AIA Colorado 2011 Practice & Design Conference Blog

More Podcasts from the AIA Colorado 2011 Practice & Design Conference

2011-11-28T14:33:00.001-07:00

If you missed this year's Practice and Design Conference, listen to these podcasts by some of our renown speakers:

190. The Firm of the Future: Big Picture Trends Shaping the Future of Architecture Firms (Ray Kogan)

192. Big Gifts, Deep Needs (John Cary)

194. Christopher Sharples - Out of Practice

196. Joshua Prince-Ramus - Agency

Snøhetta - podcast

2011-10-27T12:39:00.006-06:00

Check out the podcast of Snøhetta's session here.

Podcast: Carol Ross Barney, FAIA

2011-10-21T10:12:00.004-06:00

Listen to a podcast of Carol Ross Barney, FAIA's, session at the AIA Colorado 2011 Practice and Design Conference. More podcasts will be available soon.

Joshua Prince-Ramus- Agency

2011-10-15T18:18:00.003-06:00

“Agency is an argument that architecture needs to start doing things, not just provide form.”

Modernism in the mid-century created a schism where architecture became about strict rules and dogmatic form making. To Joshua this was a clear failure, and it is time for us to change the situation. Form must be integral to function, and both must be maximized in appropriate equilibration.

When REX begins a commission, they begin with two projects simultaneously, one for the constraints and one for the agenda. Once these individual elements are understood, they can together be maximized based on specific project requirements.

He uses the analogy of the Trojan horse. How successful would that approach have been had the Spartans, instead of a horse, used a large Spartan? Probably not very well. Architecture is the same. Give the client what they are asking for, all from the lens of your agency.

Core Issues

To start, you must understand the client’s needs. This will produce a joint agenda. Only then does REX begin to explore architectural manifestations, based on agreed upon rules previously identified. This can produce work that is highly performative.

The first project discussed was the Seattle Central Library. This was the first project in which they discovered this process of joint agency. They were confronted by a project that was funded through a public initiative that produced a strong budget, but very few cohesive ideas on what the City wanted, what the citizens needed. The first issue was to identify a source of reasoning for what was to be built. Traditional notions of space were to produce uniform flexibility, where one space would house all functions (current and future). Instead REX suggested a compartmentalized flexibility. Terms such as unstable spaces and stable spaces began to discuss the conditions of spaces on opening day, and the conditions of spaces as the notion of a library evolves.

This was not initially well received by the library. In fact they didn’t even see the topic as an issue to be addressed.

REX began looking at the programmatic requirements of the project, and through a series of studies started to question what they were given. They suggested that the library, even in their initial programmatic outline, were highly concerned with issues such as social consciousness. The library agreed and allowed REX to organize a new programmatic outline that better organized the disparate elements and ultimately produced a schematic outline based on the known and the unknown elements required. The form making that followed was based solidly on the program, in fact was not an aesthetic solution as much as a performative solution. When the public initially balked at the new form it was not the architects that defended the solution, it was the library itself. “They did not know what this was, but they knew it was exactly their program.”

Joshua next discussed a project in Dallas, Texas. They were presented with a performing arts center that had been housed in a very low design, industrial looking “shack”. The Dallas Theater Company was able to bring some of the best performances to their little “shack”. Why? It turns out that it was the very freedom presented by this little building; companies could essentially make any and all modifications to the building that they desired. Need space below the stage? Dig it out. Want it to rain? Cut a hole in the roof. REX saw this as an asset that must be brought into the new building. “Try to do those types of things in Broadway and you would be quickly fired.”

So the new building had to offer the same flexibility in form. The solution was, as Joshua proudly refers to as “dumb”. That is a simple approach of rethinking the traditional layout of a theater, putting the back of house elements above and below, thus allowing an porous exterior, able to be opened to the city. They furthered the concept by incorporating a “superfly” stage, able to be quickly and easily transformable. This started to address the power of the original “shack” thus preserving the unique asset of the Dallas Theater Company. From proscenium, to thrust, to in the round, the stage configurations can be easily modified. Along with the ability to manipulate the layout of seating elements, the new Dee and Charles Wyly Theater is a dynamic and responsive solution to what REX describes as Agency.

Next Joshua discussed a project that had been fully designed; construction had begun but then stopped by a collapse in the bond market. The project started with a very unusual program, an arts institution that combined numerous interests of the clients. The fifty million dollars the client brought to the table was understood to not be adequate, and so REX was asked to include a for-profit element that would close the funding gap.

To start the site was extremely difficult, often flooding up to 20 feet each year. Adjacent to the interstate the site was noisy, and the power station supplied most of the city’s energy across the site. The client had received the site for very little money, the city simply didn’t think it was worth developing.

REX created a scheme for a multi-use development that included luxury housing and other programs that they believed would work together to bridge the funding gap. Through a series of massing studies, REX was able to propose a project that at first glance looked perhaps a bit alien, but upon telling the story of these studies they Agency of the design was apparent and approval was achieved. Although the individual elements of the building- the luxury condos, the hotel, and others- were of little design innovation (thus able to receive funding without impossible discussion) the overall project, when taken together, is a highly innovative discussion of economy and form making.

REX has not only produced a stunning body of work, but also a unique and wholly new way of thinking about approaching and delivering a project solution. Thank you, Joshua, for sharing with us your concept of Agency.

Christopher Sharples- Out of Practice

2011-10-15T16:28:00.001-06:00

Shop Architects are not immune to this economy. The office was founded about 15 years ago by a group of friends and family. He shared with us an organizational chart of the firm that expressed the interconnected nature of the firm, one that informs the work that they produce. He spoke of a disconnect between what they saw in the AEC industry, the misdirection of branding and the interests they brought from outside influences. Passions for racing and aerospace have produce sensibilities that they carry into their work.

“How do we fashion materials?” Chris talked about how formal complexity, digital processes and history all coalesce into how Shop approaches every project. Chris is personally from a fine arts background, and when he first worked using a mayline he “felt like he was working with a ball and chain.” He built numerous models in his youth and wondered why that instruction type, all three dimensional drawings, couldn’t be translated into architectural practices.

When they first started, they thought they needed to find one software package to do everything, but learned very quickly that was not the case. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach, but instead required interconnection between numerous platforms. This has since translated into the very layout of their practice. They have a dirty shop (saws and such) and a clean shop (laser cutters) that work to together to explore various design schemes and ideas to be implemented.

“How can architectural practice be expanded?”

Chris talked about how they never wanted to compartmentalize themselves in terms of practice. They have had clients ask for work on everything from dog houses to high rises. He spoke of how liability issues have made a general practice very difficult. They have purposefully taken on this challenge and produced work of various typologies.

The first project he discussed was an installation at PS1, a highly complex, digitally organized installation of wood framed environments. Next they had their first ‘real’ architectural commission: a carousel house. Since then they have produced information that produced façade systems for less that $50/sf (at the time such work was typically between $80 and $90/sf). SHoP quickly realized the power of information and prefabrication in architectural solutions. From art galleries in the DMZ to complicated waterfront projects in NY, SHoP views complexities such as coordinating difficult permitting agencies as another design opportunity for intervention.

The Botswana Intervention Hub was a commission they won a few years ago, and one that they approach from a formal language that could create unique spatial opportunities. The project is the largest AIDS advocacy building in all of Africa and will also contain the continents largest “Brown Roof”. I guess that is what they call planted roofs in Africa.

When speaking about BIM, Chris wondered why so much information would be left at the post construction phase. Other industries carry this information over into the ownership role. Why can’t this same process be implemented in an architectural solution? Through smarter ownership comes a better built world.

“How do we engage the client and the build team as we move forward?

SHoP architects were asked to assist in the rethinking of an original design for the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. They were asked to make the project much more a part of Brooklyn. SHoP started by breaking down the massing, then opening up the structure and providing exterior plaza spaces that are connected to the interior via a cantilevered covering, essentially creating a ‘front porch’ for the community. Material selections, such as weathering steel, brought costs in line, while also expressing a certain identity for the building. To further the connection to Brooklyn, the scoreboard within is visible from “the porch” even before you enter the building itself.

“What are the difference between a design model and a construction model? How can they be successfully integrated?”

To address such questions, the firm created SHoP Construction, a company that owns no machinery, no tools, but instead virtually investigates processes by which information can be translated from design to construction. This outlet of exploration became a powerful tool for the design team to discuss, accurately, elements of construction that a traditional approach may have never allowed. This has also aided the overall firm by way of expanded scopes.

SHoP Construction used a series of explorations regarding the Barclays Center that broke the overall design into manageable parts that could be scrutinized individually. Through these investigations they were able to convince the client that the design was not only economical (even they were about 9% over the original budget) but actually represented an optimized solution. Parametric modeling allowed this investigation and informed the design as the project evolved.

The level of rigor involved in this project is impressive. SHoP Construction even went as far as organizing how the individual panels of the building would be loaded on a semi-truck and delivered to the site. They utilized the same sort of 3D informational drawings Chris admired as a model builder in his youth and produced automated shop drawings for each and every (over 12,000) panels on the building. Without automation this level of information would never have been possible.

The use of technology is both innovative as well as economical. Because of their dedication to further the integration, automation and collaboration in their work they have been able to produce some stunning examples of contemporary architecture.

Thank you, Chris, for sharing your work with us.

John Cary- Big Gifts, Deep Needs

2011-10-15T14:49:00.000-06:00

Remember.

Mr. John Cary presented us with a moving insight into his work with Public Architecture. He began with a quick exercise, he asked us to remember where we came from and why we got into this profession to begin with. John’s own background in a suburban environment, complete with a loud family system that “rarely afforded peace and quite” has had a profound influence on his current outlook on the practice of architecture.

Create.

John showed a temporary demonstration project, built completely from waste products, that was showcased by National Geographic. This project has been a showpiece that brings the ability to continue conceptual means into the built environment.

“Find where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep needs.”

Connect.

There are a lot of people creating things, but fewer mechanisms by which those people can come together. To this end John created the blog Public Interest Architecture to collect and distribute this type of information.

‘The published word is a declaration of membership in a community.”

There is more need in the world, whether non-profits or other, than architects to meet that need. Architects tend to be hidden behind their work and John is attempting to change this dichotomy.

John referred often to the Rural Studio as one of the most well know examples of public interest design. There are many names for this movement but they all speak to pro bono work and the need to work for the betterment of society. Architecture for Humanity, Public Architecture and other organizations such as Project H Design collectively work to further this interest. We heard from Alan Ricks of MASS design yesterday, and his work falls squarely into this realm. Perkins + Will has a corporate policy for probono work and according to John one that paramount to this movement.

Pro Bono.

Despite what we all may think, pro bono does not necessarily mean ‘for free’, but instead ‘for good’. This may translate into reduced fees, or even free work, but this difference is something that must be understood. John spoke how many of out thoughts are really only half of and idea and how creating a narrative can help to complete that idea.

Story.

Numerous New York libraries have, over the past few years, have been redesigned on a pro-bono basis. The powerful story behind these examples is a small school boy who brought all his personal belongings from home and stated ‘I’m taking these into the library”. This child had found such reward in this space that he felt more comfortable there than in his own home.

“My pro-bono projects are my favorite projects.”

Public Architecture produced a book The Power of Pro-Bono. This book highlights numerous projects across the country, organized around program type, and collectively illustrates the story of pro-bono; a story of changing lives through architectural intervention. Various firms, both large and small, have produced work that has changed the areas in which the projects are located, but more importantly they have shaped lives of the users for the better.

Thank you, John, for sharing your work and your vision with us!

Tips for Pro-Bono work:

-Follow your passions

-Be selective

-Define scope

-Budget and invoice

-Raise expectations

-Become ambassadors

-Promote it

-Enlist others

-Document the process

-Spread the word

William Massie- Physical Delineation.

2011-10-15T12:08:00.001-06:00

William Massie is highly influenced by film and production. Much of his work is conceived and produced through the use of digital production.

His firm came about through a series of prefabricated homes, but ones that were put together through digital production. Those initial ideas have further developed his building approach.

The firs project he showed was a simple little house set into a hill in New York State. Digital fabrication and design was used for developing the systems of the building directly. “I’m really fascinated with the making of buildings.” He is less interested in ideas that reference other ideas, but instead a more conceptual hardening of policy, no longer simply speculation but policy. “We are the authors, primarily of space.”

The house is situated in a wooded setting. William used previous ideas regarding the use of glazing systems that could bring light into the very assembly of the building. Laser cut steel, plywood and orange acrylic begins to bind the building to not only a specific location, but also a specific time. “I’m fascinated at the ability of a building to contain memory.”

The building is composed of insulated concrete panels with a special cladding element. The building form itself is a bit unsettling, but William was interested in this quality. He carved space that it would challenge conventional experiences, and begin to expand the language of the home, the language of memory. It is a simple building with roots in the mid-century sensibilities, but the technologies employed bring the form making into a new era. William’s firm designed and constructed all elements of this house. Even the making of the sinks was a dedicated study in digital exploration and fabrication.

"Your only responsibility to your kids is to create good memories. Nothing else matters. I bring this idea to my work."

William also spoke about his exhibit, one in which he challenged the traditional notions of display. His solution is a single element that is both sculpture as well as a means by which to display information. “In a weird way, this was like a TV. A TV showing what I have done.”

William’s work at Cranbrook is highly conceptual, but also applicable in the sense that they fabricate these ideas into unique and intriguing forms. Memory, theory, poetry. “I try to influence the students to think about the structure of their work as policy, not in romantic isolation.” William urges his students to create a thesis project that is not so academic that is unusable after graduation, but instead to create actual built concepts that can easily translate into meaningful works.

The next project William discussed was his home and studio, located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The space is large enough to build even fully completed projects within. The studio is exactly 1,720 feet from both a Lowes in one direction and a Home Depot in the other. “I knew this was the perfect location and had to have it.” William uses materials from both stores to create complete structures within his studio space. He can test ideas, rethink those ideas, and retest at will.

Memory is important to William. He continued his presentation speaking about the relationships in his life, his interests and the elements he has constructed to bring those memories to life. He is constantly looking for ways to instill memory, to have his buildings instill memories. Anomalies in a know system can allow memory to occur, to strengthen that memory and to bring it into future situations and recollection.

He employed these ideas into another house project, one that at first is nothing more than a simple box. To activate the space William installed two anomalies that begin to activate the psyche. These elements, mainly dipping and sweeping moments of changes to the massing, bring light into the building, facilitate ventilation and begin to foster memory of, for, and about the space. The anomalies were fabricated from sectional cuts of SIPS, all fabricated in his shop, and all digitally conceived as well as produced. The final product is a building whose memory depicts the passing of time, the specifics of place and the individuals who worked to construct the home.

Thank you, William, for sharing with us your unique processes, your innovative work, but also your very personal journey regarding memory.

