Bridging the Skill Trades Gap

Higher Education and Local Businesses Work Together

A shortage storm is coming! A shortage of skilled trade workers, that is. In a state like Michigan, this crisis has come to head and companies have had to start thinking creatively about addressing the decline. Two factors have really fueled this shortage storm.

• The first is an aging workforce. Baby boomers, the second largest generation in the United States at around 75 million members, are retiring and moving out of the workforce. This will likely leave an estimated 31 million vacant positions by the year 2020. Among these vacated positions will be electricians, pipe layers, plumbers, pipefitters, steamfitters, machinists, heating and cooling trades.

• The second is that younger generations are not going into these “dirty” trades. Traditional blue-collar jobs are being swept aside as parents and high school counselors guide students into four-year colleges. This has shifted a whole generation from the skilled trades to other jobs.

Innovative organizations understand that something needs to change to attract more students into these fields. In West Michigan, local businesses are looking for help from their local higher education partners. In this blog we’ll discuss three instances of public/private partnerships and how they’re helping combat the talent shortage.

Lake Michigan College (LMC) in Benton Harbor, MI, knew there was a need to enroll more students in their advanced manufacturing programs. Approached by local business looking to fill skilled jobs, the opportunity to partner with local businessman Merlin Hanson was presented.

Hanson had grown his small tool and die shop of three employees into a highly successful company. More than most, he understood that the days of dark, routine-based industrial jobs were numbered. Automation and advances in technology had altered or replaced these jobs. Rather, the future was leaning towards specialized technical workers who craved well-lit, clean, and high-tech spaces. He brought this vision to LMC, an institute he had long supported. The college’s existing M-TEC building was in a remote part of the Benton Harbor campus. The building was old and dark. Instead of speaking to the future of advanced manufacturing, it represented its past.

An increase in student enrollment.

Since the grand opening in 2016, the Hanson Technology Center has made a significant impact on the school and program by providing open, inviting and clean learning spaces that reflect the latest thinking in manufacturing techniques. The school initially experienced a 36% increase in course registrations compared the previous year. In year two, Lake Michigan College saw a 51% increase in student enrollment in their advanced manufacturing programs. This was in part due to the ability to offer new classes.

The fab lab, which is available for use to the local community, has experience more than 4,000 unique visitors. Additionally, it has been a tour highlight for more than 1,700 local high school juniors and seniors visiting the Hanson Technology Center as they consider their next steps in higher education.

A Thoughtful Approach to Security

I’ve dedicated my career to education architecture. With nearly two decades in this field, I’ve experienced the many ways in which buildings have had to adapt to meet the expectations of students and faculty. For instance, in the past 10 years there have been more than 15 versions of the iPhone – that’s fast-moving technology! As architects and planners, we’ve become use to being nimble and designing flexible spaces that can work with technologies not yet invented.

Similarly, sustainability goals for projects are discussed early in the design process. We’ve achieved LEED certification on more than 250 buildings and in each the sustainability goals have influenced a building’s design or selection of materials and supplies. How can this same approach be applied to school security?

Rethinking Security

But not everything has been as timely in its evolution. Safety, for example, is handled much the same as it was 20 years ago, despite an increase in school violence. Unlike issues surrounding technology and environmental design where goals are now set and budgeted for from the onset of the project, security conversations lag, and happen late in the process and at that time with little room left to change the trajectory of the initial design ideas. Security discussions center on additive solutions like hardware, security, and cameras, rather than passive solutions like layout and exits. What if we gave security the same kind of forethought?

One of my first introductions to school security came in a landscape meeting for a project at Central Michigan University in the early 2000’s. The campus came ready to discuss how landscape design could promote safety for students and had created standards around crime prevention using natural environmental factors – landscaping, lighting, paths, etc. to minimize loss and crime. I appreciated their dedication to not only beautifying the campus but using the resources at hand to create an environment that was safer than it was before.

A Multifaceted Approach

We all know there is an issue with school violence across the globe. In the United States, school violence, specifically the threat of an active shooter, tends to be premeditated and executed with a strict plan in mind. How do we combat the desire to do serious harm to as many people as possible? I would argue that while architecture, engineering and landscape architecture won’t solve every problem, they should be considered as part of the solution.

The Problem Persists

There were 11 firearm-related events that occurred at a school or campus in the first 23 days of 2018 – and by early March the statistic increased again with an incident at Central Michigan University. The school followed their safety procedures and sheltered-in-place as the tragic shooting unfolded. This event hit me hard knowing the people it affected personally.

Coincidentally, I attended a conference weeks later where I was introduced to Frank DeAngelis and Kristina Anderson. Both survivors of school violence, Frank was the Principal of Columbine High School in 1999, and Kristina was a student at Virginia Tech during the shooting of 2007. Their first-hand presentation added gravity to this subject and really was a catalyst to how I think about safety in the educational design process.

What I found interesting was that both Frank and Kristina talked about feeling as though time slowed down. Frank, as he grabbed his keys and, almost through reflex, found the correct one, out of the hundreds; and Kristina, counting the footsteps she heard. Listening to their unique, yet similar, experiences got me thinking: how would it have been different if security had been an intentional part of the building’s design process? We’ll never truly know until we start bringing up safety sooner in design discussions.

