CONTEXT: What's Next for the Profession

what’s next for the profession?

spring/summer 2012

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contents what’s next for the profession?

In this issue of CONTEXT, we

10 Editors’ Roundtable Guest Editors David Zaiser and Stephen Mullin sit down with four AIA Philadelphia architects to discuss the future of the profession, from meeting clients’ needs to the impact of new technology.

survey the landscape of our own profession. In light of sweeping economic, financial and social

14 Making the Grade We survey several key educators in the Philadelphia region to glean their insight on the state of architectural education and what the future holds for graduating architects.

changes, we examine how we can improve our practices while

18 Efficiency: An Architect’s New Best Friend

preparing ourselves for the future of architecture.

5 EL editors’ letter

Economist Stephen Mullin dissects the economic trends that will influence the future world of architects, while arguing that increasing efficiency is key.

8 RE Review The Biography of a Building

6 UC up close Alan Greenberger transforms Philadelphia while transforming himself

22 EX Expression

Finding beauty in Philadelphia’s less-loved buildings.

26 DP design profiles Lenfest Hall. Shore Medical Center Surgical Pavilion. West Philadelphia High School. Rehabilitation of the Original Farm Show Complex.

36 NB NOTEBOOK

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CONTEXT The Journal of AIA Philadelphia CONTEXT Staff Managing Editor Dominic Mercier Circulation Gary Yetter Art Director Dominic Mercier Layout and Design Dominic Mercier Publisher AIA Philadelphia CONTEXT Editorial Board Harris M. Steinberg, FAIA – Chair Penn Praxis David Brownlee, Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania Steven Conn, Ph.D. Ohio State University

Peter C. Archer, AIA Director Nicole Morris Dress, AIA, LEED AP Director Antonio Fiol-Silva, FAIA, LEED AP Director John C. Gerbner, AIA, LEED AP Director Carol A. Hermann, AIA Director Joseph H. Powell, AIA Director Denise E. Thompson, AIA, LEED AP Director Todd K. Woodward, AIA, LEED AP Director Jules Dingle, AIA AIA Pennsylvania Director Robert C. Kelly, AIA AIA Pennsylvania Director

Susan Miller Davis, AIA

Elizabeth C. Masters, AIA AIA Pennsylvania Director

Sally Harrison, AIA Temple University

Michael Skolnick, AIA AIA Pennsylvania Director

Hilary Jay Stephen P. Mullin Econsult Corporation Michael Nairn University of Pennsylvania Rachel Simmons Schade, AIA Schade and Bolender Architects Anthony P. Sorrentino University of Pennsylvania Todd Woodward, AIA SMP Architects AIA Philadelphia Board of Directors Keith C.H. Mock, AIA President Robert T. Hsu, AIA President-Elect Jim Rowe, AIA Treasurer Julie Hoffman, AIA Past President

Paul Avazier, Assoc. AIA Associate Director Alan Urek Public Member John Claypool Executive Director Editorial and Project Submissions Editorial and project submissions are accepted on a rolling basis.

Contact the editor at dominic@ aiaphila.org. For advertising and subscription information call AIA Philadelphia at 215.569.3186.

The opinions expressed in this journal or the representations made by advertisers, including copyrights and warranties, are not those of the editorial staff, publisher, AIA Philadelphia, or AIA Philadelphia’s Board of Directors.

Copyright 2012 AIA Philadelphia.

All rights are reserved. Reproduction in part or whole without written permission is strictly prohibited.

Postmaster: send change of address to AIA Philadelphia, 1218 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

From the President We have all witnessed the advancement of innovative technologies over the past couple decades, driving significant change with incredible pace around the globe. Specific to the built environment, the influence of advanced technologies will continue to bring enormous opportunity, only limited by our minds and passions.

Architecture is the lasting artistic and scientific artifact of our. Contemporary architecture grew from the Industrial Revolution, a time when changes in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation and technology had a profound impact on our society, economy and culture. In recent decades, each of these industries again experienced significant evolution due to economic, scientific, and social changes.