Ray Kogan, Kogan and Company-The firm of the future: big picture trends shaping the future of architecture firms.

2011-10-15T11:05:00.002-06:00

Ray is the president of Kogan and Company, a strategic management and planning firm specializing in the AEC industries. Ray shared with us 8 points that can help in that regard.

1) Demographics

Unlike other trends, demographics can be accurately anticipated. “Like waves in an ocean, you can see them coming a long way away and pretty accurately predict when they will crash on the shore.” Today’s US growth in population is no longer strictly from US births, but largely from immigration. This growth represents an opportunity for the AEC industry. Understanding these trends can help position your firm to better react to continually changing markets.

2) The Markets

A growing population, wherever they are, will need places to live, and these added “rooftops” will have a ripple effect of requiring more services such as healthcare, education, commercial spaces, the redevelopment and re-purposing buildings as well as new infrastructural investment. This fact creates a strong market for architectural services.

Related to markets is the increased competition for and ultimate commoditization of our services. There is a proliferation of firms that increases this fact.

3) Technology

New technologies such as BIM will affect our profession in numerous ways. Already becoming widely adopted, this technology will continue to permeate our industry and will ultimately facilitate- even force- collaboration among industry partners. This means more upfront work on projects and can create a gap between those who can quickly adopt to this technology and those who cannot. There are also contractual issues as this technology presents opportunities as well as posing threats for firms to consider.

Social media is also a new technology that is quickly transforming our industry. Social media affects project acquisition, firm management and can blur the lines between work and non-work life.

4) Your Projects

Contractor-led design-build and contractor BIM usage leads to expanded roles for GCs. This can be a direct threat to design firms in that our services can be marginalized. This trend also presents opportunities for design firms in that we can assist in a more collaborative delivery process and include pre-construction services in our scope of work.

Integrated project deliver is an emerging project delivery system that can produce complexity and collaboration, sharing the risk and reward among owner, design team and contractor. This delivery system is facilitated by BIM and other technologies, driven largely by other non-design parties, but is also supported by the AIA. This delivery method also offers an extended range of non-design services blurring the lines of traditional roles and responsibilities.

5) Your People

Architecture firms will face a skills shortage in the near future. Population trends will mean smaller employment pools: 35% of AEC workforce is older than 50. The current economy has driven large swaths of professionals out of the AEC industries.

There are numerous contributing factors to the upcoming labor shortage

-long-lasting impact of the current recession

-ongoing recruiting, retention and reward challenges

-attracting architects vs. other professions

-Talent will migrate to more profitable firms and away from “pure” architectural firms

What can firms do? Develop a training and development program. Mentor employees’ career development. Be flexible with work arrangements and actively listen while really caring.

6) Your Leaders

“If a firm is short on money it can borrow, if a firm is short on work it can market, if a firm is short on leadership the challenges will be both quantity and quality” In an increasingly complex world, the next generation had better be better than you! Smarter, faster, and more entrepreneurial. Leadership succession hurdles become ownership transition hurdles. There are more sellers these days than future buyers. This will contribute to industry consolidation.

7) The Industry

Over a thirty-eight year period the construction industry has remained fairly constant. The total US construction industry has only grown .82% per year on average, while the total number of AEC firms has grown roughly 4.5% per year. Competition is increasing. This will lead to simultaneous consolidation and expansion.

“Architecture is a profession and architects are professionals, but architecture firms will have to succeed as businesses.”

8) Our Resources

-Sustainability. Increasing pressure to incorporate sustainable design into projects and adopt sustainable business practices. This comes from both inside and outside our profession.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is the most responsive to change.”- Charles Darwin

Thank you Ray for an insightful presentation!

Peter Yeadon- Manipulated Matter

2011-10-15T11:03:00.002-06:00

Decker Yeadon is a small firm with a dedicated focus on research. They look at things like Biomemetics (the imitation of behavior or phenomenon found in nature) as well as looking into smart materials (materials that react to external stimuli). For example, they have developed a spring system that responds to changes in temperature and can drive shading devises without any electrical charge. Similar to this concept is a “smart screen” project that responds to changes in temperature to help shade a building, again without electricity.

The firm also looks at Nano-technologies, which is basically working with materials at the scale of a single atom. A Graphene sheet is a material that is only 1 atom thick but very strong and can combine to create larger sheets while remaining extremely light. Nanotubes are yet another product that has produced extremely thin yet extremely strong materials. In fact, according to Peter, the carbon to carbon bond is the strongest found in nature and thus these materials may be the strongest ever developed.

There are basically four ways nanotechnology has started to enter the architectural realm.

1) Mimesis:

Mimesis is looking at nature and mimicking the micro structures found. A past PS1 installation was an example of transferring the structure of a semi-crystalline structure to a fully built environment. Sometimes the observations are directly copied, other times the observations are interpreted and translated into slightly modified forms.

2) By Application:

This is basically emulating the structure of nature in a building application. The super hydrophobic surface of an acacia leaf has been translated into a building façade system that sheds water. Self cleaning concrete is another example of an application of nano-technologies. This process can also improve existing materials, for example producing strong, thin and slightly transparent aluminum solutions.

3) By Experimentation

Decker Yeadon is very interested in building façade systems. The homeostatic façade system is a product that uses certain combinations of materials to change its own shape without a constant supply of power. Peter showed an application of this on a building façade that changes its opacity based on external environmental influences.

4) By Speculation

Started by John Johanson when he started looking at how carbon nano tube (CNT) technologies could create structures that are self constructing, react to the environment and create new definitions of space. Peter discussed how the critic is as integral to this process as those that are doing the dreaming. The speculation can provide the breeding ground for some amazing things. How about a ‘car’ that is small enough to park itself within your DNA and deliver medicines to very specific locations as they are needed?

For a presentation with virtually no buildings shown, I’m pleasantly surprised at the level of inspiration available in this field. Thank you, Peter, for broadening our collective outlook.

Craig Dykers- Snohetta: Works

2011-10-14T18:06:00.000-06:00

Craig Dykers is one of two Principals of the award winning firm Snohetta. He started his session with a few humorous images he had previously taken from Colorado. This sort of tongue in check approach and humor underlies a powerful design aesthetic.

Snohetta is named after a mountain range in Norway, a place where Valhalla was rumored to be.

Snohetta has two offices, one in Oslo and one in NYC. A site plan of both location illustrates their thoughts on how they work, on the fringes. ‘Where you work is how you work.” The office is internally unionized, all salaries are known. This produces a collaboration that evokes innovation in their project solutions. The physical layout of the offices are open, further creating this sense of collaboration.

Motion is important. The flow of information and the movement of workers. From analogue to digital and from the abstract to the concrete.

In the US clients like to be more involved that those in the EU. So Snohetta brings the show on the road. They have developed games that can help illustrate the process of the firm as well as to give ownership to the client team. Humor is evident in their approach to practice.

Predictability- Intuition

“People are not abstractions, buildings are.” Snohetta’s work attempts to bring the unique qualities of the human nature into their work, not the other way around. “A story draws on relationships in the landscape of place and projects these relationships onto the landscape of the mind.”

In 1989 the firm won its first commission, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt. Located in the ancient harbor of Alexandria, the project site lies adjacent to many works of antiquities and thus required a very special approach. The primary façade of the project is hand carved Egyptian stone that took over 8 years to complete. The seating area seats over 3,000 individuals but despite its immense size its design becomes an intimate retreat from the hectic life of the urban street life. “You can literally feel your blood pressure drop.” This project moves the location into a new era. The large plaza that is part of the project became a setting for peaceful demonstration in the recent uprisings that overthrew Hosni Mubarak. This project took over 13 years from the commission to the opening day.

The next project discussed was the new Oslo Opera House, another commission won through a design competition. The difficult site was part land and part water, required a new structural system to accommodate the new building. The programmatic layout respects this reality; the more heavy elements were placed above land, and the more open atriums were brought out over the water. This is not a structural monument, but a social monument. Extensive exterior spaces extend from the waters edge and up onto the roof, with public access to all spaces, again furthering the open philosophies of the firm itself.

The plaza is accessed across a small bridge, deliberately narrower than would typically be required for the amount of people expected. This was but another mechanism the firm employed to attempt to bring people together, they would bump one another as they walk and be forced to interact with their fellow citizens. The path from bridge to roof is a winding sequence that at first hides the surroundings, then reveals the city only to once again obscure the views and refocus users onto the structure itself. Upon reaching the apex of the building the city is once again displayed, offering a unique vantage point to downtown Oslo.

This is a stunning example of architecture, and one that can not be fully expressed in a single session, let alone a single blog post. I urge to dig deeper and discover the many magical moments of this project.

Humor is an integral part of the Snohetta culture, and was also an integral part of Craig’s presentation. He spoke about their collaboration with Think, a zero emission car produced in Norway and showed the very funny commercial that they help the company produce.

Lastly Craig talks about his experiences on 9/11 and discussed how he was on a flight that morning and the effect that this experience had on him personally. “It takes time for a place to heal.” Snohetta won the commission to design the memorial pavilion on the site of Ground Zero; the only building to sit on the memorial grounds itself. The memorial itself is largely below ground, and Snohetta’s design becomes the entrance, a very important element that faced deep scrutiny. Snohetta’s approach was to be a link between the past (the memorial itself) and the future (the surrounding skyscrapers currently under construction).

Snohetta is one of those firms that can impress with every project completion. The theories of the office translate into the theories of the projects and ultimately into fabric of the context itself.

Thank you, Craig, for sharing both your humor and your insight. What a great way to finish up the day’s activities!

Michael Heeney- The Transformative Power of Architcture

2011-10-14T16:39:00.001-06:00

Michael’s session began with a discussion of the urban context of the city of Vancouver. The city is surrounded by water on three sides and so it only has one direction to grow. This produced a real estate market that is quite expensive in the downtown area, and reduces as you move away from the city center. Transit projects have attempted to connect Vancouver with its expanding metropolis, through to the adjacent area of Surrey.

This expansion was intended to create a new city center for Surrey. Unfortunately there was an opposite effect, and in fact visitorship to this area went down. The problem? Surrey had not invested in itself, so why should others?

Surrey began looking at ways of reinvesting in their own locale. A University in the downtown area proved to be a viable solution and would certainly bring more activity, life, and of course revenues. BTA was asked to assist in bringing this project to fruition, and did so in the Central City Tower at Simon Fraser University.

When they began analyzing the situation, BTA determined that there were a number of disparate parts to the city that were not working together to improve the urban context. One project in particular was an old shopping center owned by an insurance company. BTA convinced the owners to commit to improving this area based on the adjacency of the future University.

How could the latent energy of this shopping center be utilized to bring a new life to the Surrey city center? BTA’s solution was to produce a podium and tower project that cleverly intertwines itself both into the urban fabric as well as the adjacent shopping center. Of course the shopping center could not be closed during the construction of the new project, and so BTA had to find a creative solution to the construction process. They decided to approach the connecting element as a bridge, one that could be constructed as the commerce continued below.

Of course budgets were tight so BTA had to find creative solutions to the project approach. Using materials that might otherwise not be considered, they were able to deliver a spectacular project that was so fondly viewed by the city that they changed their official seal to reflect the design.

Michael next discussed the Arena Stage project in Washington DC. BTA was approached to submit on the project, along with over 100 other firms. When BTA decided they did not like those odds, they kindly declined the project opportunity. The client did not accept no for an answer and so accommodated the schedule BTA required to submit. BTA was shortlisted and eventual won the project commission.

Design work began wit an analysis of the site, which the client quickly apologized for. The location was seemingly disconnected from the rest of the city, but upon further analysis BTA was able to determine that there was actually a wealth of opportunity within a very close proximity to the site. The challenge became reconnecting this area of the city to the rest. The location was an obvious choice for extensive renewal. BTA convinced the mayor’s office that the Arena Stage could be the catalyst for this redevelopment and a mechanism for reestablishing the urban fabric across the site and beyond.

BTA’s challenge became incorporating existing context (there were a few existing buildings that needed to be addressed) with the new structure. Their solution was to wrap a portion of the site in a glass façade, acoustically isolating the buildings, while maintaining a visual connection to the site’s history.

One element that was completely new construction was a new black box theater, dubbed The Cradle. A spiraling circulation core organized the theater around a procession that both creates its own experience while simultaneously preparing the user for the experience to come within the theater itself.

Of course a round theater is less than ideal from an acoustic standpoint. “But we really liked the look of this.” So BTA started looking at weaving the shell with a lattice work of wood that would help to improve the performance of the space. Through rigorous testing BTA was able to identify a solution that was both effective as well as beautiful.

Imported wood columns from Canada were use to produce the first heavy timber structure in DC.

Finished roughly a year ago, the project has proven to be a positive addition to the city as well as a successful venue for the performances within.

The last project discussed was again back in Surrey, BC. BTA was hired to do a new library, one that was being produced with grants; and one that had to be both designed and built within a 15 month timeframe. The BTA solution is a highly articulated, stunning example of a concrete formed building that challenged the craft of the contractors. Peri forms out of Germany was brought on to assist in designing formwork that worked with the high design of the project façade. Completed on time and budget the final products is a stunning example of innovation in design.

BTA used social media to bring the community into the design of the interior layout and the overlapping of spaces. “With typical public outreach efforts you tend to get the same cast of characters.” Social media allowed a much more democratic and open forum for the area residents to share their thoughts and desires. The result was a program that included spaces that could be used by local small businesses, teen areas, and other locale specific spaces that work together to deliver a useful program for the users.

Very impressive work, very impressive firm. Thank you , Michael, for sharing your projects with us!

Alan Ricks, MASS Design Group- Practicing Design Innovations for Global Health Outcomes.

2011-10-14T15:30:00.000-06:00

Practicing Design Innovations for Global Health Outcomes

Fresh off of a 40 travel from Rawanda, Alan Ricks shared with us the work done by his firm and the topic of affecting change at a variety of scales. The firm is young, only four years old. The story really starts with Dr. Paul Framer, co-founder of Partners in Health (PIH), an organization focused on lessening the health impact of poverty in underserved communities.

Exigent Vs. Systemic

Exigent= immediate needs (delivery of drugs for an example)

Systemic = larger cultural issues (much more broad and abstract. Education, healthcare, etc.)

PIH approaches social issues through a systemic lense. From political influence to social programs to individual building projects, PIH looks to improve the conditions of those who are often overlooked. It was the latter of these that brings MASS Design Group into focus.

Africa has only 35,000 architects (and 25,000 of these are in Egypt alone), while a much smaller country such as Italy has over 70,000. Alan’s partner, Michael Murphy attended a presentation by PIH, which inspired him to approach Dr. Framer and inquired which architects he worked with. “Architects? Why would I hire an architect? I drew our last hospital on a napkin.” This statement confounded Michael and set in place the creation of MASS Design Group.

