When opposites attracted, Rob and Gia Reade melded creativity and practicality

You never know when a chance encounter will become a life-changing event. Such was the case for Rob and Gia Reade when they first met working on a historic Cannery Row restaurant job site. She was updating the interior design while he installed electrical wiring for new lighting fixtures.

The West Coast couple who would become Reade Studios’ design team is a good example of how opposites attract. Rob Reade takes a keen interest in the precision and engineering of how things work and says that his hands are how he interacts with the world. In contrast, his wife Gia is the consummate creative and has an emotional, intuitive approach to design. She might ask herself how it feels to sit in a pub on a rainy day at two in the afternoon and then work backward to evoke that same feeling in a prospective layout. He is more oriented to problem-solving where she likes to “hit home runs” and strives to have clients respond to her designs by saying: “Love it. Do it.”

Following the pandemic, the couple from Monterey, California ventured across the country seeking a community where family was a cornerstone and they could strike a better work-life balance with their three children. Columbia compelled them as they passed through Missouri while visiting Rob’s father.

Before they knew it, they’d put an offer on a home and found themselves settling in. They brought world-class interior and lighting design skills along with electrical and construction know-how.

While her husband found Reade Electric clients, Gia initially focused on rooting her children in community activities and homeschooling. But opportunity knocked at their door via Reade Studios’ design of Theia Laser reception area for local entrepreneur Lee Sensintaffar, followed by the design and build-out of La Tikita tiki bar for restaurateur Jesse Garcia.

Those projects were to be just the beginning. Not only is Reade Studios making its mark on the city as the couple engages with local businesses to bring vibrant, expert design to bear on commercial spaces, but Gia has also become an adjunct professor in the Architectural Studies Department at the University of Missouri.

The two often hear clients say, “We never thought about that.” Pulling back the curtain of design, Gia reveals that it is about engaging the senses and curating experiences.

“When someone walks into a restaurant, bar, or a hotel lobby, they want to be transported away and feel good,” she said. When undertaking a project, Gia will assimilate the client’s goals and aesthetic preferences and study the space before shifting to a more creative mode.

“Public spaces are an intersection of objective and subjective, between intuitive and practical, even incorporating elements of fantasy and whimsy,” she explains, going on to ask: “What is the point of life if you aren’t at least having a little bit of fun?” To that end, Reade Studios’ designs are intended to be alluring and evocative. They come to life through the selection and striking arrangement of color components, patterns, and texture.  These elements are then strategically animated with light. Gia aims to take a space to 90 percent of its potential. She adds, “The additional 10 percent comes from the energy of the patrons as experiences occur in the space and it becomes a living thing. A patina of place will develop over time. My job is to set the stage for that to happen.”

Hospitality runs in Gia’s blood. With her father, renowned Italian chef and restaurateur John Pisto, she grew up steeped in the culinary business, at times even appearing on television as he filmed his pioneering cooking shows. Her cultural design inspiration stems from the international family travels of her youth, coupled later with having her passport stamped throughout Europe, Latin and South America, and New Zealand. Distilling her voyages, her undergraduate studies in art history, her Masters in interior design from Pratt Institute, and her California design work, Gia has honed her innate talent for hospitality design.

Meanwhile, her autodidact husband Rob learned and perfected his electrical trade skills working alongside top designers and master contractors, largely in the affluent enclaves of central California. Following his entrepreneurial inclination for more than a decade, he grew Reade Electric into a thriving enterprise adept in all aspects of electrical design and installation.

In Carmel and Pebble Beach, it was not uncommon for him to work on multi-million dollar, 15,000-plus square-foot homes with electrical budgets of a half-million dollars or more. Such projects involved interior and outdoor lighting, security and HVAC systems, networking and communications, and even smart homes. The sum of the couple’s vision and skill brings local clients a resource much greater than its parts.

Rob and Gia both possess the imaginative ability to think in three dimensions, pre-visualizing space and starting with the end in mind. They brought that expertise to bear on their second collaboration with Jesse Garcia, the recent redesign and renovation of The Penguin Piano Bar & Restaurant on Broadway.

Since the reopening, Jesse has heard, “You really outdid yourself” and “It’s hard to believe it is even the same space.” The popular downtown venue now features an art deco motif. Jesse says that he “wanted The Penguin to feel elegant and to restore some of the early 1900s feel of the original building while adding modern amenities.”

Jesse said that Reade Studios listened well to his ideas and was able to “hit every single mark” that he was hoping he would hit.  He adds that they did spectacular work on time and on budget and made the whole process easy for him.

A project begins with the couple reviewing Gia’s initial floor plan drawings. As waves of ideas wash over the plan, the couple works together through multiple stages toward a refined final design. Important conversations center around the principles of lighting and methods of how to direct the customer’s attention through the use of general, task-oriented, and decorative light fixtures. Lighting affects activity and influences mood so much that the design of track lights, recessed cans, and table-top fixtures is considered carefully.  Rob offers that, in fact, “Color only exists with light. We can’t even perceive color without light.” Gia goes as far as to assert that lighting is a “criminally undervalued component of design” and that the interplay of lighting design and interior design is integral.

“So much is the same in the world for no other reason than that people don’t want to consider an alternative,” said Rob.

Reade Studios aims to remedy that staid status quo by creating stand-out, compelling, even eccentric spaces, and lighting is crucial in achieving that aim. For instance, the novel use of lighting over The Penguin bar incorporates vertical space and renders the ceiling as a canvas. Such originality illustrates the artistry of lighting design which amounts to “painting” space through variation in hue, saturation, and contrast. To achieve the overall effect in this area of the venue, eight different light-switched zones were required including arches and liquor display, back bar, and ceiling lights.

Rob adds, “Everything has to be balanced as you paint with light.”

­Reade Studios is led by creativity and vision but grounded in practicality and how the imagined design is going to be built. Thus, the less glamorous aspects of design including space planning, code compliance, circulation and traffic flow, ergonomics, seating areas, ADA clearances, and durable materials all factor into Reade Studios’ creative choices. That is why another chance encounter quickly led to professional synergy when Gia was introduced to Reinhardt Construction, LLC.

“Rob and Gia are practical and reasonable about creating beautiful spaces within the means that we are given. They are great to work with,” said Molly Chapman, project manager at Reinhardt. “They really make an effort to work with us as a team to meet the needs and wants of our clients. They are an excellent duo.”

The mutual appreciation the couple shares and the magnetism created by their differences seem to bring out the best in them.

“Gia is awesome,” Rob says. “Working on a space together is an opportunity to see her come up with incredible designs. She’s brilliant with creativity and draws from her vast experience and then she’ll ask me ‘Do you think we could build that?’ which kicks my structural and engineering mind into gear.”

Gia responds in kind, offering, “Rob won’t give himself credit, but he has an incredible flair for design.” The opposites that attracted in their case have brought opposing yet complimentary talents together in service of extraordinary interior design.

When the couple looks to the future, they do so with confidence in their abilities.

“The answer is ‘yes’ to whatever comes up,” Rob said. “Even if we haven’t done it before, we know that we have the wherewithal.”

Molly of Reinhardt concurs, adding, “They are a really great team. With their combined experience, Reade Studios is able to create beautiful but also functional spaces.”