Agriculture continues to move from the farm to controlled environments; manufacturing productivity increased through computerization and lean processes; transport vehicles utilize lighter material, last longer and economize fuel; and computing technology has enabled social media and digitization transforming how we communicate and view information around the globe. The same change agents that have impacted industry are increasingly finding their way into discussions of mainstream contemporary architecture.

What’s next for architecture, a complex matrix of form, function, contemporary values and techniques?

1) The social enlightenment of everything “green,” enabled by new technologies, will impact the practice of architecture until like the internet “green” is taken for granted. The March 2012 release of the IgCC (International Green Construction Code) will move sustainable architecture out of the marketing brochure and into building owner contracts with incredible pace.

2) Continued advancement of computational and parametric modeling will further enable optimum design solutions. At the forefront is 3-D modeling, building energy performance modeling, and modularization where alternative ideas may be constructed, exercised and evaluated for aesthetics, performance and fabrication. Software for functional analysis of building programs, building code compliance, and systems optimization will soon be available and accessible from the cloud.

3) Increased free flow of digital information, interoperability between trade software, and collaboration between allied design professions and construction trades is imminent. New design and construction processes will further blur lines of responsibility between architect and contractor.

Technological advances are increasingly enabling innovative techniques in the practice of architecture to improve durability, utility, and beauty – “Firmness, Commodity and Delight.” Like our peer industries, architecture – the chronicle of time expressed in simple detail and honest effort – is poised for continued evolution. Let your mind and passion influence your adaptation of advanced technologies to bring gift and opportunity.

Keith C. H. Mock, AIA 2012 AIA Philadelphia Chapter President

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editors’ letter

EL

What Happens Now? AS ARCHITECTS, WE ARE MAVENS OF CHANGE: skillfully defining, orchestrating, and ultimately realizing our clients’ vision for something better. Whether it is a building, a neighborhood, or a process, we see what to others is frequently invisible – how environments shape the structures of our lives – and we design a better reality. We do it so often, and so successfully, we frequently fail to realize its power and applicability to ourselves.

In this issue of CONTEXT, we set our design sights on our own profession and its current environment. Much of our attention of the past several years has been on the difficult economy, but within this same short time span we have also witnessed the growth of building information modeling (BIM), rapid demographic shifts, and dramatic changes in how we communicate with each other. Against this backdrop of sweeping technological, social and financial change, what should we be doing to make our practices, and our profession, better? How do we manage an environment of unprecedented change? What’s next?

We asked these questions (and more) of two expert panels: one a group of architects from within the AIA Philadelphia, and another of architecture educators in the region. The answers we received may change what you believe our role should be in improving the built environment, but they certainly highlight how the power of the design process can positively impacting our own profession.

We also consider how the new economic environment might impact the demand for space – quantity and quality – in the commercial, residential, and public infrastructure sectors. Will these demands determine the role and influence (what Stephen calls “the happiosity”) of the architect of the future? Stephen provides his insights into how we, as architects, might best address these demands in his article.

We hope that you enjoy this issue of CONTEXT.

Stephen Mullin David Zaiser, AIA Guest Editors

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Alan Greenberger, FAIA Philadelphia’s Deputy Mayor for economic development and director of commerce is transforming the city while transforming himself

PHOTO: DOMINIC MERCIER

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up close

By JoAnn Greco Spend some time with Alan Greenberger and you quickly come to realize that he’s a man who enjoys the art of conversation.

He’ll meander in thoughtful fashion from one topic to another, never quite losing track of the threads that connect them, and somehow ending up precisely where he wanted to go.

Spend a little more time with him and you understand that it’s this quality that got him to where he is today — securely stationed near the Mayor’s ear when it comes to matters of the built environment.

Currently poised at the governmental intersection of planning and business attraction as the city’s Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Director of Commerce, Greenberger’s also headed the city’s planning and zoning code commissions, and ran its planning department.

Each time, as he freely admits, he’s talked himself into the job.

