Project Luong is a growing firm of architects, landscape architects, interior designers, mixed media designers and administrators who understand that delivering a successful project begins well before planning and design. In May 2025, their team hosted us for a visit to their new office in the Energy Corridor of Houston TX, and gave us a tour of how they’re using Layer to scale. Here’s what they shared:

BIM Manager Craig Uptmor joined the firm in late 2021. At the time, their digital infrastructure was still in its infancy. While the firm was young, the team’s combined experience gave them the insight to setup 

“One of the first things we put together was our overall project database. We call it Skynet. It’s our first window into all of our projects.”

This firm-wide hub allows the team to monitor project status at a glance using color-coded fields, access project files quickly through SharePoint links, and dive deeper into each project through dedicated Layer workspaces.

*Image for example only to protect client privacy!

Each project begins in Skynet as a potential new business opportunity similar to logging a deal in a CRM. This means that any notes from other teams (marketing or business development) are available before the project even officially begins. 

As the project progresses, weekly updates build a historical record of project progress without the need for complex meeting minutes notes. Rather than letting key decisions get lost in individual meeting minutes documents; the team logs items such as FF&E decisions or Design requests as individual records. These are linked to the relevant meetings for clear traceability. Conditional logic hides empty fields, keeping every view clean and focused.

During site visits the Project Luong team uses Layer to log observations and notes on mobile devices and tablets. This keeps information from all parties in the same stack, regardless of their physical location.

*Image for example only to protect client privacy!

“We get field reports out the next day or same day and they look FANTASTIC! Persons in the field can snap photos, markup, and pin locations on the plan. Project managers in the office can adjust languages and send.”

The flywheel from project completion to business development

Once a project is completed, digital records of projects can be cleaned of any sensitive information (or marked to not share) then easily repurposed as marketing and sales collateral. During client meetings, the team uses Layer’s image boards to present curated project visuals on tablets and phones. These galleries are sorted by sector, making it easy to reference relevant work, showcase design capabilities, and accelerate proposal creation. 

“There have been many occurrences at conferences or trade shows where we have sparked a conversation with a potential client and having the Layer app and being able to pull up our imagery comes in handy to show our work and bring color to the conversation.“
- Kyle Luong