🔒Hartford’s JCJ Architecture names new leader from inside following national search; focus is on nationwide growth

Peter Stevens has been employed by Hartford-based JCJ Architecture for nearly four decades, including more than 20 years as president. During that time, Stevens says, he has learned that architectural firms generally are “notorious” for not planning for transitions in the executive suite. “Many architects work until they’re in their 80s, and go from booming firms to struggling, older, aging-out single practitioners,” said Stevens, who turned 69 in March. JCJ Architecture is not one of those firms. The company this month announced a transition in its C-suite, naming Scott Celella, who has served as chief operating officer (COO) since 2002, as its new president, effective June 30. He succeeds Stevens, who will remain a principal and become president emeritus, serving in a consulting and advisory role. In addition, Barry Goldstein, JCJ’s western region managing director, has been named chief operating officer, while James E. LaPosta Jr. will continue in his role as chief architectural officer. The moves represent the latest leadership transition within the state’s architectural sector. Other prominent firms to name new presidents and/or top leaders since 2024 include Newman Architects in New Haven and Hartford-based Amenta Emma Architects. JCJ officials say their leadership changes were not made hastily, and are a vital part of maintaining the corporate culture of a firm that has grown dramatically — especially outside of its home state — over the past 20 years.

The goal is to continue that growth while maintaining the firm’s status as an employee-owned company — its Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) has been in place since 2012. The ESOP, Celella said, separates JCJ Architecture from its peers in the industry, while also supporting growth. Last year, the company reported $67.9 million in revenue. JCJ is ranked as the second-largest architecture firm in Greater Hartford, according to Hartford Business Journal’s Book of Lists. Overall, it has 175 people working in offices in seven states, including 65 employees in Hartford. It’s registered to practice in 44 states. HBJ recently sat down with Stevens and Celella to discuss the recent changes, as well as the company’s culture and outlook for the future.

History of growth

JCJ Architecture was founded in Hartford in 1936 as S.F. Jeter, Architect by Sherwood Jeter Jr. Nine years later, he was joined by designer Arthur Cook, as the firm became Jeter and Cook Architects. It changed a few more times after that. In 1975, ownership transitioned to Edward Jeter and David Jepson, with the firm becoming Jeter, Cook & Jepson Architects. It remained that way until the early 1990s, when Stevens, Thomas Dowling and Philip Pineo were elevated to principals of the firm. Edward Jeter retired in 2001, and the firm officially transitioned to its third generation of ownership and a new name, JCJ Architecture. In 2005, JCJ began to expand, growing from a single office at 120 Huyshope Ave., in Hartford, to a practice with offices nationwide. That was achieved by opening new offices and merging operations with existing firms, including Wheeler Wimer Blackman — the oldest, continuously operating architectural firm in San Diego. Over the next three years, JCJ opened additional offices in New York, Phoenix and Boston.

Committed to Hartford

JCJ has grown into a diverse planning, architecture and interior design practice that serves clients in the public and private sectors. It focuses on two general areas — commercial (including gaming, entertainment, hospitality, hotel, retail and workplace), and institutional (K-12 and higher education, civic, community, arts/culture, and public safety/justice). Among its more familiar local projects, JCJ designed the Toscano Family Ice Forum, the new skating rink on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs, and Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Hartford. Stevens said the firm has “great leadership” in all of its offices nationwide, and that was intentional. “So now, as we mature as a firm and have a deeper bench, we will be looking towards other offices to contribute to the upper management and leadership of the firm,” he said. Despite JCJ’s national footprint, Celella says the firm is committed to Hartford. “We’ve had some thoughts about things, but the one thing that’s always remained is that there will always be a Hartford presence, and it will always be an important part of the firm,” said Celella, who is based in the Hartford office.

Nationwide search

That commitment, though, did not mean the firm would limit its search for Stevens’ successor. The company’s board of directors actually began the search more than three years ago, Stevens said, hiring a third-party firm to “scour the country” and sort through not just internal candidates, but more than 100 external candidates as well. Stevens said the firm narrowed that list of external candidates to four, none of whom were from Connecticut, while also meeting with internal candidates. Celella, 67, eventually stood out as the best choice, in part, because he had been involved in the firm’s growth over the past 20 years, and understood its core values. As JCJ Architecture prepares to mark its 90th year in business in 2026, the change in the executive suite was intended to ensure the firm’s future far beyond that. The board, in fact, told Celella he needed “to be the guy who helps to pave the road for the future,” he said. “So, it’s not simply a transition of authority or power, but rather a transition to allow more transition. This is all about longevity for the firm, not my longevity.” Celella, who has a bachelor’s degree in classics and art history from Wesleyan University, has spent the majority of his working life with JCJ. After he was selected as the firm’s new president, he presented the board with his future goals. “We want to make sure the ESOP stays,” he said. “We want to make sure that we’re a culture of improvement for design and delivery of our services. We want to make sure that we’re maintaining a balance in the market sectors that we follow.” Stevens, meanwhile, is taking time to “reflect backwards, because I have more backwards than I do have forwards,” he quipped. “When I came to the firm in 1988, we were a one-office firm. Mostly, I would say 75% to 80% of our work was in Connecticut, mostly public-sector work, 50 to 55 people.” Since then, and with the encouragement of the firm’s leadership, he was challenged to envision what might be, he said. “I had come from a much larger firm, from Atlanta and then New York City, but I’m from Hartford,” Stevens said. “I was born in Hartford, and I just look at the change that has occurred over time during my tenure, and we’ve gone from a very well-respected local firm to a nationally recognized powerhouse.” “Companies have life cycles,” he added. “People have life cycles. And this is one case where that kind of merged together.”