Greenberger’s move from private practice to a civic career began in 2008, shortly after Michael Nutter was elected. Nutter had already awarded him a seat on the planning commission, in recognition of the architect’s work in helping him formulate his positions on the built environment. As a commissioner, one of Greenberger’s most critical assignments was to find a new director.

When the perfect candidate didn’t emerge, Greenberger nominated himself and landed the gig.

About to leave for vacation, Greenberger thought long and hard, he says, “about whether I’d be abandoning my partners [at MGA Partners], about whether I wanted leave the business that I so loved. I fretted all week, I had a miserable time at the beach.”

The pull to make a greater impact was strong, though. “I thought the Mayor was the right guy at the right time, and that Phil-

adelphia was at a 50-year transformational moment,” he muses. “I thought, this moment will not come along again in a long while.”

His partners responded graciously, Greenberger recalls. Even today, Daniel O. Kelley, principal at MGA, says, “Alan’s taking the values and ideas that we concocted over 30 years and applying them to try and make the whole city better.”

Greenberger’s decision sprang, in many ways, from his most recent work at MGA. “I was getting the firm more involved in planning with projects like the master plan for the Centennial District,” he says now. “I had co-founded the Design Advocacy Group, I was getting involved in civic issues. A lot of my clients were institutional or involved in some way with the public sector. So, it really didn’t feel so unfamiliar or that far of a stretch.”

Architects are well-equipped to handle bigger things, Greenberger believes. “I wish the schools talked about that more,” he observes. “There’s a lot that architects can do for their cities, besides design. “We approach things from a problem-solving angle, we’re project-based, and, yes, we have a unique ability to understand the physical place.”

That’s not to say that Greenberger hasn’t had to adjust to a role that he calls the “hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

“Government at the municipal level is where the rubber hits the road, every single day,” he says. “I have to take a lot of different points of view equally seriously, and that ain’t easy. I’m often trying to figure out how to find a path through the thicket of conflicting interests.”

A big part of his day-to-day, he adds, is spent examining the nitty gritty necessary to getting projects rolling. “I’ve become an expert on financing, on asking questions like ‘Where’s your capital?’ ‘Can you take on

UC

debt?’ ‘What’s the ask from the public sector?’ It’s become pretty easy to sniff out the difference between those who are ready to go, and those who are in La-La Land.”

And while he has more control over such matters than he did as an architect, he knows that progress still take time. “You have to just keep hitting singles to win. There’s not enough money floating around for there to be that many home runs,” he says. “The best cities are the ones that evolve.”

Still, there’s that urge to push, to steer things. To, well, pick up a pencil every now and then.

“At first, I said I wouldn’t, that I’d be respectful of others’ designs and compositions,” he admits. “But now, if I think of something better, I do it.” From a Toll Brothers housing development to a downtown hotel, he’s indulged in napkin sketches. “I’ve made suggestions, yes, and they’ve been accepted, and so the projects are going to be a little better,” he says.

It’s the kind of urge, really, that couldn’t be satisfied by, oh, updating a bathroom in his East Mt. Airy home. “I need scale,” he says. “I’m compelled by place-making.”

Once his work with the current administration is over, he doesn’t know where he’ll end up. It’ll involve design, sure — but not an architectural practice. “It’ll be more likely be something in the public realm: a university, think-tank, foundation, that kind of thing,” he posits.

For now, he adds, “I love being part of where Philadelphia is going. That’s the real transformation.”

Based in Philadelphia, JoAnn Greco is a regular contributor to PlanPhilly.com. Her writing on the built environment has also appeared in The Washington Post, Planning, Metropolis, The Atlantic Cities, ArchitectureBoston, and Urban Land. Contact her at joann@joanngreco.com. context | SP/SU2012 | 7

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review

The Biography of a Building: How Robert Sainsbury and Norman Foster Built a Great Museum The Biography of a Building

By Witold Rybcznski Published by Thames & Hudson 208 pages ISBN: 0500342768

By Anthony Sorrentino There are few, if any, contemporary thinkers in the architectural and design world demonstrating the talent and intellectual curiosity in presenting a subject matter that simultaneously transports a reader to a time and place, while demystifying the topic. This is why picking up a new book by Witold Rybczynski, the design profession’s master storyteller, is an event.