The first project MASS worked on for PIH was the Butaro Hospital in Rwanda. Tuberculosis is a rampant, airborne disease in Rwanda, but is especially in the small Burera Distric, where PIH planned a new health center. MASS had no healthcare experience, but through shear determination and grit took on the project.

The process began through a process of Immersion. “This is the only way to find an appropriate understand of a local context”. MASS embedded themselves and lived on-site on and off for the past three years.

Airborne disease:

In 2005 there was an outbreak of extremely drug resistant tuberculosis in Tugela Ferry, South Africa. Of the 53 cases all died. The diseas is easily spread through a simple cough. 2/3 of the people had recently visited the same rural health clinit, where it is believed they were infected. In other words, going to the hospital killed thim

To MASS this was an obvious architectural problem.

Typical hospitals in this area are poorly designed, with double loaded corridors that carry air from the sick to those waiting for treatment. MASS suggested an outdoor waiting area, the climate is temperate, and the exposure to fresh air reduces the spread of airborne diseases.

The MASS designed hospital is an open campus. All exterior walkways, exterior waiting areas, and individual massings that house each separate ward. No interior corridors, all wards are on the second floor with access to natural ventilation; design solutions that all worked to reduce the spread of airborne diseases such as tuberculosis. The solution proved to be a success. The project goal was 10 air exchanges per hour, and BigAss Fans (sorry that is proprietary) mix the air in such a way that the TB particulates are fully deactivated.

“Health is a human right.” All of these care facilities are free to the local population.

But this project is not only about health concerns, but goes further and takes into the account of dignifying the patient. If you were sick would you want to look at other sick people? No way! MASS flipped the typical layout of a ward, and instead of beds lining the exterior walls, the Butaro Hospital places the beds in the center of the room and face outwards towards an amazing view. The inclusion of koi ponds further improved the experience of the user.

Leveraging the construction process.

“How can the project reach further into the community and affect change?” MASS suggested utilizing the local population in the excavation, construction, and management of the project. It added a bit more time, and certainly more management, but through this inclusion of local labor the project not only employed local citizens (over 3,500 jobs were created). Beyond the immediate benefits, the real goal is to create a local investment in the project that will last long after MASS and PIH leave the area.

Local materials.

Working closely with contractors and craftsmen, MASS worked to redefine the quality of masonry and bring jobs and skill to the community. The laborers gained project experience and are now highly sought after, even outside of Rwanda. In fact their skills improved so much over time that they eventually wanted to knocked down their first wall and rebuild it with their higher level of craft.

From Exigent to Systemic.

The task MASS faces now is how to scale the success of the Butaro Hospital project into a much larger context. They did not want this to be a one-off experience, so they now work with the local university to establish an architecture school that can take the lessons learned and spread them into more and more projects across

Rwanda

Alan also spoke of Systemic Intervention and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare Infrastructure Policy in Liberia. This is a master planning project that works to analyze the infrastructural conditions of the city. Unfortunately this blog is already running a bit long, but be sure to visit their website for further information.

Thank you, Alan, for an uplifting presentation on the social power of the architectural profession.

Les Shepherd, AIA- Chief Architect US GSA

2011-10-14T15:26:00.002-06:00

New directions and challenges in federal architecture.

Les started his session today by sharing a short video of ouver 120 GSA projects representing roughly 12 Billion dollars.

I made every honest attempt to compile a list, but following a video showing 120 projects in under 16 minutes is difficult so unfortunately we’ll have to call this the abbreviated list.

Year in Review

North East:

US land port of entry

Margaret P Chase Federal Building

IRS Center

Donald J Pesse Federal Building

Great Lakes:

US Courthouse

AJ Celebrese Federal Building

Sculpture conservation

Everett M. Dirckson Federal Courthouse

Flamingo conservation sculpture

State street projects

Quincy courthouse

US land port of entry

Western US:

US Courthouse

US land port of entry

Mariposa land port of entry

50 United Nations plaza Federal Building

300 north LA Federal Building

US courthouse, Bakersfield

South West:

US courthouse, Austin

Mickey Leland Federal Building

US courthouse, Mesa, AZ

Sky: US courthouse

US courthouse, Las Cruces, NM

Mid-Atlantic:

Richard H. Poff Federal Building

J. Caleb Broggs Federal Building

Rocky Mountain region:

US courthouse, Billings, MT

Cesar Chaves Federal Building, Denver

Federal Building, Denver

Wayne Aspinal Federal Building

US land port of entry

US courthouse, Salt Lake City

Drug Enforcement Building

South East:

US courthouse, Jackson MS

Dr. AH Maxy Federal Building

Federal Building, Miramar, FL

MLK JR Federal Building

George C. Young Federal Building

Elbert P. Tuttle US Court of Appeals

Robert Vance Federal Building

North West region:

Federal Center, Seattle

Edith Green Federal Building

River Legend sculpture

US land port of entry

Non-sign II installation

North East and Caribbean

Peter W. Robino Federal Building

US mission to the UN

US land port of entry

Jacob K Kantz Federal Building

US courthouse, Buffalo, NY

Federal Building, Puerto Rico

Parking garage, Puerto Rico

Child care center, PR

Heartland region:

Richard Bolling Federal Building

US courthouse Cedar Rapids, IA

US courthouse Jefferson City, MO

National Capital region:

US GSA headquarters

Mural conservation

Armed forces retirement home

Redburg installation

American Varietal installation.

The Shapes Project

St. Elizabeth’s campus

US Coast Guard headquarters

Federal Office building 8

Christof Janzen, AIA, LEED AP- Re-use

2011-10-14T11:50:00.000-06:00

Christof Janzen, AIA, is a partner at Behnisch Architekten, the award winning firm with US offices in LA and Boston. He began his talk by discussing the democratic ethos of the firm. The work is innovative yet collaborative. They produce their own publications of their work, and together work to forward the solutions provided by the firm. “Most of all we are interested in creating environments for people that answer very specific issues.”

The Genzyme center in Hamburg, Germany is an example of how their work integrates sustainability for both building systems and user experience.

“The old is the new” Reuse, modernization, restoration are the basis of many of their current projects. They are currently working on the reuse of a 1960s technical training center. This project requires a careful interjection, the client did not want any exterior modifications, but instead an interior and systems upgrade.

On another scale is a plaza in Stuttgart, Germany that required a rethinking of an existing roadway into a new pedestrian mall. This project involved a thorough rethinking of infrastructure, street elements, transit stops and other urban design elements.

A spa project in the Saxony region was a study on historic intervention. A traditional Beau Arts building required a scheme that would respect the historic nature of the complex while installing new life to the area. An interior courtyard consisted of a storage yard for industrial process. The project solution brought new structures to this courtyard, and new pool hall and ultimately a new experience for this historic site. “We were very interested in the dialogue between these older materials and a new modern aesthetic.”

In Toronto a research laboratory provided the firm with the opportunity to rethink a cramped and narrow site. An idea emerged to connect the interstitial spaces that existed and create a structure that bridged these disparate elements. This new structure brought a new image to the existing campus and had a high quality impact to the overall composition. Existing exterior walls became new interior walls; previously dead spaces became new atriums filled with vibrancy and life.

A few years ago the firm was invited to participate in a design competition for a new National Soccer Stadium for the capital city of UAE, Abu Dhabi. Extreme temperatures, degrading environmental conditions and cultural mores all came together to inform the design approach. Clues were gathered for solutions, theories tested, and ultimately innovation emerged. The large master planned campus contains numerous programmatic elements, including an existing iconic stadium from the 1970s (the building is even featured on the local currency). Respect was due. “If we were to alter the building, how would we do that?” Through extensive analysis of circulation, structure and program the firm produced a culturally relevant solution that is solidly based in the current realities of Abu Dhabi.

Rediscovering a Jewel. Another project for the firm was the reconstitution of a power station from the 1950s in Toronto. With over 700,000sf on the floor plate, the existing building was both massive as well as dirty. “We started to look at the opportunities this project could bring to the city.” The industrial roots of the building played a major role, and an important contextual element to the area. The embodied energy in the existing project was equivalent to 30,000 home annual energy use. A new use was required for this building. Educational, sports, and other programs were explored but ultimately a hybrid function of both uses emerged. A process of investigating the existing structure led to ideas of how these elements might influence future programmatic layout. It became quickly aware that insulating the entire envelope would prove unfeasible. So instead the created interior elements of unconditioned atriums, conditioned “blocks”, and carefully planned circulation routes.

A police station in the south of Chicago, built in the late 1980s, proved to be a challenging re-use project for the firm. The existing structure was not adequate for any current environmental solution, and so extensive thought was required in order to identify an appropriate solution. Single layer glass, uninsulated exterior assemblies, and other dated solutions had to be addressed. An extensive analysis of the building, looking at programmatic needs of the police station along with environmental concerns of the existing structure, pointed to a dire need to improve the existing envelope. The basic bones of the building were good, but it needed a full revamping of its mechanical systems, a partial reuse of programmatic elements and new identity for the project. The firm utilized an interior courtyard to begin a dialogue with existing conditions and new intervention. A comprehensive upgrading of the existing shell completed this complicated but rewarding project.

The lessons learned in the police station project informed another project, a high-rise court house. Here they employed a double skin façade system which dramatically improved the energy performance of the building and the experience of the user.

Great work, rigorous investigation and stellar solutions. Thank you, Christof, for sharing with us today!

Carol Ross Barney, FAIA- Aesthetics and Sustainability

2011-10-14T10:28:00.001-06:00

“I want to talk about green.” Carol Ross Barney begins her session talking about how the sustainable movement has thoroughly permeated our current social consciousness. ‘Sustainism is the new modernism.” Sustainability now has its own ‘ism’. Carol spoke of the dangers of green washing within architecture.

Carol is a modernist; she believes buildings can be beautiful. Carol has had clients ask her to produce work that looks ‘green’. “Well if we paint it green it will be green.” Carol has a certain humor about her which is quite pleasant to share.

Tikkun Olam is a saying which Carol encountered on a project for a Jewish Congregation. It means repairing the world. Prior to beginning design Carol felt she needed to fully understand this statement. She translated this understanding into a stunning solution for the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, Illinois. Built on a small site the program required over 30,000sf, but by combining programmatic elements and incorporating “space you didn’t have to build” she found the ‘greenest solution of all’. Multi-function, rethinking traditional programmatic layouts, and carefully considered processions through the building produced a solution that both fulfilled the program and reduced construction material. Eventually the project won a COTE top ten award and received a LEED Platinum rating.

Material solutions are important to Carol’s work, but she is not a slave to any one idea. When her suggestion to use onsite rubble to fill gabion walls was met with “all that rubble makes us think of the holocaust” Carol did not hesitate to rethink her approach. “Obviously that statement is a non-starter for a Jewish community.” She rethought material use, construction waste, and aesthetic meanings.

“We work hard to find a solution that is holistic.” To Carol all things must be considered together. Sustainability goes beyond material sensibility in her work and includes more complex strategies such as displacement ventilation, integrated acoustics, and day lighting. For Carol’s work integrated design solutions offer sustainable solutions, economic sensibility, and aesthetic rigor.

Next she spoke of a building built on the university of Minnesota. The sloping campus has views of Lake Michigan and is a complex composition of various buildings and architectural styles. The program was a new home for the Civil engineering department. Duluth is the capitol of the iron range, and Carol wanted to fully speak to that context, that history. Clad extensively with core ten panels, the aesthetic seems appropriate but as with all of Carol’s work, it goes far beyond that. The building also combines a hydrology studies program and this multi-function is also expressed in the building through the use of monumental scuppers that control rainwater runoff and become a notable aesthetic solution for the project. “Sometimes when looking for efficient solutions you can find beauty.”

The last project she shared was a current project that is under construction. Located on the Ohio State University campus, the program is a ten story building that is highly visible to the surrounding context. Her first step was to extensively research the site to gain an intimate understanding of the area, of the context. The project solution is a highly innovative aesthetic, a building that embraces the context while simultaneously challenging the traditional thoughts of style, material, and program. This project is really a story about the skin. Numerous investigations produced various schemes that bring a new thought process to the campus. Given the low budget ($76/sf!) the most effective solution proved to be concrete with a highly articulated series of voids; balancing opacity, transparency and view. The solution both expressed the use of the building (a chiller plant) and pushes the aesthetic into a new realm.

Carol’s session was full of innovation, enthusiasm and wisdom. Thank you, Carol, for sharing your work and thoughts with us!

David Salmela: Architect

2011-10-14T09:17:00.000-06:00

Complexities. “Architecture is an extremely complex profession”. In fact David Salmela, FAIA, began his session by comparing architecture to rock climbing. “Every new hold is different, you never know what is next.”

He also claims that in his career he probably did everything wrong. Raised on a farm, the remoteness of his formative years proved to be a major influence on his future outlook. “You could always tell when the grain was not cut right.” But he was also interested in art. He loved to draw, but never thought he was any good. “I thought FLW was untouchable until I saw Corbu.”

David’s firm started small; in fact it was only him. They are still small; two project architects, his daughter and wife. But they like to think big. He was fortunate early in his career to have some international exposure for his work.

Today he doesn’t chase projects. Clients typically come to him from knowledge of his past work. There is a continual education process for both the architect and the client. David listens to his clients, and truly tries to understand them prior to working. His clients are typically working class, self made individuals. David feels he is as much energized by his clients as they are by him.

“I don’t work early in models. I’ll fall in love with the model. I’ll protect the model and sacrifice the program. Models are a check; we make them and move on.” David’s artistic outlook is fully evident when he speaks of the craft of his work. “Models should be better than the sketch, drawings better than the model, and the building better than the drawings.” David spoke of the importance of the contractor in fulfilling this progression.

David has always worked within smaller firms, and he talked about the need to think bigger than your size. ‘We had three people, and we like to say we had three teams. Ok so each team had one person, but we liked to think big.”

The first project he discussed was his personal residence and office. He talked about the history of the site with the same passion that he spoke about his design. The project was part of a cluster of buildings that injected a new urban design scheme into the hilly location in Minnesota. A clean study in appropriate placement, the project combines natural materials form the site cleverly mixed with a much more contemporary palette of composite siding panels, ribbon windows, and a wood slat that wraps both inside and outside. Clean lines, open spaces, and ample daylight reveal his modernist roots, while the entire composition is appropriate to its context.

David expected this project to ruffle some feathers in the small town. But the concept was so sound that there really was no alternative. A neighbor, who happened to be an English professor, sent David a poem that talked about men who were of their place. This project was of its place. “This was one of the greatest compliments of my career.” This was a profound realization for David, this was what he was aiming for, but could never put into words. Design within context. Not creating a style that you think will fit, but instead finding those things that are specific to a place, specific to a context.

