We are proud to announce that Plant Prefab VP of Market Development Amy Sims was recently named a 2023 Los Angeles Business Journal Woman of Influence in Construction, Engineering & Architecture:

"Sims is a pioneer in housing design and construction, ushering in new standards of building efficiency and sustainability through her innovative work at the intersection of architecture and manufacturing.

She entered the field of homebuilding as a carpenter at Vermont’s Yestermorrow Design/Build School, where she learned basic trades and energy-efficient building techniques that would inform the course of her career. Designing office interiors and a variety of commercial and residential projects at AECOM, Ellerbe Becket, and Richard Meier & Partners, Sims contributed to landmark projects like Ernst & Young’s Workplace of the Future and the Rand Corporation’s corporate headquarters, which integrated occupant health and architectural design decades before the concept entered the mainstream.

In 2006 Sims co-founded the award-winning design studio LivingHomes, working with Ray Kappe, AIA, to help design the first home ever to achieve Platinum certification in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Homes program. It was the first of many LEED-certified homes Sims would design and deliver utilizing offsite construction.

In 2016 Sims helped launch housing prefabrication startup Plant Prefab and applied her technical design skills with her hands-on experiences in both site-based building and factory fabrication to help develop the company’s innovative Plant Building System™. Utilizing advanced engineering to drive efficiency and quality, the hybrid system is the first and only of its kind to combine panelized and modular building systems to fabricate any housing typology in any style of architecture 20-50% faster than site-based building with industry-leading quality and minimal waste.

Sims established Plant Prefab’s design review services and developed detailed design guidelines to assist architects making the transition to offsite fabrication. Today, she focuses on education and outreach to the design, development, and construction community, helping project teams save time and deliver stakeholder value through offsite fabrication.

Sims donates her time and talents as design partner for the UCLA Solar Decathlon team, a mentor for the National Organization of Minority Students (NOMA), and a conservation volunteer for the National Audobon Society. As a leading resource in sustainable and fire-defensive home design and construction, she also instructs architects, builders, and home owners in fire-defensive design, construction, and retrofits as a volunteer for the Los Angeles Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC-LA)."