Practice Disrupted by Practice of Architecture

How can architects adapt their studios into a hybrid practice model?

In the blink of an eye, the way firms worked changed overnight. Now there’s no snapping back, and people’s expectations around how and where they work have changed. Many firms are just beginning to navigate and understand what they need to create a successful practice that allows their employees the flexibility they desire while remaining productive and profitable.

Evelyn Lee has been researching and writing about workplace trends throughout her career. As architects rapidly shifted from studio environments into all remote teams in 2020, she led the development of resources aimed at supporting firm leaders making the transition, including ‘Guide to Remote Work and Team Management During—and After—COVID-19.’

In this episode, she’ll share her latest research on hybrid practice, including the six key areas firm owners need to learn to manage in order to make hybrid practice work.

Evelyn M. Lee, FAIA, MBA, MPA is a licensed architect in the state of California, with over 15 years of experience working with individuals and companies that are looking to reshape their future. She is the founder of Practice of Architecture, the first-ever Senior Experience Designer at Slack Technologies, and the first female Treasurer to AIA National‘s Board of Directors.

Show Links:

Practice of Architecture

Hybrid Practice Playbook

Building & Running a Successful Hybrid Practice

Monograph is the cloud-based practice operations solution built for architects by architects. It is easy to use, beautifully designed, and helped firms streamline operations by empowering them to see project-based and firm-wide financial health in a single tool.  Plan your projects with schedules, budgets, roles, and team members. Track a project’s financial health with their unique MoneyGantt which takes timesheet data and makes it simple to see whether you are on track or not.  Use firm-wide revenue forecasts to make strategic decisions. With Monograph, you never have to make a decision in the dark again. 👉 Visit Monograph now.

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How are architects redesigning practice to put technology at the forefront of their work?

This week we look at New York City based Mancini Duffy as a case study for implementing change over the traditional architecture studio business model. From people, to process, and even technology, this 100 year old architecture practice is being intentional to lead with change. 

Mancini Duffy is a full-service design firm specializing in architecture, planning, and interior design. With offices in New York City and New Jersey, the practice complements its century of expertise with a contemporary entrepreneurial spirit and technological skill for clients in the commercial, education, financial and professional services, retail, sports, and tech and media sectors. 

Guest:

Jessica Sheridan, AIA is a principal at Mancini Duffy. With 18 years of experience in architecture and interiors, Sheridan leads a studio focused on a broad range of project types – from building retrofits to temporary pop-up event spaces and workplace interiors. She thrives on complex projects that are sustainable and resilient. Previously holding positions on the AIANY, AIANYS Boards and the AIA National Strategic Council, she currently serves as an At-Large Director on the AIA National Board.

Show Links:

Mancini Duffy

Mancini Duffy Design Lab

Follow their work on social media:

https://www.facebook.com/manciniduffy/

https://twitter.com/mancini_duffy/

https://www.instagram.com/mancini_duffy/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/mancini-duffy/

What is operations management in a studio environment, and how does firm culture relate?

We interview Michael Bernard, an architect, and management consultant who works with design-first architecture firms in the Bay Area. Michael shares his perspective on operations management and the evolving business model of architecture.

Through his company, Virtual Practice, Michael works with firm leaders to develop revenue models that reflect current capacity and projected growth. He mentors key staff to develop and monitor fee projections; to review and to prepare contracts; and to facilitate the integration of constructive project management practices. Michael’s range of clients includes architects, landscape architects, interior designers, lighting designers and general contractors. 

Guest:

Michael Bernard places his focus on the culture and operation of design practices. As principal of Virtual Practice, he has advised nearly 200 Bay Area design firms that neither have nor need a full-time managing principal. Michael addresses firm culture, management and operations: the foundational elements of effective everyday function of the small design practice.

Michael believes that education is a two-way street. For more than a decade, Michael held the position of adjunct professor in the architecture department at The California College of the Arts in San Francisco, where he gained insight from students who will eventually lead and change the profession of architecture.

Key to his success is a highly developed ability to work closely with all of the people that contribute to the success of both firms and projects. He understands the value of mentoring the diverse groups of people that work together. He places high importance on clear and mutual understanding of a firm’s core values and goals – both those of the principals of the firms with which he works, as well as those of their employees.

Show Links:

Virtual Practice

Michael’s Recommended Resources

How do you get your projects and ideas published in reputable journals?

For many architects, published work represents a major milestone in their careers. 

To learn how this process works, we interviewed Wanda Lau, an industry leader in journalism who covers award-winning architecture, architects, and practice-related topics. She shares her point of view as an editor working behind the scenes to write and publish a print and online magazine. Find out how she moved from engineering into journalism, as well as her advice for pitching your ideas to editors. 

