. Mr. Sagarminaga’s architectural talent is considerable. I appreciated his architectural design skills and design aesthetic. He has a fine eye for both architectural form and interior space. Because Mikel is also a photographer, I enjoyed the sense of light that he brought to various design projects. These design abilities were reflected in his renderings and drawings throughout his time in my office. His presentation skills and ability to use Sketchup, Adobe, 3D Max and Cinema 4D, as well as simple pen and paper, were excellent. He was able to generate preliminary design concepts rapidly and effectively. Although one of his stated career objectives while at my firm was to improve his architectural technical skills, I found his AutoCAD skills and technical skills were good, and he easily picked up concepts related to construction, engineering, and materials, rapidly incorporating them into his drawings. Most importantly, I appreciated the level of thought he brought to our design work and projects. He carefully and quietly developed rigorous design concepts and articulated his design ideas clearly and persuasively. I enjoyed his design reasoning and design logic during our project design discussions. Perhaps because he taught a design course part-time at a university while at my office, I felt he brought additional intellectual rigor to our design process. I believe Mr. Sagarminaga would be an excellent addition to any architectural or design firm and offer my highest recommendation. Sincerely,
Eric Jung, AIA Managing Director