Global architecture and design firm HLW has installed new leadership at its New Jersey office, naming Christopher Townsend and Erin Vasold as co-studio directors of the firm’s Madison location. The dual appointment reflects a deliberate leadership philosophy rather than a simple succession, with HLW framing the shared directorship as a genuine commitment to collaborative leadership and innovation, while also making sure the firm’s regional practice stays firmly rooted in the New Jersey market it has served for over a decade.
HLW’s Madison studio has been operating since 2013, and the office currently employs roughly 30 team members according to a firm spokesperson, giving the New Jersey practice a genuinely established footprint within the broader Morris County business landscape rather than functioning as a small satellite outpost. Townsend and Vasold now step into leadership of that studio at a moment when the office’s client roster and project pipeline continue to grow, making the timing of this dual appointment feel less like a transition and more like a deliberate investment in the studio’s next chapter of growth.
HLW Managing Partner Ed Shim has been direct about why both Townsend and Vasold earned this joint role rather than a single director being elevated alone. Shim credited both leaders with playing a central part in shaping the New Jersey office’s identity over the years, pointing specifically to how they’ve helped define the studio’s internal culture, its professional standards, and its broader reputation within the regional marketplace. According to Shim, both leaders have consistently fostered creativity, curiosity, and genuine teamwork across the projects they’ve touched, qualities he expects will carry directly into how they now guide the studio’s next phase of growth as co-directors, working in close partnership with him as HLW continues strengthening its presence across the region.
Townsend brings more than 25 years of experience in base-building and interior architecture to the role, having joined HLW back in 2018 after building a career centered on exactly the kind of large-scale commercial architecture work that has come to define much of the New Jersey studio’s portfolio. As a registered architect, Townsend has built a reputation for close, hands-on collaboration with commercial developers, and HLW has specifically noted his longstanding working relationship with Shim on base-building opportunities across the broader New Jersey marketplace. His project portfolio includes two of the studio’s most prominent recent commissions, Eisai’s headquarters at ON3 in Nutley and the ongoing Haleon project, alongside additional work for Everest and Kering Americas, giving him direct experience across pharmaceutical, life sciences, and luxury retail client sectors within the same relatively compact regional footprint.
Vasold brings a complementary set of strengths built over eight years with the firm and more than 20 years of broader industry experience. Known within HLW for a hands-on, solutions-oriented approach to project leadership, Vasold has guided work from initial concept all the way through final completion across a genuinely wide range of sectors, including commercial, financial, workplace, and life sciences projects. Her client list includes Avantor, Mars Wrigley, and Prudential Financial, reflecting a portfolio that spans consumer goods, financial services, and scientific research clients, a breadth of experience that pairs naturally with Townsend’s own deeper specialization in base-building and developer relationships.
Together, the two leaders are expected to place real emphasis on mentorship and professional development within the New Jersey practice, using their combined experience and existing client relationships to actively drive new business development out of the Madison office. That focus on relationship-driven growth fits naturally with HLW’s broader positioning in the New Jersey market, where the firm has built its regional reputation around architecture and design work spanning corporate campuses and multifamily developments alike. Beyond the Eisai headquarters at ON3, the studio’s featured project list includes Haleon’s bespoke United States headquarters currently under construction at The Park in Berkeley Heights, a high-profile assignment for the GSK spinoff that celebrated its own construction kickoff back in March, giving the public an early look at what the finished space will eventually become.
Townsend and Vasold step into this dual leadership role following the departure of former Managing Director Melissa Strickland, who moved on earlier this summer to join JLL as senior vice president and New Jersey workplace strategy lead. That transition gives HLW’s New Jersey studio a genuinely fresh leadership structure heading into its next phase, one built around shared authority between two leaders who have already spent years shaping the office from within, rather than bringing in outside leadership to redefine its direction from scratch. With Townsend’s deep base-building expertise paired against Vasold’s broad, cross-sector project leadership experience, HLW’s Madison studio enters this new chapter with a leadership team built specifically around complementary strengths rather than redundant ones, a structure the firm is clearly betting will keep its New Jersey practice competitive as major regional projects like the Haleon headquarters continue moving toward completion.
