Jeff Wardell

Principal Designer/ Art Consultant

After spending 20 years as a wealth advisor mostly to young technology, publishing, and biotech founders/ executives, and serving as a contributing writer for Wired magazine in the 1990s, Jeff walked away from finance in early 2009.

Jeff started collecting urban art in the late 90s. Watching these artists grow into international art stars and seeing their works in major museums as well as in the street while traveling has been tremendously satisfying to be part of, and our collection is often on loan to various museums showing this exciting genre. While the collection has grown in scope and the focus has morphed from its original urban arts roots to include major works by artists outside of this realm, the core themes of being attracted to artists who are compelled to create and often produce works by using found materials remain a key tenet.

While in America, Jeff served on the Board of Directors of the Headlands Center for the Arts and was major funder of the venerable non-profit The Luggage Store.

The bug he caught from designing two homes—a Park City Utah contemporary “mining shack” built from the ground up and a San Francisco warehouse conversion—solidified Claudia and his desire to pursue a new dream: designing and building an artspace and artist’s residency in New Zealand. The research into this project has spanned the last seven years, 25,000+ kilometers on a motorcycle, touring more than 25 countries, and at least 200 museums, art spaces and residencies.

It also drove the launch of a specialty design firm: Wardell+Sagan Projekt. Partnering with a team of architects, builders, and museum exhibit designers as appropriate: the firm focuses on designing environments to make art collections work with living environments in new and exciting ways.

Claudia Sagan

Designer and Development Strategist

Claudia has been a leading force in the retail real estate industry for over 25 years. Her advisory firm, Claudia Sagan, Inc., provided a broad range of strategic advice to retailers, mixed-use shopping center developers and regional mall developers throughout the United States and abroad. In representing clients she has negotiated extensively with Westfield Corporation and Simon Property Group among others. Her expertise includes determining the optimum mix of uses to ensure a project’s seamless and complimentary integration into a community.

Claudia is a leader in the concept of real estate “feminization”. By advising developers on project design, material choices, center flow and merchandising which result in truly shop-able experiences and pleasurable environments.

As an executive at Equity Properties & Development Company, Claudia was responsible for the successful re-merchandising of redevelopment properties. She played a key roll in the re-imagining and vision-development of their portfolio of properties.

Claudia was the Vice President of Real Estate for William-Sonoma, Inc. and Ann Taylor, Inc. While at these iconic retail companies, she and her teams developed and executed the real estate growth strategies for their numerous brands involving over 1000 stores.

Claudia has traveled the world immersing herself in art, design, architecture, history and culture. She utilizes her ever-growing knowledge to enhance the design and experiences at all of her projects.

Claudia & Jeff have over the course of many miles, years and experiences built a significant contemporary art collection which reflects the power of art as one of the highest forms of communication.