About Lisa Gemmiti

“For me,” Lisa says, “it’s all about producing models that are thoughtfully designed to meet the needs of a project, and built to the highest professional quality standards. I love the technical and artistic challenges that are presented to us. I am fortunate to work with a group of skilled model artists who share my passion for model making. We are sensitive to the fact that models are labor intensive, so we want to help our clients maximize every hour we spend on their project. It is very gratifying to see our models put to use and watch the power of communication that physical models have when presented to a group or are simply left in a room for people to discover and explore on their own.”

Over the course of her career, Lisa and her team have contributed to the production of hundreds of design, study and presentation models. Her work has been delivered to 20 different countries and spans the heights of Mount Everest to the intricacies of a single strand of DNA. She has personally delivered a model of the first golf course in Russia to famed industrialist Armand Hammer, and she negotiated face-to-face with Donald Trump for a model of the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida, delivering the finished model to Mar-a-Lago for the formal unveiling. She has also produced numerous design competition models for GAP, Nike, Callaway Golf Clubs, HP Store, Levis, and Sony PlayStation. Her technical-model body of work includes spacecraft models for NASA, Space Systems Loral and Lockheed, a number of engineering models for the new Oakland Bay Bridge, and litigation models for high-profile biotechnology and computer technology intellectual property cases. She has produced models for Apple, Adobe, Electronic Arts, Autodesk and the W Hotel. Lisa has also worked with some of the best architects and real estate developers in the world, building models for entire cities in Indonesia and Vietnam, resorts for Disney Development in Florida and Japan, and models of the now-famous towers in Boston for Philip Johnson & John Burgee Architects.

Lisa began her career as an apprentice model maker at Scale Models Unlimited (SMU) in Menlo Park, CA, and worked through the ranks to General Manger. She credits her former employer, Don Nusbaum with “setting the standard of the highest quality appearance models in the business” and is very proud of her 20-year involvement with his company.

Lisa has taught Advanced Model Making at Academy of Art University, consulted with industrial design students at California College of the Arts on their thesis projects, and has been a regular presenter to architecture students at Stanford University. She also donates her time to students by routinely touring student groups through the facility with the intention of opening doors to several professions available for them to pursue. She also discounts the cost of services and products sold to students to help get their project built. She has been a guest speaker at several conferences for the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) and spoke at a Yahoo! Workshop at the Tech Museum of Innovation.

Lisa’s message to students, and one which she lives by herself, ”We all have interests that we gravitate toward. If you are passionate about something the way that I am passionate about contributing to the improvement of quality of life through design of products and our environment, then the opportunity to make a living is there. If you think about something that really interests you, but seems way out of reach, realize that someone has to do it; why not you? The best way to succeed in life is to be true to yourself and pursue your dreams!”