For nearly 20 years the author, a professor of urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, has been diving deep into an array of diverse subjects (landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the standardization of the screw, Palladian architecture, the history of domiciles), and in his latest book, Rybczynski brings the reader into the drafting room and onto the construction site for a behind the scenes tour of how an architectural landmark was built - the Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts at East Angola University in England.

The fascinating recounting of the design and construction process is made richer by the Sainsbury’s selection of the unknown, unproven, and youthful Norman Foster, who with this commission was about to break onto the architecture scene and go onto great influence. Revisiting this unconventional selection of Foster feels like opening a time capsule with the benefit of having already seen the contents verified. Foster context | SP/SU2012 | 8

review

would soon be internationally famous, and the Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts would become an architectural icon.

The author titled it a “biography” of a building, which allows him the latitude to broadly inform the reader of all the various machinations that must come together to produce a significant structure that showcases art, including: site planning, landscape design, construction engineering, lighting design, curatorial art, museum administration, and the politics of university fundraising.

Lean and efficient at 221 pages, with 50 images that include architectural plans, construction photography, and selected works from the museum collection, The Biography of a Building is a great read because of the way the author presents the context and details of not only how it was built, but why this building was erected.

He shares the personal story, aspirations, and inspirations of the philanthropists who made it possible. The Sainsbury family slowly accumulated its wealth (wholesale produce, retail grocery stores), and Robert Sainsbury used it to build and curate a world-renowned collection of paintings and sculpture. In his retirement, he devoted himself full time to collecting. Through interviews and reporting, Rybczynski reveals the thought process of how the collection grew, and ultimately

how the Sainsbury family determined that the art collection needed its own home, preferably at a university that would care for it, designed by an architect that would honor their aesthetic. This is less a book on the architecture of a building, and more on the many moves, large and small, that accumulate over a lifetime to arrive at such a milestone.

Aside from the straight-ahead narrative arc of the Sainsbury family amassing wealth, then art, and finally sponsoring a building to house it, the book’s structure invites the reader through rich detours of three private art collections that founded notable museums, including an illuminating section devoted to the construction of the original Barnes Foundation on Philadelphia’s Main Line.

The similarities between Dr. Albert Barnes and Mr. Sainsbury - as collectors driven by their own intellectual pursuits, and as museum builders working with visionary designers (in the case of the Barnes the legendary Paul Cret) - are remarkable. Both collectors were wealthy men who became self-taught collectors following personal intellectual systems for display. And both saw their museums as a meta expression on how their collection was to be a pedagogical experience.

Their stories also illustrate the resentments and bitterness that can arise between a patron and their architect, with the difference

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being that the Sainsbury family considered Sir Norman Foster extended family, where as Dr. Barnes and Paul Cret ceased having a relationship and were barely on speaking terms.

This insightful approach can change the way one looks at every cultural building.

Civic architecture in the form of museums, libraries, university campuses, hospitals, and music halls, are often not built by the public sector, but rather through the opaque largess of a private citizen. As a result, the sponsor has final say on how the design will be realized and remains a mystery to the end user.

In The Biography of a Building, Rybczynski provides a highly detailed account of how a museum collection was built, and then how the site was selected, and then how the building was designed and constructed, all the while weaving in the personal stories of the various professionals involved in every part of the story - from site landscape planning to lighting design. The author also explains how the building was received and even operates to this day under the second generation of Sainsbury stewards, after years of additions and modernization.

Anthony Sorrentino is the Executive Director of Public Affairs at the University of Pennsylvania and serves on the editorial board of CONTEXT. context | SP/SU2012 | 9

Where does the architectural profession go from here?

How do we pick up the pieces after the recession?

CONTEXT guest editors David Zaiser, AIA, and Stephen Mullin sit down with four principals to discuss the future of architecture, managing client expectations, expanded services, and harnessing the power of technology.