Next he discussed a project for a photographer. Set in a stunning setting David attempted to capture the essence of the regional farmhouse found in northern Michigan. Altough it is composed of geometries that are at first a bit alien, but as David stated “It was of its place”.

He continued to discuss other projects that worked to express this understanding of place, this understanding of context. Jackson meadow was a complex of buildings deeply rooted in the Finish tradition of the area. Further projects touched on the mystery of place. A custom house for a father and son in which the low lying geometries of the building are punctuated by two heroic volumes talks about the context of his client. “The heroics of the father to have successfully raised his son all on his own became a powerful metaphor for the project.” A manufacturing plant for Loll furniture spoke to the vision of the company, who has a global outlook for their products. A house for a client, based on a poem that the client’s mother read to her as a child, expresses the connection between client and site. A job site trailer that was so clean it garnered confidence in his client that the end product would be stellar speaks to the context of the job site, the often shocking reality of construction.

David has had clients who purchase a truckload of windows and then asked him to design around them. He has had clients carve their own columns and ask that they be incorporated into the design. Clients with over 50 cars, clients with traditional buildings and tough existing conditions. David views all of this input as elements to the context of the place. His buildings had to respond to that context and for each client he employed a creative power that produced architectural expressions purely of their place.

Thank you, David, for your insight and your amazing body of work.

Douglas Parker, AIA- Understanding trends to thrive in an uncertain future.

2011-10-13T18:22:00.002-06:00

“Practicing architecture today is like riding in whitewater.” Doug Parker, AIA, understands the challenges that we as architect face in our day to day existence. “But even in whitewater, you don’t have to drown.”

Doug’s firm, the Greenway Group, utilizes what they call “Strategic Foresight” to test not only past and current conditions, but more importantly to plan for future conditions. We need to learn to plan like revolutionaries, not victims.

Ok, so how do you go about understanding your own context?

Doug talked about his firm’s Trends Analysis Program, or TAP. They look at media publications and other resources to try and determine what is next. This can start to identify trends and opportunities for your firm. For instance, did you know that by 2020 over 20 cities will be home to over 20 million people each!? How about the fact that only 4 of those cities will be in developed countries?

Generational gaps, global and national uncertainty is affecting decision making. Things are going to be this way for a while, so we have to understand and embrace this reality.

There is 1.9 Trillion dollars of corporate cash currently frozen at US companies. The cash is out there, but the current reality is changing how that money is even considered for use. This means perhaps less speculation, but perhaps more renovations work? These companies still have to house employees and their existing facilities will still succumb to father time. Sounds like a market opportunity, no?

What about alternative sources of funding? Ever heard of a public/private partnership? As architects we need to be better informed on these new mechanisms. Let’s all better educate ourselves on the financing of our projects and take that knowledge to our clients and project opportunities.

Fee wars aren’t pretty, but their not going to go away on their own. Stop the suicide fees people! Instead let’s do a better job at articulating our design processes, lets better communicate our collective value proposition as a profession. After all, a rising tide will raise all boats.

What about Lean Design concepts? Not only Lean Design, but also Lean Construction and all the way up to Lean Ownership. This trend is real, valuable and going to be a powerful influence on our profession. Again, let’s do some research and get educated.

There is a global war for talent coming soon…let’s be sure we’re poised to win.

As Doug suggested “Stop managing and start leading”. Good advice for us all I think.

Session 6A: Sue Zen: "Grow: Using What You've Got or Gearing Up"

2011-10-13T16:44:00.000-06:00

Human resources and organizational management expert Sue Zen of SueZen Enterprises presented on current trends in relation to "the E's": economy, evolution and employment.

Particularly interesting was her focus on "The Generational Dilemma":

The Greatest Generation: Depression Children, WWII vets, tradition is good
Boomers: live to work ethic, largest population, hangin' around
Gen-X: life balance, smallest population, change is okay
Millenials/Gen-Y: techno-geeks, growing population, "dude! chill...we're equals"

We're all in the workforce right now. How do we work together?

A look at staffing in today's workplace:

Employee: payroll (w-2), benefits eligible
Independent Contractor: 1099, works independently, cannot be supervised
Job Sharing: 2-for-1 (two part-time employees who share responsibilities), win-win
Employer Collaboration: shared employees (employees who work with several companies who have a relationship), mobile workplace
Functional Outsourcing: PEO (payroll employment organization), leased employees, temporary agencies

Notable quotes:
"A 'thank you' goes a long way. Recognition matters." - Sue Zen
"You're doing well if you can keep someone five years. That's 'long-term.'"- Sue Zen
"People who are closely aligned with corporate mission and values will exhibit positive behaviors..." - DeGarmo Group, Staffing for Work Value Alignment (2011)
"Can we please give up the idea that one must be promoted into management to make more money or be more influential?"!

Sue urges companies to use what they're got and "reboot the system" - balance work effort required and talent available. "Throw away current job descriptions" and "identify core/supporting functions." Examine 'qualifications' and realign tasks. Then, consider skills and knowledge, passion and desires.

Sean O'Hara with EV Studio- Growing a firm in interesting times.

2011-10-13T16:15:00.003-06:00

You may or may not be familiar with EV Studio, but if Sean O’Hara and his team have their way, you soon will. Google search “fire rated assemblies” or “residential stairs” and you will most likely be lead to one of EV Studio’s many informative blog posts. But it’s not just the online presence that is working for them (can you believe they get over 15,000 page views each week!?), they have a diverse business model that allows them to tap into numerous markets.

The recent economy has actually been an integral part of the formative years for EV Studio. They grew from just a few employees to over twenty, and yes all in the same economy we all find so difficult.

So how did they do it?

Well they looked for new ways of doing things. “Work smarter, not harder” is one of Sean’s personal mantras. Started as a partnership, after only a single year in business they started to hire employees and seeing positive growth. They used social media to get the message out, but provided solid services and quality deliverables to keep their message meaningful.

EV Studio is a bootstrap firm. Fully self financed they don’t have any sort of hidden funds to work off of. They have to make money every month to stay open… sound familiar? They maintain multiple offices, but also stay highly coordinated through technology. Clients can visit them at their location at their convenience, and this flexibility has proven valuable as well as sustainable.

“Your Architect for Life”sm, yep that’s a service mark. EV Studio coined this term as a way to communicate the idea that once a client is serviced by the firm, they will work to maintain that relationship for life. This allows them to maintain a client log even if those same clients work in multiple markets.

Sean also talked about empowering employees. They have picked up a number of folks who were laid off, underutilized, or otherwise not fully satisfied in their position. He encourages his staff to be fully involved in all aspects of the firm, from marketing to client relations. Can you believe that nearly half of the EV Studio staff has sold a project for the firm of some size at some point? Now there’s a novel idea don’t you think!?

EVstudio.info is the firm’s online magazine, outlining everything from firm culture to cost analysis approaches. Their blog is so well received that it has been featured on national blogging reports; in fact one of their posts has received over 100,000 views! This is certainly not where the majority of their work comes from, but talk about branding.

Another source of success for EV Studio is the fact that they are Multi-discipline firm with both architecture and engineering done in house. They currently offer architecture, structural engineering, civil engineering, interior design, landscape design, and mechanical engineering. Sounds difficult to maintain? Sean talked about how this setup actually increases the coordination of their work and lowers the soft costs for his clients.

So with all this info, what is the key to their success? Simple: they are open minded regarding their opportunities. Maybe this is a concept we can all take back to our individual firms.

Congrats EV Studio, keep up the good work!

Session 5B: Adam Van Daele: "Business Development and Marketing Strategy"

2011-10-13T15:17:00.000-06:00

Adam Van Daele, founder of The CKG Group, started by saying (and stressing!) that when you are creating a marketing strategy/business development plan, be realistic, keep it simple and make sure you can implement/execute it.

During the presentation, Adam noted strategies and tactics to implement an effective business development and marketing structure. These strategies and tactics work to increase market share, customer share and win projects.

Adam reiterated the importance of branding. Consistency is key - the message shouldn't change when it comes from different people from the same organization.

Ineffective websites, according to Adam, are websites that do not consider stakeholder use, host out-dated information and do not relate to your branding message. The CKG Group's website is quite concise and clear. It is comprised of two pages! One bulleted home page and one contact page.

Quality time is important. It is critical to spend quality time with/on key clients. Customer relationship management (CRM) is important. Customization is also crucial when working with clients. Find out, and address, what is important to them.

"Less is more," Adam explained. Narrow your scope on associations and organizations, and then get involved. If you join a committee, do work, especially work that is tied to the association's or organization's mission and/or strategic plan.

Consider your network when looking for new clients. Develop strong business relationships and then leverage those to find more like-minded clients. Be deliberate. Hold real meetings; don't just "network" at sporting events and meals.

Initial.AEC- The Forecast for Cloud Computing in the Design Profession

2011-10-13T15:14:00.000-06:00

What is this Cloud everyone is talking about? In most basic of terms it is data stored on a remote server, accessed over the internet. Maybe it is a bit like a utility…you pay as you go for what you need. Easily expandable, the cloud is the future of communication.

Ever uploaded your favorite picture of your dog to Facebook or Flicker? Well then you’ve used the cloud. And you didn’t know just how advanced you were did you?!

Gmail, hotmail, YouTube, Spotify, Dropbox, they’re all cloud computing platforms.

How do we utilize for the design industry?

SaaS stands for software as a service and is a way of utilizing software over the internet. Often this includes certain subscription costs. Examples include Office 365 (SharePoint), Google apps, Autodesk Cloud, and AIA Contract docs (well at least the upcoming release will be). Working this way you can leverage the computing power of the entire data center. Need 128GB of RAM for that rendering? No problem, use the cloud!

Pros:

-low maintenance

-no incompatibilities

-central file storage

-lower upfront costs

Cons:

-requires internet connection

-data storage in a datacenter (sensitivity issues)

-Limited customization.

A Private Cloud is defined as an internal, or corporate, cloud. It is hosted internally, but you can access from within the office or from outside. This cloud setup further breaks down into a Workstation Cloud and a Virtual Workstation Cloud. The difference depend on how you setup the connections and the specific needs of your firm.

Pros:

-lower maintenance

-reallocate resources

-shared workstations

-lower IT costs

-less energy

-BIM model can remain local

Cons:

-relies on single server

-concurrent connections

-purchase and maintain hardware

Last is a Hosted Cloud setup. This is the cutting edge of cloud computing. If you’re going to cloud anything, why not cloud everything? All your data, all your software, all on the cloud. Too much power? Scale down. Not enough power? Scale up. A hosted cloud is one in which the data is stored at a large data center with computing power beyond anything you will want pay for. Leverage the power of these large hosting companies and see how you can fly.

Need further info? Stop by the Initial.AEC booth and I’m sure Jarod, Scott, or Greg would love to chat.

Joel Sanders- Innovative Interdisciplinary Projects

2011-10-13T14:15:00.002-06:00

Joel Sanders does not run a typical architectural firm. Yes it is a small firm practicing architecture, but at his core he claims he is an academic. He teaches at Yale University and has also taught at other esteemed universities. He also claims that he only had 3 years of actual practice in an office prior to opening Joel Sanders Architects.

So why did he open up his own firm in onve of the most difficult economic times in one of the most competitive markets? Joel shared with us man reasons but among them was his desire to make a meaningful impact on the profession through a body of built work.

He started off with limited and low paying commissions, but he viewed these small projects as opportunities to develop and spread his ideas about design and habitation. Around this time he also penned the book “STUD- architecture of mansulinity”. Both his initial projects and this book worked to express his thoughts on the meaning behind architectural spaces.

From small loft conversions in NYC to larger free-standing homes along the Hudson valley had has since evolved into very large commissions in as far away locations as South Korea. JSA continues to produce stunning work based on those initial academic lessons.

But how did he evolve into larger, even international projects? Joel credits that success to establishing strategic, interdisciplinary partnerships. He has both approach other firms to partner with and has also been approach by other. I don’t know, might this approach work for your firm?

Mingle- Practice what you Preach- Team UP

Dennis Richard: Marketing plans- not just another "dusty, three-ring binder on a shelf"

2011-10-13T12:28:00.002-06:00

So why should I even bother with a marketing plan? In simple terms you need to know where you are going, track your progress and most importantly to keep yourself focused. Dennis shared with us the differences between a “full-blown” marketing plan and a simpler “I don’t have time for that” plan. Either way you go, be sure to stay true to the SMART plan:

-Simple- doesn’t have to be complex

-Measurable- ability to track progress

-Attainable goals- I’d like to be taller

-Review it- stay focused

-Timeframe- on a regular basis

So what’s in a marketing plan?

First, show who you are. What kind of firm are you? Who is your best client? What’s a good lead? Why do people purchase your services? What is your USP (unique selling proposition)? Most important at this step is BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF!

Next, talk about your situation. This includes your own situational analysis, a client analysis and a competition analysis. Also need to look at the general business environment, especially in today’s economy.

Third, focus on where you find clients. Who are your clients? Where do they come from? Look at your past client reviews. Are there partner organizations (SMPS, ULI, NAIOP, etc.) that you might tap as a client source? You may need to do a much more intense analysis of certain market segments/sectors for this part. Don’t limit yourself to who your current client are, dream big, who do you want your next client to be?

Next you need to ask yourself “how do we get there?” You need strategic planning (set yourself up as an expert in your chosen area using goals, strategies and tactics). Be realistic about your budget and provide regular reviews. If you are really serious you may also include things like resource allocation, evaluation and accountability.

Strategic planning becomes very important at this point. Start with broad stroke goals then outline more specific strategies and finish up with very specific tactics that can be allocated, implemented, tracked and reviewed. Hint: database tracking system options- ACT!, FileMaker Pro.

Goals:

-clearly defined

-measureable

-financial goals

-Lead generation goals

-reputational objectives

Strategies:

-mix it up

-must balance current client initiatives (client loyalty and retention) with new client development

-Be both proactive and reactive

And finally a few thoughts on best practices:

-Align marketing and sales efforts.

-Know exactly who you want to work for.

-Become selective about who and what you pursue (Go/No Go process).

-Understand your clients business and needs.

-Understand the value you offer.

-Review your strategies and efforts monthly.

-Plan is championed by several key people.

“To do great important tasks, two things are necessary: a plan and not quite enough time.” -unknown

Session 3B: Allen Preger: Getting the Most out of PIM/Newforma

2011-10-13T12:21:00.003-06:00

Newforma Cofounder and Chief Product officer Allen Preger started his presentation by addressing the question, "What is PIM?" It is Project Information Management. Newforma Project Center is a software that assists in PIM.

Newforma files all information, including emails, meeting minutes, project files, record documents and project images, with specific projects so everything is located in one place. It integrates with MS Outlook and Apple Mail programs. It also provides the ability to search, mark up documents and transfer files. Newforma also provides the ability to add permissions to files and folders.

