About

With 20 years of experience in Seattle, Shanghai and Columbus, Daniel Ayars is a design leader in high-rise, mixed-use developments around the world. Daniel has delivered projects that define the skylines of many cities. In Nanjing, he built an entire new district from scratch, filled with the Class A office space that attracts the most creative minds in China, as well as the lifestyle amenities and gracious landscape that create livable urban experiences amidst great density. And in Moscow, he not only delivered what was then Europe’s tallest tower, he also helped the city develop the high-rise building codes that have shaped every skyscraper built thereafter.

As the design leader for NBBJ’s Shanghai office, he integrated urban design, planning, landscape and architecture to deliver large-scale mixed-use developments at high quality despite tight schedules. This has given him insight into how live-work-play environments influence the urban realm beyond the boundaries of their given sites. While leading the Shanghai studio he focused the design culture around computation and data-driven design. \n\n\n

Now he applies his expertise in the United States and abroad, with a value-based approach to commercial projects that seeks first to understand the client’s goals and constraints, then to identify strategic, unexpected opportunities for greater return. His personal design aesthetic tends toward clean and simple lines, innovative materials use and the interplay between interior and exterior, always with an emphasis not on a building’s form but on the human experience within and around it.

Daniel received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Kansas. He is a registered architect in Washington State and a member of The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB).

With 20 years of experience in Seattle, Shanghai and Columbus, Daniel Ayars is a design leader in high-rise, mixed-use developments around the world. Daniel has delivered projects that define the skylines of many cities. In Nanjing, he built an entire new district from scratch, filled with the Class A office space that attracts the most creative minds in China, as well as the lifestyle amenities and gracious landscape that create livable urban experiences amidst great density. And in Moscow, he not only delivered what was then Europe’s tallest tower, he also helped the city develop the high-rise building codes that have shaped every skyscraper built thereafter.

As the design leader for NBBJ’s Shanghai office, he integrated urban design, planning, landscape and architecture to deliver large-scale mixed-use developments at high quality despite tight schedules. This has given him insight into how…

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