Who he is: President of Trozzolo Communications Group, an advertising, public relations and branding agency.

How long he’s done it: He’s been with the company since the mid-1990s. His father, Pasquale Trozzolo, founded the company in 1989.

Old and new: The new headquarters for Trozzolo Communications Group and its health care division, Prairie Dog/TCG, is a brick building at 811 Wyandotte that boasts white painted tin ceilings, old columns and a dramatic wooden staircase. The original details of the 1899 structure, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, create a nice backdrop for vivid pops of hot pink, orange and lake-blue modern office furniture. But the four-story building hasn’t always looked so hot. Vacant for 20 years, it didn’t have running water, electricity or solid floors to walk on. Now $6.5 million later, tax credits included, the building is a stunner. “We wanted to invest in downtown KansasCity,” Trozzolo said. “What it’s meant before and what it’s becoming.”

Lunch = innovation: Eating at your desk is discouraged at Trozzolo. “When you sit down together to eat, that’s when ideas and collaboration happens,” Trozzolo said. So the space is intended to be a comfortable but inspiring environment for the more than 40 employees. A long family-style table, designed by local craftsman David Polivka out of old-growth pine beams salvaged from the building, is the centerpiece of the room. A long Carrera marble island makes a stylish buffet and could be attractive for cooking demonstrations. The art is a 1973 Lola racecar, symbolizing competition.

In the family: The “Innovator Room” near the lobby is preceded by a large vintage ad that says “Happy Pan.” Trozzolo’s uncle Marion Trozzolo was the first person to apply Teflon to pans, inventing nonstick cookware. A real “Happy Pan” sits there, too, and is part of the Smithsonian. “It reminds us that if a young man can immigrate from Italy, learn a new language, start a business and change the way America cooks forever, anything is possible,” Angelo Trozzolo wrote in the blog he’s been keeping about the building, geewhiznicebuilding.wordpress.com.