Architecture & Engineering Business Strategies

When you think about design, data probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Yet, that’s exactly what you should be thinking about according to Bobby Fijan of Form Developers. Data, especially on the local level, offers invaluable insight into what people really want in a floor plan and what they’ll spend money on. That’s why you should seek out data early on as you begin a new project. Just keep in mind that it’s not the only important factor.

Interview Takeaways

• Consider the tenant experience
• Listen to the data
• Be the expert
• Speak the developer’s language
• Let the city guide your design
• Prove your expertise
• Share online if you won’t in real life 
• Measure to improve
• Be humble
• Read the code
• Start off product-oriented
• Make the inside count

Show Links

• Connect with Bobby Fijan on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Check out Form Developers 
• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

Burnout can decrease workplace efficiency, make employees sick, and even cause people to leave their careers. In the wake of the pandemic, workers are more likely than ever to suffer from burnout, so if you want to prioritize your health, you need to set firm boundaries to keep from wearing yourself and your employees out. In our first Roundtable discussion, four Monograph team members discuss what they do to maintain a healthy work-life balance and keep burnout at bay.

Interview Takeaways

• Look back to build a better future
• Pay attention to your people
• Spend your assets carefully
• Maximize your time with tools
• Know when to say no
• Control your productivity
• Articulate your ideas
• Work smarter
• Take time for your mental health
• Find supportive people
• Develop a healthy work mindset
• Advocate for your needs

Show Links

• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Connect with Joann Lui on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Silvia Lee on LinkedIn
• Check out Monograph
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

Owning the means and methods throughout the design and construction process can be challenging. This is especially true for new designers or architects who haven’t been involved in many projects before. How do you go about understanding your role, the client’s risk tolerance, and keep an open mind throughout the process? On Best Practice, NADAAA’s principals Nader Tehrani and Arthur Chang explain how they use collaboration and relationships with contractors to own the means and methods during each project.

Interview Takeaways

• Collaborate as a team
• Keep an open mind throughout the design process
• Be flexible to other ideas
• Understand the role of the architect in the construction process
• NADAAA’s first experience with means and methods
• Defuse the tension between designer and contractor with IDP
• Evaluate a client’s risk tolerance early on
• Demonstrate real world applications for students
• New approach to the means and methods process

Show Links

• Check out NADAAA
• Connect with Arthur Chang on LinkedIn 
• Connect with Nader Tehrani on LinkedIn 
• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

Business development is everyone’s job. Every employee, regardless of level or title, can and should do their part to propel their firm forward — to new clients, interesting projects, and positive PR. That’s what Carrie Villani and Doug Gonzalez of LERA believe. In a recent Best Practice episode, they talked about how marketing can naturally be incorporated into your workday, helping to grow both the firm and your individual career.
 
Interview Takeaways

• Share your network 
• Business development is everyone’s job
• Keep in touch with clients
• Be consistent in marketing
• Align your goals with your firm’s
• Handle lead inquiries yourself
• Remind your network of your expertise
• Involve senior team members
• Be upfront about problems
• Learn the business of your business
• Be the one who reduces stress
• Grow from within

Show Links

• Connect with Carrie Villani on LinkedIn
• Connect with Doug González on LinkedIn 
• Check out LERA
• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

The Bureau of Overseas Building Operations has high standards to meet. The buildings they design have to be secure, functional, and stand the test of time. The embassies and other facilities they design are 50-year buildings. They have to withstand a place’s climate, fit in with the local culture, and confidently represent the U.S. as an open nation. In this episode, Curtis Clay, the OBO’s director of architecture, discusses how the bureau designs buildings that will become legacies—and how they keep the focus on the role the building will serve.

Interview Takeaways

• Design resilient buildings
• Design for the future
• Hire secure firms
• Solve problems beyond the brief
• Understand the local context
• Make purposeful decisions
• Gauge when in person or virtual meetings are necessary
• Bring the private into the public
• Go back to basic problem solving
• Look at a variety of public sector roles
• Make people comfortable in your buildings
• Solve for constructability and maintainability before aesthetics

Show Links

• Connect with Curtis Clay on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Check out Bureau of Overseas Building Operations
• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

In architecture, as with almost any business, the environment you create in your office can make or break your team’s productivity. But with pandemic protocols forcing many businesses to work remotely, meaningful interactions and a positive workplace culture are even harder to cultivate—but still just as important. Colin Montoute, director of architecture at WXY Studio, and managing director Amy Hau, brought their expertise to the table during our latest Best Practice webinar to talk about how they build a positive workplace environment so their employees can thrive.