Add-ons allow for customization so you can create the best tool for your firm.The latest release includes an add-on module for Autodesk Revit.

The software works with Microsoft, Apple and Android operating systems, and on tablets, smart phones, laptops and desktops creating a standardized tool for PIM.

Dena Wyatt- It’s a Marketing Evolution!

2011-10-13T11:22:00.000-06:00

HOW CAN WE WIN MORE WORK!? This is a question firms are asking themselves more and more these days. Dena Wyatt of Marketing Evolutions, LLC has just given a great session on Requests For Proposals, and what clients are really looking for.

So what is the role of an RFP?

-Helps in selection process

-Determines who can do the job the best for the best price

RFPs are not:

-An intro to your firm

-Your only sales tool

-Boiler plate

-ALL ABOUT YOU!

Does your firm have a Go/No Go process? Here are a few suggestions:

-Evaluate the opportunity:

-Is there a relationship there?

-How many firms are submitting?

-Do we have the staff/experience?

-Is the project funded?

-Next evaluate your competition:

-Is there an incumbent?

-Is it wired?

-SWOT analysis

-What is their project history?

Tip #1- It’s OK to say no!

So what do clients like?

-Make it easy to read (min 10-11pt font)

-Keep it simple

-Be specific to the project

-Easy to follow and find information

-Follow the RFP format!

-Be sustainable (able to recycle?)

And they don’t like:

-Small font, hard to read

-Having to hunt for information

-Not answering questions in the RFP

-All text. Use graphics (this is a creative profession, right?)

Tip #2- Yes- your cover letter matters!

Clients spend the most time on:

-Team/resumes

-Project experience

-Project approach

Tip #3- Understand your client!

-Get to know the potential client

-What are their needs?

-Look at their past project experiences (both positive and negative)

-Develop the relationship

-Become an advisor in the process

-Add Value and solve their problems!

All clients have specific needs, but they also have certain fundamental needs:

-Save them time

-Save them money

-Save them headaches

-Reduce their risks

-Make them look good!

Tip #4- Proposals need to sell not tell!

-Show your value and understanding of the project and client

-Show that value throughout!

With these tips (and more) I hope your next proposal is a great success! Oh and if you can, hand delivery is best.

One last tip- after you make a statement, ask yourself “so what?”

Session 2B: "Lifting the Curtain on Government Contracting" with Victoria David, AIA, LEED GA

2011-10-13T11:15:00.002-06:00

Victoria David, AIA, LEED GA, of Iron Horse Architects, replaced Virginia McAllister, RA, LEED AP, to talk about their firm's successes in winning government contracts.

Getting Started:
Which government agencies buy my products and services?
How do I get in touch with them?
How do I market them?

Victoria made a great point - people are going to go to your website first. Make sure it is clear and concise, easy to navigate, up-to-date and includes all relevant information. People want to know what you do, who you are, what types of projects you work on, certifications, etc. Be specific!

The "prepared" firm working in the federal marketplace understands:

core competencies
marketing and relationship building
open market procurement (FedBizOpps.gov)
prime contracting
subcontracting

The "model" firm working in the municipal marketplace understands:

core competencies
marketing and relationship building
local procurement strategy
local certifications
subcontracting

The "model" firm that is equipped to do business with the government:

has good marketing materials
has a niche (what's yours?)
has resources (people, equipment, etc.)
is web savvy
is registered in government pre-existing databases (CCR/Pro-Net, FedBizOpps)

Be Prepared!

Make sure your financials are in line
Comply with DCAA accounting requirements
Know your overhead rates
Comply with FAR regulations

Other Tips:

be specific in your proposal
put language from the solicitation in the proposal
meet with the bureau Small Business Specialists (SBS)
be a value added partner
go after work you can do - make sure you can do the work
read the scope of work (SOW)
be patient and be persistant

Your tweets hurt my facebook when I'm linkedin! Natalie Henley and SEO

2011-10-13T09:56:00.000-06:00

Wow what great insight into SEO! Yep, it’s all about SEO folks. What’s that, well SEO stand for Search Engine Optimization, and it’s how you tailor your online presence to rank highest on search engines. Natalie’s firm helps companies find keyword to include in their online content that sites like Google use to rank search result. You want to be at the top, right?

Google can help you find specific keyword phrases (remember phrases are important as most people don’t visit a site until they have used at least three keywords in their search). Using the Google keywords tool you can quickly test out keyword combinations and see how relevant they are. Watch the little green bar and remember that more green= more competition. Find phrases that are “half green or less”. Then see how many searches include that phrase per month. Numerous keyword phrases have low green and high search…use them all!

Tips and tricks:

-Include keywords in titles, content and references.

-Update these regularly thru publishing new content (blog posts, facebook content, etc.).

-More people search using YouTube than yahoo- post videos of your firm or service messages.

-Not enough time for social media? Check out hootsuite.

-Google places can optimize your value as a local firm.

-Going international? Know your market, it’s not as simple as translating your website.

And finally remember the golden rule of social media: you must have a personality!

On to the next session!

Practice Conference Session 1B: Guy LeVan: "Liability = DB+IPD+BIM?"

2011-10-13T09:51:00.000-06:00

Guy LeVan, VP, XLDP, began his presentation with an overview, including the drivers behind DB, IPD and BIM, as well as the practice management implications for architecture firms. (For the uninitiated, DB = design-build, IPD = integrated project delivery, and BIM = building information modeling.)

Guy shared HOK CEO Patrick MacLeamy's "The Future of the Building Industry: The Effort Curve." Watch the video here:
There are several more videos in MacLeamy's series available on YouTube.

Suggested link: leanconstruction.org

IPD Fundamental Principles

mutual respect and trustmutual
benefit and reward
collaborative innovative decision making
early involvement of key participants
early goal definition
intensified planning
open communication
appropriate technology
organization and leadership
risk reward
single contract*

*single contracts are not currently legal in Texas
TSA/BIM/IPD Task Force 2011 presentation

Top Four Non-Technical Drivers

Negotiation and Contracts
Client Selection
Project Team Capabilities
Communication

IPD Barriers

significantly different process
difficulty accepting new roles
turf war between A/E, GC and subs
control of owner relationship
sharing BIM model
reluctance/inability to invest in technology

Legal Implications

privity and third party reliance
economic loss rule
standard of care (compared to software limited warranty)
"responsible charge"
merged intellectual property
designer drawn into owner/contractor disputes

"This is a brave new world," Guy LeVan noted.

Craig Dykers of Snøhetta

2011-10-11T11:08:00.001-06:00

Today’s interview was a special treat for me personally. I have been following the award winning firm Snøhetta for some time, and have slowly been transformed into a fan due to such innovative project solutions as the National Opera House in Oslo and more recently their National September 11th Memorial Museum Pavilion. Today’s interview is with Mr. Craig Dykers, Senior Partner, Director and Architect with Snøhetta, and the lead designer for the 9/11 pavilion.

Snøhetta is an international architecture and landscape architecture practice originally founded in Oslo, Norway in 1989. Since its founding Snøhetta has garnered much acclaim for their innovative designs, and now operate from offices in Oslo and New York.

Mr. Dykers’ upcoming session is entitled “Snøhetta: Works” (Friday 10/14, 5-6pm). His session brief tells us “Snøhetta has designed a wide range of cultural projects around the world, from the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt to the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo, Norway and the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion in New York City. These designs are characterized by their intimacy and the way in which they invite the public to interact with and even appropriate them. Often developed to be agents of change, many of Snøhetta’s cultural projects have created platforms for significant positive change in the societies around them. The talk will acknowledge the fact that cultural projects in the public realm are not merely defined by their program or facade, instead they remain defined by the people who use them. Current Snøhetta projects in the U.S. include the expansion of the SFMOMA and the redesign of Times Square in New York City.”

This is the last interview scheduled for this year’s conference, and we want to thank you for tuning in, we hope that these have worked to pique your interest in PDC 2011. Online registration is now closed, but you can still register onsite.

Next up: live blogging from the conference sessions! Stay tuned!

Carol Ross Barney, FAIA

2011-10-04T09:57:00.000-06:00

For today’s interview we are lucky to have Ms. Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, founder and principal of Ross Barney Architects, located in Chicago. R_Barc is a firm whose work has garnered wide acclaim, including 4 national AIA Honor Awards and over twenty AIA Chicago Awards. In 2005 Carol Ross Barney was the recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture, an award recognizing personal excellence in architectural achievement.

Her upcoming session is entitled “Aesthetics and Sustainability” (Friday, 10/14 9:30- 10:30am). Her session brief tells us “Architecture has to be greater than just architecture. It has to address social values, as well as technical and aesthetic values. We take something ordinary and elevate it to something extraordinary. Samuel Mockbee, Professor of Architecture, Auburn University Architecture has long been regarded as a mirror of society’s values. Through a series of case studies, the session will explore expression of sustainable values in building design. The potential for using systems, materials, natural phenomena to explain imbedded green design concepts will be examined.”

Have a listen to our interview and hear a bit more from Carol herself.

Last Chance to Register for the AIA Colorado Design Awards Gala!

2011-10-03T17:22:00.000-06:00

Join colleagues and guests for the AIA Colorado 2011 Design Awards Gala, taking place on Saturday, Oct. 15, from 7- 10 p.m. Hosted by AIA Colorado 2011 President Steven Schonberger, AIA, this year’s event will feature the winning entries of the AIA Colorado 2011 Design Awards, presented by Jury Chair Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, and the AIA Colorado 2011 Honor Awards, including the 2011 Architect of the Year and Firm of the Year. Tickets are $150 per person or $1,200 per table (10 seats) and will feature cocktails, a plated dinner, and the awards presentation. Please download the registration brochure and remit to AIA Colorado via fax at 303.446.006 by Friday, Oct. 7 at 4 p.m.

Meet Dena Wyatt of Marketing Evolutions

2011-09-30T10:09:00.001-06:00

Dena Wyatt of Marketing Evolutions (Denver) will present "Unspoken Requirements of an RFP - Understanding What the Client is Really Looking For" at the Practice Conference on Thursday, Oct. 13 from 10:05 - 11:20 a.m. worth 1.25 LU. Dena will tell us how to make our RFPs/RFQs stand out from the rest and how to discern and address the client's most crucial needs.

AIA CO: The conference’s theme is “Regeneration.” What does “Regeneration” mean to you?
DW: Regeneration means getting excited – reengaging our passion of why we are in the Design and Construction Industry and what it is that we truly love about the profession and our jobs!

AIA CO: What led you to your profession?
DW: I landed in the design and construction industry by accident, but my passion for training and my love of the “hunt and pursuit” of a project has led me to specialize in presentation and business development training for A/E/C firms. After nearly 20 years in the industry, I have found my true calling and love all the wonderful people I’m able to work with.

AIA CO: What about the conference or your session are you most excited about?
DW: I’m excited to help people look at pursuing work from their client’s perspective and finding new ways to present their qualifications and connect with prospective clients which ultimately translates into winning more work.

Sean O'Hara and the EV Studio success story!

2011-09-29T10:24:00.000-06:00

Today’s interview is with Mr. Sean O’Hara, Prinicpal with EV Studio. Many of you probably already know Sean and EV studio. EV Studio is a design firm providing architecture, engineering, planning and other design services. They work in the commercial and residential sectors, with experience in both new construction as well as remodeling projects. They are a local design firm with Colorado offices in Evergreen and Denver and also maintain an office in Texas.

Sean’s upcoming session is entitled “Growing a Firm in Interesting Times” (Thurs 10/13, 3:35-4:50 pm, session VIb), and man have they done just that!

From his session brief: “The last few years have been very interesting for the AEC industry. Projects have gone on hold, employees have been laid off and billing indexes are down. They also happen to be the formative years of EVstudio. EVstudio has grown in both revenue and personnel during each of its five years. Out of necessity, we’ve generated a variety of strategies to play to our strengths. A combination of creative thinking, long hours and great partnerships has yielded a unique firm. At this point, EVstudio has grown to three offices and has diversified into engineering and other professional design services. The session will relate the experiences of the founders of EVstudio over the first few years. It will also translate how other architects can apply those experiences.”

I’m sure these are lessons we can all put into practice! Hear Sean as he talks about his upcoming session.

Enjoy!

Meet Christopher Sharples of SHoP Architects

2011-09-26T14:57:00.000-06:00

ChristopherSharples of SHoP Architects (New York) will present“Out of Practice” on Saturday, Oct. 15,from 3:15 – 4:15 p.m. This session is worth 1.0 HSW. Thetalk will focus on how SHoP has been leveraging digital technology since itsfounding 16 years ago to advance the process of both design and constructionand how this approach will foster and support next generation buildingintegrated environmental systems.

AIAColorado: Theconference’s theme is “Regeneration.” What does “Regeneration” mean to you?

Sharples: “Regeneration,” for me, means therethinking and repositioning of the practice of architecture. Much of how wework and realize our work at SHoP is rooted in a non-linear design process. Theleveraging of technology by architects and engineers is and will continue toplay an important role in how we as architects produce and share informationwith the client and build team. It will also play a vital role in allowing usto achieve a better means to bridge the gap between design and the environment.

AIAColorado:What led you to the design profession?

Sharples:I was always surrounded by wonderful inspiration. I grew up on a small farm in Chester County, Penn.We had a beautifully stone barn built in 1801. And for a good part of my youthit was a remarkable place to be with its structure of wooden posts, beams andladders supporting an impressive cedar shake roof. Another importantinfluence was my Uncle John. After studying under Walter Gropius at Harvard’sGSD in the late 1930s and serving in the OSSduring WWII he became a successful interior designer in New York City. He taught my brother and methe importance of design not only as a discipline but a way of seeing. My oneyear of study in Italyduring my junior year in college finally made up my mind.

AIAColorado:What is one thing not many people know about you?

Sharples:That three of the five founding principals share the same birthday. I’m sureyou can guess who two of them are.

Here are several samples of SHoP's work:

Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards

Botswana Innovation Hub

M. Scott Bailey, MCSE, CDT- Initial.AEC

2011-09-22T08:48:00.000-06:00

Today I had the privilege of speaking with Mr. Scott Bailey, a partner with Initial.AEC. Scott has 10 years of architecture experience and is also a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. Initial.AEC is an integrated solutions provider that offers services to help you maximize your software and hardware investment from start to finish. Initial.AEC services include software and hardware consulting, systems integration solutions for servers and networking, and training and mentoring services for the AEC industry. They are a local company with deep roots here in the Denver area.

Scott’s upcoming session is entitled “The Forecast for Cloud Computing in the Design Profession” (10/13/11 2:10pm – 3:25pm, session Va)

From his session brief: “The presentation provides an in-depth analysis of cloud computing as it applies to firms of all sizes and specialties in the design and construction industry. Hosted and private cloud systems are investigated, with the advantages and disadvantages of each type compared in detail. Considerations such as project types, organizational structure, firm size and office locations are presented to assist in determining the best solutions for individual organizations. The technology requirements, including bandwidth and software licensing, are discussed and the use of cloud computing for collaboration in the building information modeling and design process is also featured. The presentation concludes with a brief panel discussion featuring information technology and BIM managers from local architecture firms speaking on the rewards and challenges of cloud computing in the design profession.”

We hope you enjoy the interview!

Your Tweets Hurt My Facebook when I’m LinkedIn

2011-09-20T09:30:00.000-06:00

Natalie Henley, Sales & Marketing Director at Findabilty Group, will present "Your Tweets Hurt My Facebook When I'm LinkedIn," on Thursday, Oct. 13, 8:40 - 9:55 a.m. The presentation is worth 1.25 LUs. View Natalie's interview with Adam Hillhouse, AIA.

To me, Regeneration is the perfect theme for a socialmedia presentation. A lot of businesses are avoiding jumping into social media,because there is a lot of buzz around it, but not a lot of strategy. To me,this session will give business owners the ability to understand, evaluate andget to work on social media after this conference, knowing that it can and willimprove their bottom line. It is my hope that this will regenerate eachattendees marketing plans and give them the tools they need to take-on a newway of marketing that is taking hold rapidly online.

I started in public relations and traditional market research, and realized alot of strategies the big PR & ad firms implement are outdated andreactive. There is a more cost-effective way for businesses to get the sameresults that Fortune 500s pay top-dollar for. I founded our social mediadepartment because I saw and believed in the opportunity to use social media asa vehicle to not only communicate and build relationships with prospects, butalso to drive targeted traffic to your brand online - without paying a fortunein traditional advertising and research.

I am excited to walk attendees through not only the strategy of social media,but the application. To me a presentation is worthless if it doesn't give theprofessional attending an action plan to getting it done, and it is my personaldedication to every group that speak in front of that I craft my presentationsaround the principle that I want them to be able to leave and do it - not justwalk away with great ideas that are difficult to implement.

About the session: This presentation will give you strategies, tactics, tools and tips to optimize your social media marketing efforts in conjunction with your website. Social media marketing, just like a website, can be so much more than just an online brochure. Optimizing your social media correctly, using free, low-cost tools and Heather’s strategies, website owners can dominate the first page of search engine results. This is the “Findability Formula” for social media – an in-depth look into social media and a “how-to” approach to dominating search results and market share online.

Douglas R. Parker, AIA

2011-09-15T09:22:00.000-06:00

Today’s interview is with Mr. Douglas R. Parker, AIA, Managing Principal of the Greenway Group. The Greenway Group is one of the country’s leading strategy consulting and business networking firms for the design and construction industry.

His session at this fall’s conference is entitled “Understanding Trends to Thrive In an Uncertain Future” (10/13, 5:00 - 6:15pm, session VII).

From his session brief: “Based on ongoing research by the Design Futures Council, this session explores new trends, technologies and processes reshaping the architectural profession. These are trends, shifts, challenges and opportunities arising during a time of continued reform and progress. Rather than representing 25 discrete elements, they can be seen as a quilt of overlapping, complementary and sometimes juxtaposed conditions. This session is targeted for architects who are seeking to improve their strategic thinking and who wish to help their firms and their clients better understand the forces that are changing the way we live, work, learn and play. Participants will gain insight and understanding into the complex nature of change itself as well as the foresight and knowledge necessary to stay ahead of an ever-changing and competitive environment.”

Douglas has a uniquely integrated understanding of business, firm operations, and design that makes him a recognized leader throughout the industry.

Please enjoy the interview!

Meet Raymond Kogan, AIA

2011-09-13T16:16:00.000-06:00

Raymond Kogan, AIA, of Kogan & Company, will present "The Firm of the Future: Big Picture Trends Shaping the Future of Architecture Firms," on Saturday, Oct. 15, 9:45 - 10:45 a.m. Attendees to this session will earn 1.0 HSW.

AIA Colorado: The conference’s theme is “Regeneration.” What does “Regeneration”mean to you?

Raymond Kogan, AIA: Regeneration is about rebirth and looking ahead. As so manyarchitecture firms have been hurt by the economic downturn, now is an excellenttime to lift our heads above the day-to-day struggles and reform each of ourfirms around a vision for the longer term future, then create a plan to movedecisively and deliberately in that direction.

AIA Colorado: What led you to the design profession?

Kogan: As I was finishing high school (in Columbus, Ohio),I was unsure about my career. My father was an engineer so I had someinclination toward engineering (except for the math!) A good friend of mine,Joe Levi (now a principal with OZ Architecture) was heading for architectureschool and recommended that I consider it, too. I did, and haven't looked back.While I'm still a licensed architect and a longtime AIA member, I don’tpractice architecture any more. But I remain very close to the profession, asmost of my clients are architects, many of my friends are architects, and mywife is also an architect (and a construction attorney).

AIA Colorado: What is one thing not many people know about you?

Kogan: I hold the U.S.Record for the shortest bungee jump.

For more information on Raymond Kogan, AIA, watch his interview with Adam Hillhouse, AIA.

Raymond Kogan, AIA, is the co-author of Strategic Planning for Design Firms

Sue Zen

2011-09-08T08:15:00.001-06:00

Today’s interview is with Sue Zen, HR and Management guru and owner of SueZen Enterprises. SueZen Enterprises was originally established in 1986 in response to an expressed need for small firm corporate management assistance and revitalized in 2010 upon Sue’s retirement from S. A. Miro, Inc. Sue specializes in providing consulting services to professional businesses, assisting principal owners in the development of HR and management systems.

Sue Zen, SDA/C has enjoyed a distinguished career in human resources and organizational management, with much of her experience gained within the architectural/engineering design profession. As Director of Human Resources and Business Services at S. A. Miro, Inc., a leading engineering/architecture firm in Denver, Colorado, she was a member of the firm’s senior management, participating in the development of business/project management practices and human resources programs.

Her upcoming session is entitled “RE: Grow Using What You’ve Got or Gearing UP” (10/13/11 session VI-a, 3:35-4:50pm) and will touch on the topic of balancing workload and staffing in these uncertain economic times.

Bing Thom Architects

2011-09-01T11:41:00.000-06:00

Bing Thom Architects is one of those rare architecture firms. Headed by a visionary leader, BTA has a relatively small but highly innovative team of architects and planners whose work has quietly garnered some of the architecture world’s top prizes. Bing Thom was awarded the Order of Canada in 1995 (the nation’s highest civilian honor). The firm received the 2010 Firm Award from the RAIC, and just this year Bing Thom received the Gold Medal from the RAIC. To say this is an influential and inspiring firm simply falls short.

Today I had the distinct honor of sitting down with both Mr. Bing Thom and his long time partner, Mr. Michael Heeney. Both men speak with conviction, enthusiasm, and a deep insight that our short time together only started to illuminate.

We all will be lucky to have the opportunity to delve deeper into the philosophies behind these new masters as they give what is sure to be a moving talk of their work at this fall’s P+DC. Their session is entitled “The transformative Power of Architecture” (10/14/2011 3:45-4:45pm) and to simply read the session brief is motivating.

Have a listen to their thoughts on architecture, their work, and their upcoming session.

MASS Design Group

2011-08-30T12:14:00.001-06:00

This morning I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with two of the founders of MASS Design Group, Mr. Michael Murphy and Mr. Alan Ricks. Mass Design Group is a 501c3 pending not-for-profit design firm. MASS creates well-built environments using appropriate design, local investment, and innovation to break the cycle of poverty. They collaborate with governments, NGOs, private sector firms, and health care experts to advocate for the most underserved and provide scalable models of community-based development and training.

Diverse projects such as the Butaro Hospital and the Girubuntu primary school are just two examples of their work that is, as they put it, “based in 3 sectors that form the core of our work: appropriate design, local investment, and innovation”.

Their website tells us “MASS Design Group has shown that innovation, driven by interdisciplinary research and immersion in the field, can deliver well-built environments that are efficient, effective, and empowering. By addressing immediate infrastructural needs and simultaneously building systems to address the social determinants of failure, our work constructs agency, serves as an engine for economic growth, and assures long-term sustainability. We build capacity at all levels—from training unskilled laborers to assisting government ministries in writing policies that establish a more holistic and appropriate project outcomes.”

Their upcoming session is entitled “Practicing Design Innovations for Global Health Outcomes” (10/14/2011 2:30-3:30pm) and will touch on how they find success in resource limited settings.

Have a listen to our interview below and be ready to face an expanded definition of architecture.

Joshua Prince-Ramus

2011-08-29T10:47:00.007-06:00

Joshua Prince-Ramus of REX Architecture P.C., will speak on Saturday, Oct. 15, from 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. His session, "Agency," is worth 1.0 HSW.

About "Agency": Every architectural practice has an agenda. For most contemporary architects, the agenda is formal. REX is fundamentally driven to challenge and advance type; we feel it’s time for Architecture to do things again, not just represent things. But realizing any agenda in architecture—formal or social—is difficult. The modus operandi revered by our puritanical profession is to hold fast to one’s vision, denying any accommodation of the owner’s realities for fear of compromise. This leads to a lot of unhappy architects, unhappy clients, and unfulfilled desires. We believe architectural agency can be resurrected if piggybacked upon the owner’s needs. Metaphorically, if the owner’s constraints form a round hole, why not pick an embodiment of your agenda that is a round peg? Then your vision will slip right through the owner’s needs without either being compromised. Said more provocatively, if you want to get your soldiers into Troy, would you really roll a huge, wooden Greek soldier up to the gate?

View Images of Joshua Prince-Ramus' Work:

Vakko Fashion Center (Istanbul, Turkey)

AT&T Performing Arts Center Dee & Charles Wyly Theatre (Dallas, TX)

You betta' know Snohetta!

2011-08-23T11:00:00.005-06:00

Mr. Craig Dykers, Principal of the Norwegian firm Snohetta, will be in Denver for this fall's conference to give a talk on his firm's work entitled "Snohetta: works" (10/14, 5-6pm).

Are you familiar with these guys? Wow! If you have not looked through their portfolio, get ready for some inspiration. What is it with these nordic designers!? Why is innovation seemingly the mainstream over there?? Is there something in the Gravlaks??

The firm has offices in Oslo as well as New York, and has received many accolades for their work over the past three decades or so, including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for their work on the Library of Alexandria. Recent projects include the New National Opera House in Oslo, National September 11th Memorial Museum Pavilion, and are working on an expansion to Mario Botta's San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art.

We are all super excited to welcome Mr. Dykers to Colorado and most of all for the upcoming opportunity to ask him some questions in a video interview! Have something you want us to ask him? Let us know!

Until then, have a visit to their webpage a be prepared to enjoy some eye candy.

Carol Ross Barney, FAIA

2011-08-22T12:30:00.009-06:00

AIA Colorado 2011 Design Awards Jury Chair Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, of Ross Barney Architects (Chicago), will present “Aesthetics and Sustainability,” on Friday, Oct. 14, from 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.

About Carol's Session: Architecture has to be greater than just architecture. It has to address social values, as well as technical and aesthetic values. We take something ordinary and elevate it to something extraordinary. Samuel Mockbee, Professor of Architecture, Auburn University Architecture has long been regarded as a mirror of society’s values. Through a series of case studies, the session will explore expression of sustainable values in building design. The potential for using systems, materials, natural phenomena to explain imbedded green design concepts will be examined.

AIA Colorado was able to ask Carol several questions before the conference. Here is the short interview:

AIA Colorado: The conference’s theme is “Regeneration.” What does “Regeneration” mean to you?
Carol: Renewal, restoration, and growth that germinate from hardship and damage. The essential element to regeneration is resilience. Although the term is usually refers to biology, it is a compelling description of what needs to happen for our profession today.

AIA Colorado: What led you to the design profession?
Carol: The opportunity to contribute to real change and to leave the planet and society in better shape. I am still working on this one.

AIA Colorado: What is one thing not many people know about you?
Carol: I am trying to learn Mandarin and it is very hard.

View several samples of Carol’s work: (from top to bottom: University of Minnesota Duluth Civil Engineering Building, Ohio State University Central Campus Chiller, Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation)

Natalie Henley - Findability Group

2011-08-18T09:45:00.004-06:00

Social media is a new world for many architects. It can be daunting, seemingly needing constant attention and certainly requiring new ways of communicating old messages.

This morning I had the chance to discuss this new environment with an industry expert, Mrs. Natalie Henley, Director of Marketing for the Findability Group, an internet marketing agency located in the Denver Tech Center. Her upcoming session at this fall’s conference is entitled “Your Tweets hurt my Facebook when I’m LinkedIn” (Thurs 10/13 8:40-9:55 am- session 1A) and is sure to be an insightful look at what we can all do to get this social media beast under control.

This presentation will give you strategies, tactics, tools and tips to optimize your social media marketing efforts in conjunction with your website. Social media marketing, just like a website, can be so much more than just an online brochure. Optimizing your social media correctly, using free, low-cost tools and Heather’s strategies, website owners can dominate the first page of search engine results. This is the “Findability Formula” for social media

Enjoy the interview below, and feel free to share your thoughts or questions!

Liz Ogbu and the triple bottom line

2011-08-16T10:14:00.003-06:00

This morning I was lucky enough to get some face time with Ms. Liz Ogbu. Liz is one of the more inspirational designers that I have had the pleasure of meeting. Although our time was short, her insight was vast. You think you have sustainability totally understood? I bet Liz will challenge your concepts. It’s all about the triple bottom line folks: People, Planet, Profit.

Her session this fall is entitled “Beyond Green: Redefining Sustainable Design” (Sat. 10/15 2-3pm).

In her own words, “Sustainability, whether within the design and construction industry or the general public, has largely been synonymous with environmental concerns. No longer the purview of a few “hippie” readers of the “Whole Earth Catalog,” many have accepted the notion that a sustainable future means ensuring a healthy planet. Given that the buildings in the U.S. contribute to nearly 40% of our primary energy use and Co2 emissions (USGBC), it is not surprising that our industry is viewed as a significant player in this dialogue. Indeed, “green building” has gone from being an alternative practice to almost a default standard. LEED alone has more than 35,000 certified projects and 100,000 accredited professionals in its database. While these statistics are commendable, they fail to answer one of the major questions lingering around the sustainability movement: What is the use of ensuring a healthy planet if there are not enough healthy communities in which to live and thrive? This session will discuss the idea of repositioning architects as proactive change agents in creating solutions that are not only responsible environmentally but foster a broader sustainability vision. More than just “green” design, we can help construct a sustainable world that includes economic pragmatism and social justice.”

If that last sentence doesn’t get you pumped, check your pulse. Then check out this interview. Enjoy!

Peter Yeadon, AIA, RIBA

2011-08-15T09:00:00.010-06:00

Peter Yeadon, AIA, RIBA, of Decker Yeadon LLC (New York), will speak during BLOCK E: AT THE EDGE: A LOOK AT WHAT THE FUTURE MAY HOLD, on Saturday, Oct. 15. Mr. Yeadon’s presentation is titled Manipulated Matter.

AIA Colorado: The conference’s theme is “Regeneration.” What does “Regeneration” mean to you?

Yeadon: Previous means have expired.

AIA Colorado: What led you to the design profession?

Yeadon: I come from a long line of construction trades. Our family members were stone masons and quarrymen in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and became suppliers of wood, hardware and building materials, and then builders themselves in the later twentieth century. I was messing around at the mill by the age of seven and started on construction sites when I was nine. I liked getting my hands dirty and architecture seemed interesting.

AIA Colorado: What is one thing not many people know about you?
Yeadon: Exactly one year after I climbed to the top of an active volcano in Chile, a large flock of turkeys surrounded and threatened me in Canada.

Session Description: Nanotechnology involves the observation, manipulation, and fabrication of matter, right down to the level of individual atoms. For more than a decade now, the science of the small has produced new materials with novel properties that were not possible before, and has excited the imagination of designers. Apparel designers and industrial designers were early adopters, and continue to exploit nanotech with enthusiasm, but its emergence in architecture has been comparatively discreet. This is beginning to change, however, as architects search for new means to address significant problems. Using exemplary works by researchers and practitioners, Peter Yeadon, AIA, RIBA, will introduce attendees to the broad field of nanotechnology, and will focus on ways in which architects and designers are beginning to pursue innovation through nanotech advancements. The presentation will include recent experiments performed at Decker Yeadon LLC, in New York City.

Here are several images courtesy of Decker Yeadon LLC, which highlight the firm’s work in nanotechnology:

Visit Decker Yeadon’s YouTube Channel for more information about the firm.

Dena Wyatt- Be Evolutionary

2011-08-10T10:13:00.001-06:00

Dena Wyatt founded Marketing Evolutions in 2004 to help firms create a stronger sales message and increase their win rates. She has experience with small family owned firms to large national and international companies and has worked exclusively in the A/E/C industry since 1994.

In her own words: “Selling professional services, from accounting and law to architecture and engineering, is a far cry from selling widgets. Your brand is you and your people. It’s every interaction that every client and prospect has with any member of your team, from your service professionals to your administrative support. Your product is you and your work.” I think that is something every architect can relate to.

Dena is providing a very unique session for this fall’s conference. Entitled “Unspoken Requirements of an RFP – Understand What the Client is Really Looking For”, this session will happen Thursday, 10/13, at 10:05 am (session IIA).

Have a listen to our interview below as Dena explains a bit about what you can expect to learn from her upcoming session.

Need to stand out from the crowd? Let Dena help!

David Salmela, FAIA

2011-08-08T09:00:00.006-06:00

David Salmela, FAIA, of Salmela Architect (Duluth, Minn.), will present during BLOCK C: SMALL, MEDIUM, LARGE: GREAT DESIGN AT ALL SCALES, on Friday, Oct. 14, from 8:15 - 9:15 a.m. His session is titled The Invisible Element of Place, and will serve as a record of the subconscious search for creating place.

Here are several samples of Mr. Salmela's work:

Streeter House - photo credit/copyright: Peter Bastianelli Kerze

Bagley Outdoor Classroom - photo credit/copyright: Paul Crosby

Yingst Retreat - photo credit/copyright: Undine Pröhl

Interview with Ray Kogan of Kogan and Companies

2011-08-04T14:14:00.008-06:00

Ray Kogan is the president of Kogan & Company, specializing in strategy and management consulting for design and construction firms. He brings more than 30 years of experience in the practice, marketing, and management of architecture, engineering, and construction services, including his work with many leading firms in the industry. Ray has worked with more than 100 architecture and engineering firms in the development of their strategic plans. You can visit his webpage here.

I was lucky enough to sit down with him this morning and discuss his firm, the work that they do, and his take on the latest trends in our industry. This will be the first of a series of interviews with the various speakers of this fall’s conference.

Enjoy and feel free to share your thoughts!

Let's get bloggin'!

2011-08-02T11:54:00.007-06:00

Hello, and welcome to the AIA Colorado 2011 Practice & Design Conference blog! We intend for this blog to be your one-stop spot for all the latest news, events and insight into this year’s spectacular conference in Keystone. But we don’t want it to end there…we want to provide a platform for you to contribute to the discussion.

My name is Adam Hillhouse, I’m a second generation Denver architect, and I’m proud to have been asked to be this year’s “social media liaison”- a new title for me. Some of you may be familiar with my contributions to the AIA Emerging Professionals Blog, and if you haven’t visited us there, please take a moment to peak into our world. This conference blog has a great team behind it, including Nicolle Thompson and Alaina Gonzales from AIA Colorado, and we are excited to bring this dedicated vehicle to keep you intimately in tune with this year’s stellar conference.

The main conference website can be found here, and don’t forget to register here. In addition to this blog we also have a twitter feed, a dedicated hash tag, #pdc2011, and will be updating you with snippets of information as soon as they become available. Don’t forget to follow us for all the latest updates!

Over the next few months leading up to the conference we will be conducting interviews with some of this year’s speakers. Have you seen the lineup!? Snøhetta, ShoP, David Salmela, Benisch Architekten, the list goes on and on! Some of the interviews will be video taped, some will be conducted over the phone, but all will be made available for your enjoyment. We are all extremely excited to have such a stellar group of speakers, and are grateful that they are willing to share their personal stories of success, the important work of their firms, and valuable insight into their world of Architecture with a capital A.

During the conference we will provide “live blogging” to update you on sessions you were unable to attend, background information on speakers and even exclusive posts authored by selected speakers. So as the weeks unfold before the conference let’s begin a dialogue on what to expect, what not to miss, and of course the most important element: what you think of your AIA Colorado 2011 Practice & Design Conference.

Hope to see you all there! -Adam

Design Conference Speakers

2011-07-29T11:40:00.004-06:00

To whet your appetites, here's a preview of some of our stellar design conference speakers:

- David Salmela, FAIA, Salmela Architect

- Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, Ross Barney Architects

- Stefan Behnisch, Hon. FAIA, NCARB, Behnisch Architekten

- Leslie Shepard, AIA, Chief Architect, U.S. General Services Administration

- Michael P. Murphy and Alan Ricks, MASS Design Group

- Bing Thom, AIA, CM, FRAIC, MAIBC, Bing Thom Architects

- Craig Dykers, AIA, Snøhetta

- Martina Decker and Peter Yeadon, AIA, RIBA, Decker Yeadon

- Raymond Kogan, AIA, Kogan & Company

- William Massie, Massie Architecture

- Liz Ogbu, Assoc. AIA, NOMA, LEED AP, Public Architecture

- Christopher Sharples, SHoP Architects

- Joshua Prince-Ramus, REX Architecture P.C.

AIA Colorado 2010 Awards Gala Jury Video

2010-10-21T10:43:00.001-06:00

Click to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd5w2io7YAc

Final Session: Aaron Betsky: Open Architecture

2010-10-16T15:56:00.006-06:00

Aaron Betsky presented the final session of the conference.

"Buildings are buildings…‘To build’ is a verb... Architecture is not building... Architecture is about building...Architecture is everything that is about buildings," were phrases Aaron used to introduce his presentation. He explained that, “the most complete way in which architecture appears is in buildings,” but “to find architecture” viewers must look beyond buildings.

Most recently, Aaron’s resume includes a post as director of the Cincinnati Art Museum, and as director of the 11th Exhibition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2008. Before that, he served as director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Aaron also taught at the University of Cincinnati, worked as a designer for Frank Gehry and Hodgetts & Fung, and was the Curator of Architecture, Design and Digital Projects at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Aaron used images of well-known buildings from around the globe as well as photos of basic sites that are more banal and can be found on any street in any city - gas stations, fast food chains, etc. According to Aaron, “architecture is what we live with.”

“Our task is to honor the wear and tear on the built environment. To look for the beauty. Make sense of what we have done. Take reality, the world in which we exist and make it better by design,” concluded Aaron.

Axel Fridman: Open Office

2010-10-16T10:57:00.013-06:00

Axel Fridman (left in photo), Dieguez Fridman Arquitectos, flew in from Buenos Aires, Argentina to speak at the 2010 Practice & Design Conference. Thank you, Axel!

Axel shared numerous projects Dieguez Fridman Arquitectos has completed - from renderings to maps of sites as well as photos of finished projects.

Projects' size, scope and purpose varied, and Dieguez Fridman Arquitectos' work was presented as a case study of an architectural practice that could be described as a network of relations with other disciplines. The practice has three components: building, research and academia.

Westmuckett and Bridges: The Masterplan of the All England Lawn Tennis Club Wimbledon

2010-10-15T16:49:00.013-06:00

Presenters John Westmuckett, Westmuckett Hawkes Ltd., structural consulting engineers, and Mike Bridges, Galliford Try, providers of construction services, traveled all the way from London to Keystone to attend AIA Colorado's 2010 Design Conference. Thank you!

Bridges began the presentation with a history of Wimbledon, including the many changes the club has seen since its birth in 1868. Amazingly, with each of these design and construction programs taking place year after year there has been no detrimental impact on the Wimbledon Championships. Each project must be constructed in no more than nine months as the Championship lasts three and must "be either included or adopted into the Championship experience or hidden from view but with full access maintained.," according to an article on CADUser.com. Imagine thousands of fans wandering through your work site for a quarter of the year.

Westmuckett provided a more technical look at the recent work on the No. 1 Court and Centre Court, with its retractable roof.

Both speakers stressed the importance of collaborative working between the design and construction teams and the client.

For a previous blog on their project, click here.

Rethinking Infrastructure: Learning from the Developing World

2010-10-15T16:20:00.005-06:00

Takako Tajima, of Bureau E.A.S.T., asked us: how can one operate in an unfamiliar context without turning into a tourist? Through her experiences in Morocco, the Sahara Desert and beyond, Takako led us on an exploration of infrastructure and its relationship to culture on a global level. At the conclusion of her presentation, Dick Farley, FAIA, continued this conversation with a panel of local experts, and the audience had the opportunity to ask some uncomfortable questions:

If not handled properly, can these global interventions become imperialist?
How do you go about these projects in a way that involves and engages the local community?
Who is this infrastructure really for?
How important is educating the local people about our methodologies when moving forward with these projects?

While the panelists presented a number of different points of view, there were a few consistent themes:

Recognize that you are one of multiple voices within a team.
Come to a project not as a person with answers, but as a person with questions.
Use the expertise of, and get input from, the local people. Remember that these environments are for them.
Recognize and appreciate that people approach the situation with different values.

Of course, when it comes to matters of culture, these answers often lead to more questions. Takako started out her session by noting that culture serves as a useful and necessary starting point for discussions about global infrastructure. By the end of the session, it was clear that the two are inextricably intertwined.

Opportunistic Architecture

2010-10-15T13:00:00.005-06:00

Paul Lewis, AIA, gave us a glimpse into the unique design challenges that his firm, LTL Architects, viewed as opportunities to reconsider old paradigms.

Consider Dash Dogs: a tiny hot dog stand in NY. Counter intuitively, LTL took the small space and made it smaller by lifting the floor and dropping the ceiling. They knew the forced perspective would give the illusion of greater depth within the space, and they sold the idea to the client on the premise that the smaller space would make their hot dogs look bigger.

Consider the Venice Biennale: LTL was asked to rethink a typical American parking structure as part of the U.S. Pavilion– and display the results in a challenging outdoor area. They lamented their outside space for about an hour, and then figured out how they could use this to their advantage. After securing a sponsorship from Car Freshener Corporation, they modeled a car out of air fresheners – all of which were stolen from the display wall by the end of the Biennale. Not that we encourage vandalism and thievery, but that’s a cool way to connect people to a project!

Consider, again, that parking structure: envision an emission-free future where we’re all driving hydrogen and electric vehicles. In a theoretical project, LTL reorganized a typical skyscraper (building above, parking below) and created a mixed-use retail, hotel, office and residential building, with parking incorporated throughout. On the hotel levels, parking was incorporated in between floors. On the residential levels, all residents had parking above their individual units, complete with green space and lawn chairs. LTL sought to mitigate horizontal sprawl by introducing a new notion of a vertical neighborhood.

Consider an adaptive reuse art gallery: how do you reinvent a space that went from a 1920s theater to a 1950s department store (particularly when you’re on a limited budget)? LTL incorporated the different elements of the building’s history, rather than covering them up and starting over. For example, the 1950s awning (above) was “put on steroids”. It now draws the public in to the building, and brings the building out to the street, creating a connection across a threshold that‘s normally divisive.

Check out LTL’s website and consider what old paradigms that you can shift in to something new.

Design Conference: Oren Safdie: Private Jokes, Public Places

2010-10-15T09:33:00.003-06:00

Safdie attended the Graduate School of Architecture at Columbia University before turning his attention to writing. He also received a MFA from Columbia University in Fiction Writing. Safdie is the son of architect Moshe Safdie. For the Wall Street Journal review of Private Jokes, Public Places, click here.

After watching the film of the play, what are your thoughts? Did you like or dislike the characters? In your opinion, how real was the dialogue, language, etc.? Architects: what did you think of the play and the architects that were portrayed in it? Non-architects: what did you think about the play and the way architecture is discussed?

Session III: It's Not Your Father’s Architectural Practice

2010-10-14T16:18:00.004-06:00

While the connection between a leaking building and an exploding vehicle might seem tenuous, they are essentially the same: products that don't work for the end user. Chris Naughton began his session by drawing a parallel between the future of the practice of architecture and the Ford Pinto. Whoa.

On the upside: in the same way that the car industry reinvented itself to provide cars that consumers actually want to drive, the architecture profession has an opportunity to reexamine how it delivers buildings.

Building on the conversation started in the morning’s “Integrate or Disintegrate” sessions, Chris proposed that we establish a new design and project delivery philosophy: one of continuous improvement. Chris discussed a successful IPD project, Cathedral Hill Hospital (a 1.2 million sq. ft. urban replacement project by SmithGroup) , that established a new basis for design, budget and schedule using Lean Design principals. Some key points:

Many architects don’t want to involve the contractor early on, for fear of a hostile takeover. Educate your project team to combat this type of thinking.

Don’t wait until information is complete until you share it with the whole team. Share early, share often.

Create a high-performing team through effective communication.

Co-locate your project participants.

Use Set Based Design, where phases are overlapping and concurrent – not linear.

In this way, the project team delivered the maximum value to the client and the end users for the best price. So, Chris asked, can a building be designed like a (modern) car? What do you think?

