Side of Design

Design can be a powerful tool to create change and impact organizations and communities. However, it is important that we are striving to understand through research exactly how the design of the built environment impacts our everyday lives. BWBR recognizes the value of research in practice and seeks research collaboration opportunities through academic and student partnerships, such as the University of Minnesota School of Architecture’s Research Consortium and the Masters of Science and Research Practices program (MSRP program). In this episode, BWBR Principal and Design Researcher Stefnee Trzpuc, CID, EDAC, LEED AP,  connects with MSRP Program Director Professor Malini Srivastava, AIA, DDes (School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota), as well as former MSRP student Lucas Glissendorf (BWBR) to hear more.

Host: Stefnee Trzpuc, CID, EDAC, LEED AP
Guests: Lucas Glissendorf and Professor Malini Srivastava, AIA, DDes

Transcript provided by Otter.ai
Music provided by Artlist.io
Funk It Up : Steve Poloni
Circle : Luke Melville

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https://www.bwbr.com/side-of-design-podcast/

Architects are often asked to do more than just design buildings, with clients turning to them for support outside of traditional project scopes and timelines. To meet this need, BWBR created BWBR+, a collection of services focused on human performance and building performance that bridges the gap between architecture and traditional business consulting. Coral Digatono takes a deeper dive into BWBR+ Advisory Services with BWBR's Brandon King, AIA, MBA and Jason Nordling, AIA.

Music provided by artlist.io
Funk It Up : Steve Poloni
Circle : Luke Melville

If you like what we are doing with our podcasts please subscribe and leave us a review!
You can also connect with us on any of our social media sites!
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https://www.bwbr.com/side-of-design-podcast/

Coral Digatono discusses Advisory Services with BWBR's Brandon King, AIA, MBA. Together they take a high level look at a few Advisory Service offerings and why they are important to building owners.

Music provided by artlist.io
Funk It Up : Steve Poloni
Circle : Luke Melville

If you like what we are doing with our podcasts please subscribe and leave us a review!
You can also connect with us on any of our social media sites!
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https://www.bwbr.com/side-of-design-podcast/

In part two of this two part series, Jennifer Stukenberg joins Coral Digatono to discuss how to successfully plan and execute the return to work with a Hybrid work model. Discussing the pitfalls to avoid and how to prepare for an equitable environment.

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https://www.bwbr.com/side-of-design-podcast/

In part one of this two part series, Jennifer Stukenberg, NCIDQ, LEED AP, WELL AP, joins Coral Digatono to discuss how to successfully plan and execute the return to work with a hybrid work model. This episode also considers pitfalls to avoid and how to prepare for an equitable environment.

If you like what we are doing with our podcasts please subscribe and leave us a review!
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https://www.bwbr.com/side-of-design-podcast/

Egress challenges and fire safety codes are common issues that can have a big impact on architectural project design and success, whether new construction or renovation. The existing components of a building used for one purpose might simply not be up to code for another.

Telgian Engineering & Consulting's April Musser, PE, CFPS, and BWBR's Roger "Lars" Larson, AIA, discuss why egress and fire codes are so vital to a building's safety, as well as solutions that performance-based code approaches can offer to make designs more flexible and valuable. In the end, a successful performance-based egress solution will strike a balance between safety and fidelity within an architectural design.

Hosted by Coral Digatono

Guests: 
April Musser, PE, CFPS
Roger "Lars" Larson, AIA

If you like what we are doing with our podcasts please subscribe and leave us a review!
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https://www.bwbr.com/side-of-design-podcast/

Since 2013, Hanna Kuehl, Steve Berg, and the BWBR team have addressed a specific design challenge: to reimagine the special education environment and what it means for students, families, and staff.

Based on research, case studies, and evidence-based reports, BWBR uncovered the elements of an ideal special education environment, which provided an opportunity to help set a new design standard for this student population's unique learning needs. 

By utilizing simple, yet effective, design strategies, the team reduced a large amount of environmental stimuli and helped to improve the daily lives and educational growth of students in these specialized settings.

As students have attested to over the years, the therapeutic learning environment is about more than adaptability and safety — it’s about belonging. 

Hosted by Coral Digatono

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https://www.bwbr.com/side-of-design-podcast/

This Memorial Day Holiday we take time to honor our military service members who've made the greatest sacrifice in service to our country and we celebrate by inviting our staff to share with you, some thoughts and traditions.

Hosted by Coral Digatono

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Today we're taking you down to the heart of Minneapolis, not into downtown, but south of it, where there's a cross section that is a definition of America. 

On Minneapolis's Lake Street, you'll find a vibrant and eclectic mix of locally owned businesses, from clothing stores to restaurants to grocery stores. They are owned by people dreaming of something bigger and better. They are Black, Central American, Mexican, Southeast Asian, and Indian people/business owners, as well as people/business owners from the various First Nations indigenous to Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. To be clear, it's a  neighborhood that sees challenges, one often defined by housing for those with low incomes, absentee landlords, and lack of investment. Drugs and sex trafficking have also plagued the neighborhood. And then last year, the area was set on fire, literally, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. 

A mile and a half away from George Floyd Square, though, rises a shining new light on the corner of Bloomington Avenue and Lake Street. The colorful multi-million dollar building sits as a beacon of hope and aspiration for the community, with windows to the street that will allow traffic for both those in cars and on foot to see positive energy and transformation. It's an investment in the lives of people, who, to be frank, many of us look past; an investment coming from a 142-year-old non-profit. Today, we're taking you inside the new center, soon to be opened by The Family Partnership. 

Molly Greenman, President and CEO, gives us a tour of the new facility. With its preschool classrooms, therapy rooms, counseling rooms, playground, and laundry facilities, the center brings hope and dignity to individuals and families who have found the world to be less than hospitable. In her own words, Greenman sheds light on what this modern, warm, welcoming building means to the organization, to this community rising from years of disinvestment, and to people struggling through deep poverty and trauma. Welcome to The Family Partnership.

Hosted by James Lockwood

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https://www.bwbr.com/side-of-design-podcast/

For more than 60 percent of our population, living a healthy life can be a challenge.

Communities bounded by interstates, located near industrial areas releasing toxic particulates, and ground water infiltrated by pollution such as lead have shown higher rates of asthma, cancer, seizures, and learning disabilities. Add to that a missing urban forest canopy and lack of green space in many of these communities that contribute to the heat-island affect, and the stress of living day-to-day can take years off of one’s life. 

In both urban and rural communities like these there are zip codes where the life expectancy is years lower than those in zip codes with more green space and better zoning separating residential areas from sources of pollution. People living in these areas, on average, are heavily people of color and systemically have little political clout. 

All of this is despite a two-decade movement to focus on sustainability aimed at reducing our impact on the environment and improving our air and water quality. 

Like all systems in America, the sustainability movement has often overlooked how equitably it’s focused, and this past year demonstrated why a broader lens is needed. In those communities where pollution is so prevalent, COVID-19 infection rates are 40 percent higher than in other communities and mortality rates are 19 percent higher. 

In this episode, BWBR’s James Nutt, AIA, LEED AP, and Sara Goenner Curlee, AIA, LEED AP, join Stephanie Leonard from the U.S. Green Building Council to discuss sustainability through the lens of equity: how should we own our oversights in the past, and what does this journey look like that can put us on the right path towards benefitting all through better design…all forms of design? 

Hosted by James Lockwood

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