ARCHITECT, the official journal of The American Institute of Architects, features a wide range of industry topics, including design, criticism, books, business practices, technology, and thought leadership. It's the premier platform for architecture industry news and building resources for architects and building professionals. Guest:

Wanda Lau is an editor, writer, and podcaster at ARCHITECT magazine. She covers technology, practice, and op-eds at ARCHITECT magazine, the journal of The American Institute of Architects. Based in Washington, D.C., she is an award-winning editor and writer who covers everything from building codes to firm culture. She is also a host and producer of the ARCHITECT Podcast Network. Prior to joining ARCHITECT, she worked for a decade in the AEC industry as an owner’s representative, engineer, and communications director—but not all at once.

Show Links:

ARCHITECT magazine

Wanda Lau, LEED AP

‘The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design’s Quest to Become the First Living Building in the Southeast’ by Wanda Lau

ARCHITECT Podcast Network

Anti-Asian Violence Resources

How do you make a successful career transition from architecture to tech?

It all started with a simple request to go get coffee. Soon co-founders Leona Hudelson and Blake Hudelson were scheduling multiple coffee conversations around the same questions. From this realization, the idea of Architechie emerged. 

In 2016, Leona and Blake launched Architechie, an online community of thousands of people across the world who work at the intersection of technology and the built environment. Architechie has quickly become a global braintrust of creatives and builders who have been brought together by their shared excitement about the built world and the opportunity to improve it using technology.

Leona and Blake join us to share their story of launching this active community, and lessons learned from their multifaceted careers from architecture into technology, entrepreneurship, and the world of investing and startups.

Guests:

Leona Hudelson currently leads a team of Product and Design leaders at the Netflix Studio Innovation team - an innovation team responsible for Netflix's multi-billion dollar investments into the expansive content offerings. Leona is also a serial entrepreneur and angel investor in both startup and creative communities. 

Blake Hudelson is an entrepreneur, design leader, and educator based in San Francisco. After studying architecture, Blake spent three years working as an architect at SOM and Studios Architecture before transitioning to becoming a User Experience Designer. 

Blake then went on to work at the design consultancies Matter and Method, where he designed products for some of the world’s leading technology companies. He later worked at Google’s Advanced Technology and Project Group, a skunkworks technology incubator at Google, where he helped design the world’s first smart garment platform called Jacquard.

Blake currently works at Atomic, a venture capital fund and startup incubator where he works launching new products and companies. He is an Adjunct Professor at California College of Arts where he teaches in the Graduate Design program.

Show Links:

Join Architechie

What is digital marketing and how can AEC firms elevate their marketing strategy?

Our reliance on technology has prompted today’s leading businesses to reevaluate how they market. Slowly, digital marketing trends have found their way into the AEC industry. While most AEC companies have been slow to adopt new marketing strategies, some have embraced these concepts to generate new business.

In this episode, we speak with Danielle Gray, an expert on digital marketing, who helps us understand the breadth of digital marketing and the value of content strategy. After starting her career as a marketing professional, Danielle now runs her own marketing company advising AEC firms on how to elevate their digital marketing efforts.

DG Marketing Company is a referral-only marketing firm that helps clients with brand strategy, design and execution, and provides one-on-one coaching with firm leaders. In her free time, Danielle is known for her gift as a speaker, connector, creator, and storyteller and has spoken widely across the country with groups including SMPS and AMA. Her presentations include: Nobody’s Reading That!, Confessions of a Content Whisperer, and a new offering, [Safe Space] with Danielle.

Guest:

Known for her reliability and humor, Danielle Gray is a Content Marketing Strategist with over nine years of industry experience composing proposals, writing content, running email campaigns, and generating leads online. Along with developing proposals, she helped her former design-build firm grow website visits by 88% and contributed over $150 million in revenue from leads generated from the website in just three years. Now, Danielle is the owner of DG Marketing Company, a professional services marketing firm committed to contributing and creating genuine, humanized marketing that listens and solves instead of tells and sells. She also speaks around the country about content generation, the importance of digital marketing and social media specifically relating to the AEC industry.

Show Links:

DG Marketing Company

Danielle Gray, MBA

What’s the difference between managing and leading? And, what is effective management?

In this episode, we interview Foram Sheth, Co-Founder and Chief Coaching Officer of Ama La Vida to discuss management training with new and mid-level managers. Learn about the 12 year trap and why it’s important to start leadership training sooner rather than later.

Ama La Vida is an innovative career, leadership, life and health coaching company centered around the understanding that you can and should love your life. Ama La Vida uses a proprietary blend of online eCoaching modules with one-on-one virtual sessions with your personally matched coach to help its members create meaningful, measurable change in their lives.

