Today we’d like to introduce you to Rob Zinn.
Hi Rob, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
ZINN started at the University of Florida’s architecture program, where Kassia and Rob met. But somewhat surprisingly, they went their separate ways after graduation — Rob to New York City, Kassia to New Orleans — each building their own foundation in the profession.
ZINN started at the University of Florida’s architecture program, where we met. But somewhat surprisingly, we went our separate ways after graduation — Rob to New York City, Kassia to New Orleans — each building our own foundation in the profession.
A few years later, we both ended up in Fort Lauderdale, Rob’s hometown, almost by coincidence. Rob was helping family with a new business; Kassia was designing a new luxury superyacht — fitting for the “Yachting Capital of the World.” Some mutual friends who happened to be visiting asked, “Did you know Rob is in town?” The rest, as they say, is history.
We moved back to New York together to hone our skills, working in one of the most demanding architecture and construction markets in the world. The thinking was straightforward: if you can make it there — literally — you can handle anything. When we decided it was time to set up our own shop, Northeast Florida stood out as a growing market with a genuine long-term trajectory—a place where we could make meaningful contributions to the area’s evolution.
ZINN was founded in 2012 on a simple but essential idea: buildings serve a functional need, yes, but they can also create environments that enrich the activities they house. That is the core of ZINN — to create solutions that are both functional and beautiful. It’s the development of precise, well-considered construction drawings that allows a budget to stretch every penny, leaving room for beautiful spaces and features that aren’t “add-ons” but integral to the project.
That’s where “Elevate the everyday” comes from. Of course you can put a roof over your head and sell lemonade — a tent works fine. But a lemonade stand becomes better at selling lemonade when it has character, when it makes people feel joy visiting it, and when it reflects the brand or personality behind it. The architecture facilitates the success of the activity. That’s the whole point.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Budgets are the defining challenge in construction right now. Prices for materials and labor have skyrocketed in recent years. The need for good buildings hasn’t lessened, but the barrier to achieving them has grown dramatically.
Meanwhile, the construction industry has become more litigious, which promotes a safety mindset — among both owners and builders — that tends to steer away from creative solutions that haven’t been done a thousand times before. In this environment, architecture can get reduced to glorified shopping: picking out products and solutions pre-approved by Underwriters Laboratories rather than thinking of anything new, unique, or particular to the site, client, or business.
We believe projects can do more, even within these constraints. They can be efficient with their financial resources in order to not only fulfill their program but also save room for beauty. They can explore new ideas without being careless.
One process that has helped formalize this for our clients is our Pre-Design Service. It aligns a project’s scope with its budget early on, before drawings have started development — avoiding the common and painful pitfall of spending many hours and dollars developing a project that ultimately proves too expensive to build. We want budgets, expectations, scope, and program to sync up as quickly as possible in the process. And honestly? Sometimes that convinces clients not to pursue a project, and we still consider that a win. A costly, time-consuming effort is avoided, and the client is spared the heartbreak of falling in love with an idea that isn’t realistic in the end.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
People often ask what ZINN’s “style” is. The honest answer: we are professionally trained in all of them — we suffered through many challenging years learning each extensively in school — Colonial, Empire, Adobe, Warm Modern, Minimalist. As design aficionados, we genuinely appreciate them all. But our role is not to impose stylistic preferences on clients and their buildings. We don’t think of projects as canvases for promoting our own brand or aesthetic.
ZINN is in a service industry. Our job is to take clients’ wishes, inclinations, desires, needs, and stylistic leanings and translate them into their best possible version. Rather than imposing our own concerns, our firm is a vehicle for forming clients’ dreams into their best reality. At the same time, we have to be sensitive to the environment a project will live in. Existing buildings set a tone that needs to be respected — but respecting a design doesn’t always mean copying it. Often, we honor an existing building more by reacting to it, creating a rich dialogue between old and new.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
“Being a good listener” is something you hear quite often, but we take this concept very seriously. Beyond just paying attention, we find that every word out of a client’s mouth is a golden opportunity for deeper understanding. However they express themselves, clients communicate the essential intent and priorities of a project in every email, phone call, and meeting.
But sometimes we have to slow folks down. It’s easy to assume that people understand you. There’s a pressure to act like you understood what someone said, even when you didn’t quite catch it. We make it a practice of stopping to ask what was really meant. “Oh, let’s put the thing over there next to the other thing” is something you might hear in a design meeting, but it could mean 50 different things. Even if it takes an extra few seconds, it’s well worth slowing down and making sure everyone is on the same page. This has allowed us to be more targeted in our work, spending less time going in the wrong direction or wasting time on things that turn out to be less important. In a strange way, slowing down actually speeds things up. There are fewer do-overs or re-works that kill a project timeline.
Pricing:
- Pre Design Service: $2,200. We propose Pre Design services for all of our projects but this exercise can be undertaken by itself when folks are not sure if they even want to do or can afford a project. The process Includes meetings, area reports, site analysis, and estimated construction costs — often for more than one scenario. Three drafts are included, and the final deliverable establishes a budgetting framework for starting a design project. Whether with ZINN or another architect, the exercise yields an actionable document that steers good decision-making.
- Existing Conditions: $1,200. For renovations involving existing buildings, ZINN performs a laser scan that provides an extremely accurate record of the current structure. This can also be undertaken as a separate service to help Clients who just want an accurate starting point for their “Cocktail napkin” sketching.
- Full Service Design\Permit\Construction Drawings: Because construction cost is a good indicator of a project’s Scope, it’s also an excellent metric for estimating design fees, which need to capture how much needs to be drawn and documented for construction. Architecture and Engineering fees (Most projects require some engineering) in Northeast Florida range from 8–12% of construction cost for a Full Service project which includes: pre design schematic design design development construction documents bid administration or design-build permitting construction administration
- Builder’s Sets. Fees are reduced for projects that don’t require certain services. Some clients handle fixture and finish specification themselves or with their own Interior Designer. Some construction savvy Clients opt to work with ZINN for Construction Administration hourly because they don’t always need much help. These more remedial sets leave product and material selections for the client to choose and administer.
- Other services. ZINN also provides master planning, visualizations, feasibility reports, and other ancillary building services.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.zinn.ai/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zinn_a_i/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zinnarch/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zinn-arch