WHAT’S NEXT? EDITORS’ ROUNDTABLE

Cecelia Denegre, AIA Principal, CDA&I Architecture and Interiors, Ltd.

Nando Micale, FAIA Principal, Wallace Roberts & Todd

Mark Sanderson, AIA Principal, DIGSAU

Richard Winston, AIA Principal, BWA Architecture + Planning

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ZAISER: With the increase and interest in sensitivity to design in general, what roles do you believe architects should be playing in the built environment?

WINSTON: The way that I begin to get at that is to realize how much of the built environment is outside of our control or influence and to appreciate that we are a very small drop of black paint in a bucket of white paint. If you look at the development of sort of strip mall America, all of a sudden you realize that, except for signature buildings, restorations, and a few other kinds of projects and whatever we can snag from somebody who starts to believe in the value of the architect, 80 percent of the built environment is not us or influenced by us. So the way I answer your question is, we should be doing a lot that we aren’t to gain a market share. But how do you demonstrate value to that kind of audience, that doesn’t perceive it? That only reinforces your question, though … it doesn’t answer it.

DENEGRE: From our perspective, it’s more of being a steward of the environment. Since we don’t do much new architecture - we’re repurposing existing buildings - I think there are roles to lead with a vision about stewardship and the buildings that we have, particularly in the Northeast. You know, if we were in Austin, it would be a different story. The more we can be stewards of what we have, and be creative with how we can use what we have, and bring energy efficiency and creative thinking about how to be sustainable in everything we do … I think that’s our role. To me it’s not about the next design, the star architect, the best building, but it’s about rethinking what we have in a creative way and repurposing it.

SANDERSON: Advancing the value of design. I think Steve Jobs, more than any architectural change, has shown what the value of design can do from a transformative standpoint. I think architects need to advance that cause, and there’s plenty of design problems to go around and plenty of partners to work with in all fields.

MICALE: It’s how you define design. When you say that there’s a sensitivity to design, I think as a culture there’s a sensitivity to style, because most people don’t understand design as a process. You can have a low budget and have a fantastic design.

I think that’s the real value that we can bring: understanding how something is funded, how to get the best value out of the funds that you have, and how you solve the problem. That’s what our profession needs to do. From a larger, cultural perspective, we’re subject to the sensitivity in design because the people who get the press are the starchitects. Frank Gehry said something along the lines of “Brad Pitt’s an architect.” It’s a quote. Brad Pitt is not an architect, but it’s a commodification of what we do, a starchitecture approach to who is a designer in a project. It’s really about the values that we bring, and it’s reflective of the economic cycle we’re in, too. We’re talking about these issues now because we’re in a down economic cycle. When we’re fat and happy, we tend to spend a lot of time praising all the great architects and looking at high design.

MULLIN: How do you think client expectations will be changing in the future? Do you think architects will be expected to specialize more or will services broaden beyond the traditional?

MICALE: I think that’s already happened. We, like many firms, were affected by the recession. The only way we’ve been able to manage the recession is by providing value beyond what a traditional architect provides. So, having a more diverse staff, not in terms of people, but in terms of their knowledge base and the skills they bring to the table is really important, and along with that, this issue of being a client’s partner in the process.

We come not just as the architects, but as the sort of thought leadership of how you’re going to get this done and what’s the best way to conceptualize the project from financing all the way through implementation with design-build processes, to getting the architect, the builder, and the client all in the same room at the very beginning of the project, so you don’t waste time as you’re developing the actual project. It’s the partner aspect that adds value. There are sort of two trajectories: the firms that are doing that and the firms that are still doing the service model, and the firms who are doing the service model ultimately are going to keep competing for lower and lower prices, versus the value-added model, which is going to at least keep us flat.

DENEGRE: If you read a lot of literature that’s coming out about our industry, it’s interesting because, even in the architecture schools, they’re putting interdisciplinary teams together to look at projects. It’s not just architects anymore; it’s economists, it’s anthropologists, it’s historians, it’s industrial designers. I think it’s kind of exciting. It’s all interdisciplinary.

SANDERSON: I’ve found that AIA Contract Documents haven’t really kept up with the new model. They’re focused on keeping the architect’s role in a very discrete, low-risk position. If

you follow the service model of AIA contracts, it’s very difficult to be nimble to your client’s needs, so we kind of throw those out the window pretty quickly once we start a project.

MULLIN: Just out of curiosity on AIA Contract Documents …

I heard murmurs and saw heads nodding, saying that that’s the sense that you all had. That’s your own organization. Is it blocking some place in that world, or are you all saying that it hasn’t kept up? Is it because someone in charge is stuck in the 1950s, or is it just that there isn’t a consensus on how you keep up?

SANDERSON: It’s moving so fast that if you want to be competitive and serve your clients, you have to start out with competitive, streamlined, efficiency models, and the AIA contracts have been built on a foundation for the last 50 years. They’re still good contracts for traditional services, but if you’re trying to operate in a way that’s more responsive to the client’s needs and you’re trying to expand into the creative footprint, that’s a pretty narrow document we’ve found.

MULLIN: What are those expanded services as you’re seeing them?

SANDERSON: The clear-cut service model is like asking, “How many cubicles do you need, and what place do we need to put them in the footprint?” And a partnership model is one where you’re asking questions that help them think about their organization in a different way.

MICALE: Well, it depends on the project, too. If you’re working for a commercial client you can use preliminary design or preliminary concepts as a discrete part of that contract, use additional services, and maybe elaborate on those to allow for some flexibility. In housing markets, that’s a different thing because most developers aren’t willing to pay predevelopment money until you have financing in place. That’s a trust issue with the client that you’re working for, which forces you to only work for the clients that you trust.

DENEGRE: We specialize in existing facilities and bring in experts who can look at those buildings depending on what it is.

We’ve had real estate analysis done on particular projects, so we’ll pull in a major real estate player in Philadelphia as a consultant to us. Also dealing with furniture is a big issue, because we do a lot of interiors as well as architecture. Cost estimating is a big thing, and project scheduling is another. Those are all project management issues, and, because we’re small, we bring all those people to the table. It’s kind of a cool model because we can stay small and then, depending on the project, bring in the resources to do that project, and that might change depending on the client WINSTON: Another model that’s become popular again is design-build, but sometimes it’s design-build-develop or turnkey or something like that. If you rewind the film back to the early 1980s, my old company was doing design-build, and we were context | SP/SU2012 | 11

somewhat shunned by the AIA. They had no contractual forms for it, and they thought it was an inappropriate comingling of interests. We said, “Well it’s single-point delivery, and it’s actually a great delivery model, why shouldn’t we do it?” So it became a healthy debate. So now, fast forward to the last few months … three colleges have asked us, “What do you think of design-build?”

MULLIN: Do you think that designing for energy and workplace efficiency will become the norm, rather than being seen as an option or an add-on?

MICALE: I don’t know about office efficiency, but energy efficiency for sure. These are different markets. Some are not that interested in efficiency will more interested in how we work, so they may actually require a bit more room to work well. But metrics in terms of energy, for sure.

WINSTON: I’d suggest changing office efficiency to office efficacy, because it depends on your organization’s value system. Some people are successful and creative because they are non-efficient in the traditional sense. These efficiency evaluators come in to firms and say, “You could do it this way and save time and manpower,” and that really ties well with green design, because we’re learning that a healthier environment increases productivity. But efficiency, to my mind, implies [considerations such as] what percentage of your space is productive, rentable space versus [what is used simply for] circulation.

DENEGRE: We’re working with a few public clients right now in the city. Specifically, the Water Department and they’ve got 600 people in Aramark Tower. The City of Philadelphia has workplace standards and they go back to 15 years ago and they’re based on civil service positions. What we thought was going to take a month has taken three months, because we’re really questioning them about the relationship between position and amount of space, and aren’t there other questions that really need to be asked, and that has to do with—not necessarily efficiency—but quality of space for public employees and also switching how they think about themselves.

SANDERSON: I think building on what Dick said is that effectiveness — and efficiency may not be the right term — but efficiency and effectiveness towards collaboration; I think that’s the thing that we’ve seen more focus on in the design workplace … questioning the cubicle and looking at collaborative space and allowing that collaboration to move businesses and organizations forward.

WINSTON: Something Cece said triggered another recollection and that is thinking about especially big cities that have lost population. Just taking Philadelphia as an example, knowing that Detroit and Cleveland are in worse shape, we are only about, give or take, two-thirds of the population we were in 1955, but we still have an infrastructure—a very agcontext | SP/SU2012 | 12

ing infrastructure—that serves that larger footprint, and we can’t support it, hence school closings, scratching for dollars to replace sewers, and things like that. So it even calls into question the efficiency of the city as it is presently organized.

Not that the easy solution is just to make everything compact and forget the rest, but how do you make a city effective?

You really have to change the model. So NTI tore down a lot of empty houses and put grass in but it didn’t solve the problem. So there’s a whole organizational investigation to do there to figure out how you can keep the city viable. So I don’t know whether that’s efficiency or something else, but just for the city to survive is a big challenge. Also a good opportunity for designers and planners, if they want to delve into that realm.

ZAISER: Do you envision any leveling of architectural degrees, or stratification within firms to be more efficient in terms of how we deliver a design product? Is that in our future? Are you seeing any of that now?

SANDERSON: We actively subvert that stratification, because we see the moment of drawing something through as critical to thinking through the problem. But it is not an efficient model.

DENEGRE: I think in terms of our office, we’re partners and problem solvers. I think very little of what we do is production oriented. And if we set the job up, we set so much energy in the front end that, we certainly could package the production part. Once it gets to a certain point, I don’t see a problem in outsourcing that. It’s a partnership with a firm we’ve had experience with. It’s not like we’re sending it to China or something.

MICALE: I think it’s related to the size of the firm or the practice. The bigger the firm gets, the more it’s unlikely that you’ll be doing that stratification. We’re a firm that grew to 250 at the height of the market, and there were those pressures to do that stratification. As a culture we couldn’t do that. The most we did was send out a rendering overnight, mostly because it was [to meet] client expectations, not because we didn’t have the capacity to do it in-house. But if you’re thinking about the best use of people’s time, the collaborative process is the way to get you the best product in the office, not the stratification in the uses.

WINSTON: It sounds like two things that might overlap: one’s specialization and the other’s stratification. Cece’s model is one where she specializes in getting the specialists she needs for her team, which, we do, too. When people want specialization, and there are people who have strength in certain areas, you certainly get more efficiency - there’s that word again - out of that specialization, as long as people don’t feel like they’re getting pigeon-holed. I don’t think we’ve ever gotten to the point where we just had CAD operators who do nothing else. We like that integration as a

process. Sure, the junior people are doing the drafting, but they’re modeling the whole process, the thinking process and learning how to detail. The other concern I have about outsourcing, at least for our work, is especially on historic restoration and complex renovations. The details are very fussy and numerous in order to make up a contract document. Maybe it’s just my own uneasiness about it, but I don’t see myself handing out to somebody who hasn’t had a lot of experience or isn’t under my direct guidance.

ZAISER: Do you think that new technologies and other ways of working in the office will have some effect on fees?

How will we see those fees changing?

SANDERSON: I’ve always found that the process from a client perspective seems so challenging and full of unknowns and unexpected twists and turns that we have to come up with a better way to do it for their sake. That’s partially why people continue to look for other models, because the current model doesn’t work very well and it’s not very friendly to clients. If there’s a change in the profession that begins to address those issues, that’s where our services and our values begin to expand again. Right now, if you’re a client, you’d be doing everything you can to avoid the challenges and the hurdles that come with taking on a construction project.

ZAISER: One of my partners did a presentation recently with one of our past clients, and he described the architect selection process as a high-risk endeavor. And to hear that from a client, it really kind of drove it home. It’s exactly what you’re saying.

