One of St. Petersburg’s most recognizable architecture firms is expanding its downtown headquarters with the construction of a 34,000 square foot mixed-use building adjacent to its current headquarters.

Wannemacher Jensen Architects, which was founded in 1992 by Lisa Wannemacher, has been located on Downtown St. Pete’s Mirror Lake since 1998. And over time the company has grown from three to 23 employees, including the addition of Principal, and part namesake, Jason Jensen in 2002.

The firm has also expanded its offerings, which now includes interior design, design-build, development, and even entertainment services such as designing stage lighting and set installation. They also have a construction company: WJ Create.

In many ways, the growth of Wannemacher Jensen has paralleled the growth of Downtown St. Pete — it’s hard to walk around downtown and not see a project they haven’t worked on. You can see their work in the renovations to Bayfront Tower at 1 Beach Drive SE, and the interiors of the recently opened Pacific Counter restaurant on the 600 block. And if you’ve visited the The James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art, they helped design that too.

Speaking of their clients, they’ve also designed the interiors of the current UPC Insurance building located at 200 2nd Ave S. Recently, UPC Insurance was selected by Mayor Rick Kriseman to purchase a prime lot at 200 1st Ave S in order construct a new 150,000 square foot headquarters which has the potential to add hundreds of new jobs in Downtown St. Pete.