Guest:

After starting her career in consulting, Foram Sheth left everything she knew to co-found an innovative coaching company. Foram helps her clients accelerate their success by leveraging her consulting background of driving results through data while combining her strengths of empathy and individuality. Foram has been featured in publications like CNBC, The Chicago Tribune, and Inc, where she shares her vision of making coaching accessible to people of all age groups and socioeconomic statuses. 

Foram is an adjunct faculty at Northwestern University and has a Masters in Learning and Organizational Change with her coaching certification in Organizational and Leadership Coaching from Northwestern University.

Show Links:

Ama La Vida

Foram on General Assembly

How to Be An Effective Manager Training

HBR on Micromanaging

How are architects using their training to fight climate change?

The team at cove.tool is fighting climate change by helping architects, engineers, contractors and developers use data-driven design through automation and cost optimization. They lead by example by making science and transparency central while pushing the boundaries.

Founder, Patrick Chopson joins us to discuss his journey into entrepreneurship and his pursuit to help solve the climate crisis through the use of design, technology, and science. 

Cove.tool is a building design platform for intelligent performance. It is streamlined to automate analysis that helps architects, engineers, and contractors achieve energy, COVID occupancy, daylight, glare, radiation, water, and embodied carbon targets while reducing construction cost.

Guest:

Focusing on the crossover between architecture and technology, Patrick Chopson, AIA leads cove.tool, a web-based design software for buildings using machine learning and automation to drive decision making. He oversees product development and customer acquisition as a Co-Founder. A graduate of Georgia Tech with a Master's in High Performance Buildings, he is a licensed architect with over 16 years of experience in architecture, research, and mechanical engineering firms. Prior to cove.tool he co-founded a successful building performance consulting firm Pattern r+d. Multiple publications include Architect Magazine, Tech Crunch, Site Selection, ArchDaily, and more. 

Show Links:

cove.tool

How are individuals using their training in architecture to explore diverse career paths?

Continuing our series on “architecture, and”, we interview Kat Dovjenko who is a former Program Manager at the R+D Lab for the Built Environment. She recently joined Muse & Company as their new Creative Director. She designs physical and digital spaces and transforms emerging ideas into scalable solutions. She works with technologies such as AR/VR, next gen software, and robotics to drive innovation in the AEC industry. Right now, she is helping craft the future of workplace. 

Guest:

Kat Dovjenko is inspired by the dynamic energy around architecture and urban planning. She maintains that the more complex, ambitious, and unsolvable the problem, the better. 

She recently joined Muse & Company as Creative Director.

As a former Program Manager at the R+D Lab for the Built Environment, Kat drove talented teams to unite and achieve outcomes they would not be able to do individually—at multiple scales and in multiple stages of the design process. With R+D, Kat navigated speculative pockets of the future and weaved together how they might impact our built spaces. Kat never shies away from ambiguity and is skilled at using foresight and storytelling to propel leading-edge technologies into real products for the workplace and beyond.

Kat was born near a nuclear meltdown in Kyiv, Ukraine, which imbued her with a superpower for exploration and discovery. She studied Finance in Vancouver, Canada, before earning her Masters in Architecture from the University of Toronto.

In her spare time, Kat works alongside three brilliant investors and leads a syndicate of architects and builders to invest in AEC-related startups. She’s currently learning how to play a steel hang drum, albeit slowly. 

Show Links:

Kat’s website

R+D for the Built Environment

Muse & Company

Spatial Syndicate

Kat Dovjenko on TRXL

What is knowledge management? And why is it important for growing a design studio?

In this episode, we interview Christopher Parsons, the Founder and CEO of Knowledge Architecture to learn more about knowledge management. 

Knowledge Architecture builds software, community, and best practices to help architecture and engineering firms find, share, and manage knowledge.

Their software platform is Synthesis, a social intranet which integrates with Deltek, Newforma, and OpenAsset. They also run an annual knowledge management conference for the AEC industry called KA Connect, as well as a client community of practice for Synthesis intranet teams called KA Advance.

Founded in 2009 and serving over 100 AEC clients, Knowledge Architecture is privately-held, employee-owned, and passionate about co-creating and sharing best practices to advance the state of knowledge management in the AEC industry.

Knowledge Architecture is based in San Francisco, California.

Guest:

Christopher Parsons is the Founder and CEO of Knowledge Architecture, and is responsible for research and development, sales and marketing, and organizational development. He is the executive producer of KA Connect, KA’s annual knowledge management conference for the AEC industry. Christopher has been a technology leader in the AEC industry since 2002, including serving as the Chief Information Officer for Steinberg Architects and the Information Technology Director for SMWM (now Perkins+Will).

Christopher has a degree in History from Wake Forest University. He’s an avid reader, hiker, birdwatcher, and cook.

Show Links:

Deep Dive Series

KA Connect Talk Archive

AEC KM 101 Talk and KM Periodic Table Graphic

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