Session V: Hyperform Design Co-Op = A Members Owned Design Community

2010-10-14T15:32:00.011-06:00

COOPERATIVE, collaborative, integrated, different ways of working together, non-profit instead of profit, giving back, understand where people are, foster creativity, membership, keep our design senses alive, being involved, times like these, saw an opportunity, sustainable, mutual friend, volunteering, communicate, become a necessity, not a commodity, value of working with an architect, outreach to increase public awareness and room for improvement

are just a few of the powerful words and phrases heard during this session. All are certainly things for architects and other design professionals to think about, especially in the industry's present state and the overall current economic client. Practice as we know it is changing.

So, are you "Uncomfortable" yet?

Session IV A: Architects Licensing Board 101

2010-10-14T13:52:00.004-06:00

Angeline Kinnaird Linn, program director at the Board of Licensure for Architects, Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors, stressed the importance of maintaining your license once you have it. Also, Angeline noted that, as a consumer, you can check the licenses of other professionals. She provided a brief overview of DORA and its processes, and resources for architects, including its website, http://www.dora.state.co.us/aes/.

Ronald K. Abo, AIA, also presented during this session. Key notes include:

The board [Board of Licensure for Architects] is not an advocate for the profession. It is a regulator.
Last year there were 356 new licenses in Colorado (including architects who are already licensed and practicing in another state and may have been licensed here to work on a specific project).
A typical board meeting agenda includes issues regarding licensure (exams, education, experience), review of complaints & self-disclosure of claims, applications for reinstatement, and questionable applications for exams and reciprocal licensing, among others.

Typical issues/complaints include:

Substandard practice
Non-licensees representing themselves as licensees or offering to provide services that can only be provided by licensees.
Unethical business practices
Practicing on expired licenses

Current Issues & Activities

Recent Rulemaking Activity
Upcoming Sunset Process

Recommendations to Licensees

Keep your license active!
Attain the required 16 hours of HSW CE for renewal every two years
Renew by July 31st every odd year to renew your license
Notify DORA of address changes - mailing and email
Practice only within your area of expertise
Communicate with your clients!
Licensees are responsible for informing board of all claims within 60 days, including resolutions

Recommendation for Interns

Look to board website for IDP and ARE requirements

Contact Information

www.dora.state.co.us/aes
aes@dora.state.co.us
303-894-7775

Session 2B: Becoming an Owner of an A/E Firm

2010-10-14T13:01:00.006-06:00

Carole Sanderson shared some terrific tips for owners (or those considering ownership) of an A/E firm in her session. As a non-architect, non-engineer owner of an A/E firm (Herschman Architects, Inc out of Cleveland), Carole offered a unique perspective on running a firm as a business that does architecture – not an architecture firm that also happens to be a business.

Some highlights included:

Firm Culture: Is it one that fosters opportunities for ownership? Is there a succession plan?

Product: Do you want to be a specialist or a generalist? Which is a sustainable business model over time?

Clients: Relationships are key. Hire people who can and will help you develop your firm's relationships.

Finances: Your firm needs to be profitable! Remain vigilant about whether projects are bringing in money – not in gross dollars, but in net profits.

Operations and Staff: Can your staff talk knowledgably about different aspects of your business? Do they know about all of your projects and clients – not just the ones that they are working on?

Above all: Be a business first. Do architecture and engineering second. Does this describe your firm?

Session IA: How Architecture and Design Professionals Can Most Effectively Use LinkedIn and Twitter to Grow Their Businesses

2010-10-14T09:02:00.006-06:00

So many great tips from Kevin Knebl in this AIA Colorado 2010 Practice Conference session! Thanks, Kevin, for being a part of #AIACO10PD.

Don't have a LinkedIn profile? Get one!
LinkedIn is a database - it helps you (and others) visualize the network you already have (it can help get you past the "gatekeepers."
Social media forces transparency - don't post anything you don't want broadcast all over the Internet.
Just like working out, you can spend just 15-20 minutes each day using social media - it doesn't have to be a huge commitment. And, remember, you are not stalking, you are networking.
Twitter is a "real-time communication tool" and it is a "search tool."
It's easy to have multiple Twitter accounts (i.e. one for business, one for personal use, etc.).
"HootSuite" is a great resource. HootSuite is a social media dashboard, which allows you to connect to multiple social networks from one website.

For more tips from Kevin, check out his blog.

Last Chance for Early-Bird, Member Rate and Online Registration for AIA Colorado's 2010 Practice & Design Conference

2010-10-07T09:00:00.005-06:00

Friday, Oct. 8, is the last opportunity for all AIA, Associate AIA, AIAS and professional affiliate members to enjoy the early-bird, member rate and online registration for the AIA Colorado 2010 Practice & Design Conference. The extension provides late registrants with a 10% discount from the regular rate, allowing members in good standing to maximize the return on the investment that is AIA Colorado membership. After Friday, Oct. 8, online registration will no longer be available and the on-site registration rates will be in effect.

Conference Dates: Oct. 14 - 16
Conference Location: Keystone Resort and Conference Center (0633 Tennis Club Road, Keystone, CO 80435)

Registration: Register online. Download the registration brochure and return it via fax to 303.446.0066, or mail to 1515 Arapahoe St., Ste. 1-110, Denver, CO 80202.

More Information: Visit the 2010 Practice and Design Conference blog at http://aiacodesignconference.blogspot.com/ or the conference website at www.getuncomfortable2010.com. Contact AIA Colorado Programs Manager Nicolle Thompson at nicolle@aiacolorado.org or 303.446.2266, ext. 111 with questions.

The Masterplan of the All England Lawn Tennis Club Wimbledon: The Design and Construction of a Grand Slam Tennis Venue

2010-09-29T09:00:00.008-06:00

The development of the tennis complex at the All England Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon has been a constant process of change since its inception in 1868. From minor improvements in catering facilities to the construction of completely new stadia, the evolution of this prestigious sports venue has taken place year on year without any detrimental impact on the Championship.

This presentation by John Westmuckett, Westmuckett Hawkes Ltd., and Mike Bridges, Galliford Try, focuses on how this has been achieved through the development of collaborative working, trust and understanding between the design and construction team and the client (with its uncomfortable moments!). Bridges will present a brief history of the club, with examples of his experience with the club since 1981. Westmuckett will talk about the design aspects of recent work, including the No. 1 Court, and more recently, Centre Court and its new retractable roof. Bridges will conclude with an overview of how the construction and programming challenges of this latest work were overcome, and how the contract and procurement framework has been developed to enable successful delivery every year.

To read more about this project, click here, here, here and/or here.

This presentation takes place Friday, Oct. 15, 4:30 - 5:30 p.m.

Get to Know the AIA Colorado 2010 Practice & Design Conference Presenters - Part 2

2010-09-22T09:00:00.004-06:00

AIA Colorado: What does “Get Uncomfortable” mean to you?

Axel Fridman (Dieguez Fridman Arquitectos): “Changing perspective.” (Presenting Saturday, Oct. 16 at 10:45 a.m. – noon – “Open Office”)

Dena Wyatt, SMPS, PA, (Marketing Evolutions, Inc.): “To me, ‘Get Uncomfortable’ means it is time to try something new. Especially in today’s economy, it is time to get uncomfortable, break out of the traditional means and methods you are use to and try doing something different.” (Presenting Thursday, Oct. 14 at 4:45 – 6:00 p.m. – “Networking: Growing and Cultivating a Network that Brings You Business”)

AIA Colorado: What led you to the design profession?

AF: “I love buildings. I always dreamed about how you could make the world a better place through them.”

AIA Colorado: What is one thing not many people know about you?

AF: “I love to bake; brownies and chocolate chip cookies are my specialties.”

DW: “I’m an avid skier – ok, so most people know that – but did you know that we are hosting six skiing/networking events this year for the design and construction industry? All levels welcome! Check out our website for more info. Hope to see you on the slopes!”

Get to Know the AIA Colorado 2010 Practice & Design Conference Presenters - Part 1

2010-09-17T09:27:00.003-06:00

AIA Colorado: What does “Get Uncomfortable” mean to you?

Eric Anderson, AIA, (Hyperform Design Co-op): “To this date, our profession continues to stagnate with rolling layoffs and few signs of a rebound on the horizon. In fact, residential construction, one of the major economic indices, is listed as a top 10 industry that may never recover from the recession with prices haven fallen up to 70% in some regions – that’s “Getting Uncomfortable.” Our profession has to “Get Comfortable” once again.” (Presenting Thursday, Oct. 14 at 3:15 – 4:30 p.m. – “Hyperform Design Co-op = A Members Owned Design Community”)

Paul Lewis, AIA, (Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis (LTL Architects)): “I take it to mean rethinking familiar situations and conditions from unconventional and more inventive approaches.” (Presenting Friday, Oct. 15 at 11 a.m. – noon – “Opportunistic Architecture”)

AIA Colorado: What led you to the design profession?

EA: “I was led to the design profession through my deep passion for drawing and craftsmanship (I am still a manual draftsman), my acute spatial reasoning and curiosity for constructs, and my desire to design, construct and make a positive impact on our built environments.”

PL: “Architecture is rich with complexity. It combines design with precision, social organization with aesthetic effects, space with materials. And in an era of extreme specialization, the architect is a generalist, requiring divergent, overlapping and multiple skills.”

AIA Colorado: What is one thing not many people know about you?

EA: “I started out my academic career attending a 2-year junior college for Architectural Technology in upstate New York and ended up receiving a Masters of Architecture from Columbia University GSAPP; I am very proud of this achievement.”

PL: “I rode a bicycle 4,100 miles across the United States, from East to West, which was exactly the wrong direction, due to relentless head winds.”

Five Things to Know About AIA Colorado’s Practice & Design Conference

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1. The design and construction partners for a $25 million project met on the exhibit floor of the conference last year.

2. By attending both the Practice and Design portions of the conference you can earn up to 15.0 HSW credits (of the 16.0 HSW credits that are required every two-year renewal period) that qualify for the State of Colorado’s continuing education requirement.

3. Great prizes are given away each year on the exhibit floor at the conference. The more booths you visit, the greater the chance you have at winning a prize. Please join us at the President’s Reception on Friday, Oct. 15 from 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. and at lunch on Saturday, Oct. 16 from noon – 2 p.m. Last year we gave away event tickets, trips, complimentary AIA Colorado memberships, iPods, phones and many more great gifts!

4. The bar at the Keystone Lodge and Spa will be where you can find many conference participants at the end of each day. Stop by and have a drink until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday!

5. You will receive DORA forms for each of the sessions you attend that qualify for HSW credit, so you don’t have to worry about downloading blank forms from the DORA website!

Private Jokes, Public Places - Oren Safdie

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Oren Safdie, son of famed architect Moshe Safdie, will begin his session at this year's AIA Colorado Practice & Design Conference talking about his history with architecture, how he came to write plays and what motivated him to first write PRIVATE JOKES, PUBLIC PLACES. As part of his session, Safdie will screen the 60-minute film of his play PRIVATE JOKES, PUBLIC PLACES. The screening will be followed by Q & A session where attendees will engage in a rigorous but humorous debate on the theoretical movement within the profession, and whether architecture has grown detached from the public they serve. Do architects design for themselves or the public?

For a review of Safdie's work in The New Yorker, click here. For a review of Safdie's work in The New York Times, click here.

For short interview with Safdie, click here.

Safdie will present PRIVATE JOKES, PUBLIC SPACES on Friday, Oct. 15 at 9:15 - 10:45 a.m. at the 2010 AIA Colorado Design Conference.

AIA Colorado Partial Design Scholarships Available! DEADLINE EXTENDED

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AIA Colorado is now accepting applications for 80 Design Conference partial scholarships that may be used for one-day registration and two-day registration, for the AIA Colorado 2010 Design Conference. (Funds may not be used toward any other educational program). Winners will be notified by Friday, Sept. 17.

Applications will be considered based on financial need and relevance to the applicant’s practice. Applicants must be a member of AIA Colorado. The following scholarships will be available:

Two-Day Scholarships:
30 AIA Members will receive a discounted rate of $150 for two-day registration to the Design Conference (normally $295).

20 Assoc. AIA Members will receive a discounted rate of $95 for a two-day registration to the Design Conference (normally $195).

One-Day Scholarships:
15 AIA Members will receive a discounted rate of $75 for a one-day registration to the Design Conference (normally $215).

15 Assoc. AIA Members will receive a discounted rate of $50 for a one-day registration to the Design Conference (normally $145).

To apply, visit http://www.getuncomfortable.com/ to download the application and instructions.

Deadline Extended: Applications are due by Monday, Aug. 30.

AIA Colorado 2010 Design Awards Jury Chair

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We'd like to introduce you to this year's AIA Colorado 2010 Design Awards Jury Chair and featured keynote speaker at this year's conference.

Angela Brooks, AIA, is a founding partner at Pugh + Scarpa Architects out of California, a firm who most recently won the AIA National 2010 Firm of the Year award.

Angie is also a recent winner of the Character Approved award from USA Network.

Link to the video featuring Angie at the USA Network site: http://www.usanetwork.com/characterapproved/video.html

Link to the story about the award:
http://www.residentialarchitect.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=275&articleID=1199974

See Angie at this year's AIA Colorado 2010 Practice and Design Conference on Saturday, Oct. 16 from 2-3:30 p.m. and at the AIA Colorado 2010 Design Awards gala that evening from 6-10 p.m. For more info, visit www.getuncomfortable2010.com.

PC and DC...

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Three days. Two great conferences. One location.

Information and registration options for the AIA Colorado 2010 Practice and Design Conference will be available this Friday at www.getuncomfortable2010.com. We hope to see you there!

Special Thanks to our "PC" and "DC" - Kevin Keady, Assoc. AIA, and Dominic Weilminster, Assoc. AIA, and our filmmaker Brian Weiss, Assoc. AIA

A Welcome Letter...

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The current global challenges have made us aware, yet again, of the vulnerability of our noble profession. The economy, the environmental questions, and the political landscapes are all in the midst of dramatic turmoil. More than ever architects need to venture out of their comfort zone to seek revolutionary new ways of thinking and collaborating. Our previous comfort levels must be able to change and adapt to the point where getting uncomfortable becomes the new norm.

This year's AIA Colorado conference addresses these topics and offers exciting yet uncomfortable perspectives and approaches by those who have successfully been comfortable in their pursuit of new ideas and ways of practicing by venturing out of the ordinary.

Those who do not get on board with this new comfort will be clearly left behind. Join us and get uncomfortable.

Mary Morissette, AIA
AIA Colorado 2010 President

Gerardo Salinas, AIA
2010 Design Conference Co-chair

Dennis Humphries, AIA
2010 Design Conference Co-chair

Get Uncomfortable

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AIA Colorado 2010 Practice & Design Conference, Oct. 14 - 16, Keystone, Colo.