Interview Takeaways

• Over-communicate to keep expectations clear
• Give people opportunities to contribute
• Be willing to pivot to meet your client’s needs
• Partner with other companies
• Build trust with your clients
• Create dialogue with your community
• Help your clients plan their architecture
• Equip your team to succeed
• Add value to your firm
• Frame your conversation around your client’s knowledge
• Hire team members who will elevate their colleagues
• Delegate tasks according to people’s strengths

Show Links

• Connect with Colin Montoute on LinkedIn
• Connect with Amy Hau on LinkedIn
• Check out WXY Studio
• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

An architect’s role by definition revolves around the planning, designing, and construction of buildings. But Rick Joy, principal at Studio Rick Joy, doesn’t see it that way. He believes his role is to create a lifestyle, not a building. It’s taking the setting and landscape into account and bringing the best experience to life with what you design. It’s letting nature and light in and pushing inconveniences and burdens out. It’s talking a client out of building a house on a hilltop and instead down by the pond so they can easily watch their kids swim. In this Best Practice webinar, Rick and his Director of Communications, Taylor Garcia Dickson, discuss how that philosophy shapes their brand and is brought to life through their practice.

Interview Takeaways

• Connect to the world around you
• Hold live-in workshops
• Bring diverse perspectives into your office
• Tune into each other
• Be in sync with nature
• Treat nature as a luxury
• Create a lifestyle, not a building
• Enhance the experience of the project
• Bring customers around to your timeline
• Stick to the work that makes your firm happy
• Stay in the present of your practice

Show Links

• Connect with Rick Joy on LinkedIn 
• Connect with Taylor Garcia Dickson on LinkedIn
• Check out Studio Rick Joy
• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

Building a strong team sounds simple: put a bunch of talented people with complementary skill sets together in the same room. But in reality, there’s a carefully calibrated science to crafting a team that produces great work. On the latest Best Practice episode, Sara Lopergolo and Oliver Link from Selldorf Architects share their experience handpicking team members and facilitating collaboration. They end up with teams whose members not only work well together, but also teach and learn from each other. 

Interview Takeaways

• Close the loop
• Check in, but not too much
• Hire to fill a need
• Don’t rush into hiring
• Find employees who stick around
• See the big staffing picture
• Diversify your staff’s experience
• Start projects with a small team 
• Prepare for meetings
• Collaborate with clients
• Listen & learn

Show Links

• Connect with Sara Lopergolo on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Oliver Link on LinkedIn 
• Check out Selldorf Architects 
• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

Strong leadership is the secret sauce of strong companies. You may be the most creative and most groundbreaking firm on the planet. But if your teams don’t work well together, if they spend too much time on the wrong parts of the process, and if they don’t keep clients happy—you’ll see subpar results. In this Best Practice interview, Holly Deichmann and Zoe Small, Associate Principals at Diller Scofidio + Renfro, share exactly how good managers can uphold the business: by empowering employees, setting up processes that manage client expectations, and maintaining just the right amount of anxiety to keep everyone on their toes.

Interview Takeaways

• Embrace anxiety
• Take off some of your hats
• Diffuse the smallest icebergs first
• Cap off the creative process
• Get input early on
• Make time for actual work
• Be persistent in your creativity
• Repurpose, rather than reinvent
• Show, don’t just tell
• Take time to establish trust initially
• Match the right people to the right project
• Prep clients for their responsibilities

Show Links

• Connect with Zoe Small on LinkedIn 
• Connect with Holly Deichmann on LinkedIn
• Check out Diller Scofidio + Renfro
• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

A technology-first firm is not one that merely uses the latest technology in their practice. It’s a firm that leverages that technology to allow collaboration in the sketching process all the way through a 3D experience. It’s having designers, project managers, technical architects, and software developers all working together to make things happen in tandem and instantaneously. Mancini Duffy is a firm that takes that collaboration seriously. In this Best Practice webinar, President Christian Giordano and CFO Bolanle Williams-Olley explain how that collaboration works through everything the firm does, including how they support their employees.

Interview Takeaways

• Create a collaborative environment
• Carry tech into the construction process
• Meet client expectations
• Have a unique selling point
• Bond with your team to be a good leader
• Bring in changes gradually
• Focus on revenue before optional things
• Increase efficiency and salaries
• Offer vacation stipends and flexible hours
• Ask for what you want in a firm
• Find a staffing procedure that works for your firm
• Look at things as you go and at the end

Show Links

• Connect with Christian Giordano on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Bolanle Williams-Olley on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Check out Mancini Duffy
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph