To explore boundaries of order, scale, light, rhythm, materiality and construction. Every project presents an opportunity to define and create a unique solution which will enhance the environment we inhabit, yet the essence , or signature of the design comes from those who inhabit it.
Craft | Context | Experience
To be great, architecture must be thoughtful and elegantly crafted to reflect the context in which it sits. My love of design stems from its ability to envelop the senses and to stimulate the imagination. An ideal work of architecture provides the user with new visual, spatial, and tactile experiences by presenting a new view, suggesting a touch, or persuading an emotion. Architecture should not only enhance the physical qualities of living, but uplift the spiritual qualities as well.
Advice
Explore the world, get uncomfortable, see new things. As I’ve gotten older, that has profound implications on the way that I think. It allows me to see my world differently.
Trust yourself and your beliefs. I tell my new design staff, “You’re here because of your talent and the way you think, and don’t hold that back.” There are a lot of people who will tell you what to do, and it is too easy to get caught up in a perceived hierarchy when you are new to a firm. Know that you have something to offer. Your attention and intention are so important to the work. Know that.
Looking back | forward
In her poem Three Oddest Words, Wislawa Szymborska, a Nobel Prize poet from Poland, says, “...When I pronounce the word Future, the first syllable already belongs to the past.” This line embodies how I think about the future. The world is moving so quickly that looking back is the trick rather than looking forward to see what is coming next. For instance, as I look back in my short career alone, I’ve been taught by architects who drew with ink on linen. the media shifted to drawing by hand on mylar to migrating a 2D line into a computer to literally modeling a building, embedded with all the systems. It’s an incredible progression.
The time traditional hand drawing took, afforded one to think — deeply — and that time has all but been eliminated now that we are required to make decisions about how to document a project so early in the process. There has to be an intention to design all the way through the documentation. Much like Yamasaki’s office, detailing is design which can take that pressure off the early stages and really allow the idea to mature naturally- going back to the intention of putting down a line (why) rather than just using that line to document (what).
I stand ready to evolve. This intentional expansion has broadened my ability to create thought leadership and design leadership, in this fast paced world.
Ideas are fragile
Ideas are fragile, especially in their initial state. They’re vulnerable to the pressures of the world, and they’re scrutinized under so many different lenses that they can get squashed quickly. I see my primary role as cultivating an idea, and then defending and nurturing it to allow it to grow and strengthen so that others can add their areas of expertise and knowledge. You can lose a project very quickly if you lose the idea, so I work to protect it and make sure it remains legible.
I have found that one of my strong skills is to bring the best ideas out of my team. I also teach as an adjunct professor at Lawrence Technological University and that has given me an ability to move from student to student, and in the office, from designer to designer. I quickly get into what they’re trying to do, understanding their ideas and helping them clarify those ideas so that they have a strong narrative that a project team can get behind.
Trajectory
After working with Bill McDonough, I wanted to raise a family, so I decided to move back to Michigan. Initially, I worked as a designer with a sports architecture firm, ROSSETTI, where I learned how to think big and create the gesture for large scale projects.
I became the Director of Design at ROSSETTI which positioned me years later to shift to Director of Design at Minoru Yamasaki’s office. Although Yamasaki himself had passed away, I was able to work with some talented technical architects that had worked with him. They taught me how to touch a building; how to detail exact and precise.
About ten years ago, I heard about SHW Group, a national firm specializing in education architecture that was focusing on differentiating themselves through design. I thought it was great opportunity to use my design skills, so I took a position and now have worked in education architecture ever since. In 2014, Stantec acquired SHW. It gave us an opportunity to take a deeper dive into learning and exploring the conversation on a larger scale. We are able to be positional about the work we do in education, as learning is an intrinsic goal rather than an incidental outcome.
Finding my voice
As an undergraduate, I learned the nuts and bolts of putting a building together. We had design classes, but back then it was centered primarily on solving a problem (what) rather than the theory or the conceptual underpinnings (why). My junior year, I was introduced to a Fulbright scholar by the name of Svein Tonsager, who was an influential teacher from the architecture school in Aarhus, Denmark. Svein introduced me to a new way of looking at architecture from a design and theory perspective — he literally reset my architectural education tabula rasa.
I decided then and there to pursue design theory in my graduate work and went to the University of Michigan. Their library is profound, and it helped me to continue my thirst for theory — I read everything from Vitruvius to Venturi. I was able to be in front of talented practitioners like Tod Williams, Dan Hoffman from Cranbrook, Peter Eisenman, and Michael Graves. At the time, Kent Kleinman, who today is dean at Columbia University, was one of my professors. The program gave me a rich, hands-on education in design and theory.
On becoming an architect
As a kid, it was never really a question for me. I remember drawing house plans for hours on end. I went to a local architecture school, Lawrence Technological University, for my undergraduate work, and completed my graduate work at the University of Michigan. When I graduated, it was a rough economic time, so I worked for a developer, which I thought that was the worst thing for my career as a designer. But in the end, it proved to be one of the best things that I ever did. I learned the politics of construction, how to strategize, budget, schedule, work with people — it gave me a strong ability to put a building together.
After that, I moved to New York and worked with William McDonough Architects, who influenced me profoundly, most notably by introducing me to sustainability. I had never heard of sustainability, and he was looking for somebody who could document a project so it worked perfectly. Literally, the guy next to me in the studio was calculating the embodied energy in a project…it made me think very carefully about putting a building on this Earth. To this day, those lessons have influenced how I approach architecture — it’s just good design!
Precedent
Design doesn’t happen within a vacuum and an understanding of what has come before (and concurrently) can (and should) inform and explain design thoughts and actions. Each design will look to and document instances that may be used as examples in dealing with issues we are currently facing.
The concept of construction is endowed with a sense of historical and technical inevitability, standard practices. Conceived as a methodological synthesis of concept, material, and technique, it encompasses not only the material and technical organizational of elements in the construction process, but also the intellectual organization of elements with the design process.
Analysis
Projects encompass an inordinate amount of information. Trying to comprehend and explain this information about a project can be overwhelming. Isolating the issues and independently diagramming the thoughts or action can help formulate and articulate fundamental issues regarding the design intent. Diagrams can be a critical tool in examination to prove a design direction... “You said this but the building is doing that..." These diagrams can range in scale and should be utilized to help isolate major influences on a project.
At a minimum every project will articulate a site analysis that articulates any information inventoried, and should be illustrated graphically. On these illustrations important factors may be abstracted, or isolated and emphasized, to build a firm foundation from which to interrelate all known elements.
Natural Factors
Geology
Topography
Hydrology-surface and groundwater
Soils
Vegetation – plant ecology
Wildlife – habitats
Climate – Solar orientation, wind, precipitation, and humidity
Solar calculator http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/grad/solcalc/
Cultural Factors
Existing land use – ownership of adjacent property and off-site nuisances.
Traffic and transit –vehicular and pedestrian circulation on or adjacent to site.
Density and zoning – legal and regulatory controls.
Socioeconomic factors
Utilities – sanitary storm water, water, gas, steam, electricity, and telephone.
Existing Buildings
Historic Factors – historic buildings, landmarks, and archaeology.
Aesthetic Factors
Natural features.
Spatial pattern –views, spaces and sequences.
Context
Typology