Let’s Begin with Safety in Mind

I now find myself researching school security and searching for answers that both promote transparency and openness – which are good for learning – while balancing safety and security for occupants. What I know to be critical is how and when we negotiate these questions. Much like environmental and technology design, which has enjoyed the benefits of the team’s thinking early in the design process, posing security and safety questions at the onset of a project will allow us to systematically vet different designs through this unique lens. We can then begin each project by prioritizing safety. As architects dedicated to educational environments, we need to bring security to the table earlier in the design process and take advantage of this precious time.

Here we go...

Shifted subtly to the West in the “Grand” scheme of things- not so far but certainly enough to change my perspective- this is good and welcomed> enjoying the challenge - nice to be back figuring out my position aggressively!

Both | And

There is a North, South, East + West side of a building.  Designing a building that formally anticipates/reacts to its environmental, contextual relationships but also navigates the ability to be one building, whole, self referential. At once looking out and in.

Criteria to interrogate a design.

Interrogate:  To examine formally by questioning.

            But what are the questions?  What are we trying to do, and are we doing it?

Solving a problem with meaning.

Is the solution solving the problems at hand? - is the first question; however, the more critical question I suppose is what is the intentions of the design?  Contemporary society: politics, technology, media, social… the list goes on- are these powerful enough to base a 50 year building? They, all of these, seem to add to the chaos of our days, a fast paced, instantaneous, Uber world… (not that contemporary is bad…)

I believe the questions should resonate and ground the architecture, giving it presence, coherence, atmosphere, a contextual understanding (not copy) a sense of weight (or lack of), purposeful (ritual), incorporating simplicity , proportion, and a strong sense of materiality.  

Knowing the why, allow us to move to the how.  How is it connecting to the earth? How does it meet the sky? How is it turning the corner?

Models + Images

Models are an essential part of the design process, for both exploring ideas and visually presenting ideas. Model making, either real or virtually will be expected as part of the process.

During the process, it is important to draw and capture critical design images for presentation. The architectural designers should organize pertinent conceptual sketches, images and illustrative diagrams for presentation, as well as for future use in presentation and final submittals. All projects will produce both physical models and 3d virtual models. The intent is to capture images of plans, elevations, sections and details as part of the project expectations. 

The Muse...

Unfortunately, the design muse is elusive and typical planned processes spiral into tailspins while things “settle down”. A design culture anticipates an environment of the unresolved and has built in flexibility allowing ideas to grow and develop naturally, while not stopping the progress of a project. Fortunately, the team is responsible for the design, and with creative management this eventuality, the unresolved, is anticipated and planned into the process.

The studio thus has to refuse any simple mode of production. Design is a way of thinking that draws on everything that is known in order to jump energetically into the unknown. To this end the efforts underway to hone our design skills dovetail nicely into this culture, in essence eliminating the reproduction of the tried and true thus affording time to the importance of creating ideas with meaning. This mindset must continue across the studio platforms. 

Design + Culture

First and foremost a design culture is one that it requires everyone... from interns to senior management, all to foster an environment that questions, searches and informs the built environment. A studio - with its intent for learning fits exactly into this notion of a design culture. Researching (or listening to) the problems of our users in an open forum showcases our commitment to their problems, and evidences a willingness to learn.

Intention and attention are critical for this culture to exist, having a clear idea to articulate, and a focus to delineate it. Time is so often the excuse for failure; and to this end critical thinking is put to the side. In a design culture a focused thinking - specifically on the problem at hand is vital. A culture of design revolves around an iterative dialogue with a project team, including engineering, clients and contractor. True design can solve multiple problems with one move.
A strategy of attention means the willingness to listen and be open to others, which is fundamental to any successful context for design. Openness and collaboration with others is imperative, building on the teams inherent differences leads to stronger solutions. Listening is as important as expressing your opinion. The aim is to create an empathetic context for ideas to mature. Successful collaboration happens with respect and dialogue. When conceptual ideas are strong they can stand the energy and criticism of others, they flourish and grow with debate and development. This is reached by a close interaction of creative design development, modern building technologies, image and an ecological design approach. The appropriate answer for unique projects stems from an innovative attitude as well as the ability to ensure costs, date and quality. The overall ambition is to develop projects, where technical and aesthetic quality is combined within the economic concerns that have purpose and meaning. 

Design

The term ‘design’ comes from the Italian disegno, meaning drawing, suggesting both the drawing of a line on paper and the drawing forth of an idea from the mind into physical reality. Disegno implies a direct link between an idea and a thing.

One may conclude that this design is nothing but a visual expression and clarification of that concept which one has in the intellect, and that which one imagines in the mind. However, the word is also derived from the Latin signum, meaning sign, and shares the same ancient root. To this end design takes on the condition of that motion or gesture used to express or convey an idea to give meaning.

In all matters, particularly in architecture, there are these two points; the thing signified, and that which gives it significance. That which is signified is the subject of which we may be speaking; and that which gives significance is a demonstration on scientific principles.

Disegno allowed architecture, painting and sculpture – the three visual arts – to be recognized as liberal arts concerned with ideas, a position they had very rarely been accorded previously. Associated with intellectual rather than manual labor, the new status of the drawing and the architect increased the status of the building.