SANDERSON: To select a site, create a budget, create a schedule, select a builder, the whole design team … There are so many variables and opportunities or challenges in that process that, just from their perspective, it’s not a very good model.

WINSTON: The choice of technologies is an interesting one. We’ve found them to be very useful for a certain client because we could show them the space quickly, and we could also alter the space quickly. We can just get it faster in CAD, but we can communicate through traditional needs for people who need help visualizing what the solution’s going to look like. A couple of us old guys are still pretty fast in sketching. We have been very judicious in use of BIM, but have used it to good effect.

ZAISER: Do you see the Internet, social media, and the potential for free or less-expensive online education having any impact on the profession, even beyond any of the technologies that we employ within the office?

MICALE: I think that the interaction of technology, the practice, and the client interaction is the real game changer.

We’re using 3-D modeling as a way to communicate with our clients in real time. You can use it to show what the space is going to look like, and we’re using it actually in our

design sessions. The danger is that it marginalizes what we do, because of our culture, which is driven by gaming. A lot of our entertainment culture has a gaming component in it.

The danger is that our clients will see it as just another game that they can play. I’ve seen it when you’re doing real-time modifications to a design. If they say, “If I knew how to do that, I could do the design myself,” I think it devalues what we do, because it’s not about just the technology. It’s about the process we go through to get to the design and engaging the client to understand the values, how they work or live, and responding with a design solution.

SANDERSON: I would see those changes as cross-industry and less architectural. Those changes in the digital media are really pervasive on a societal level. You just have to choose how you want to engage personally and as a firm with the various technologies that are out there. As a contrarian point about the digital modeling, we’ve found that the modeling and the ability to show people the space has allowed us to more quickly move to the conversation about what the space is doing, or what the client is doing, or how the design may help their organization or work for them.”

MICALE: Its utility is about being able to literally see what you’re talking about and not having to interpret drawings.

I’ve always been a critic of the way we show clients drawings. If anyone shows an elevation again … it’s ridiculous. I mean, no one sees a building in elevation, so why would you draw that for your client. You may draw it for your construction documents, but you don’t draw it for your client.

WINSTON: Online learning is just everywhere now. We’re doing webinars periodically in the office when something interesting comes along. We’ve actually set up webinars if we have a fairly diversified constituency among a client’s set of decision makers at the table. One way to get at an issue is to do a webinar, which we’ve done with some success at a couple of colleges. Then we’re bringing the source material to them - not creating it necessarily - but it gives us credibility and we all share in the learning process together.

MICALE: On a similar note, where we work outside of the region we use Live Meeting on a regular basis. It has really affected the efficiency of our communication. In terms of social media, in our public sector work it’s become really important, because it’s another way we communicate and get input for our design. We’ve found that we’re even forced to use social media if you’re working in communities and public sector work. We had a situation in Kansas City where we were monitoring social media for a project and all of a sudden we saw a post that people were gathering digitally to gather physically to come out against the process. So it allowed us to respond in kind and make sure the information was correct that was out there, address it upfront in a public meeting. context | SP/SU2012 | 13

MAKING THE GRADE CONTEXT surveyed several key educators in Philadelphia to glean their thoughts on the state of architectural education, the future of the profession, and what the world holds for graduating architects. Each was provided with five questions. Their answers are presented here.

With increased interest in and sensitivity to design, what roles do you believe architects should be playing in the built environment?

We need to be more aware of our role as advocates for design. Interest in and sensitivity to design are important qualities for a culture to embrace. But built environment professionals, including architects, should make sure to lead and guide the ‘interest’. One important role we play as educators is to guide students to consider the roles of architecture in an expanded field. As such we ask that they become good listeners and observers finding out how to engage issues and engage in dialog about a range of topics that are impacted by design.

Katherine Wingert-Playdon Chairperson, Architecture Department Temple University

Do you think that designing for energy and workplace efficiency will become the norm, rather than being seen as an option or add on?

Yes. This is a quality of life issue as well as an ethical one. The quality of life considerations are not just about human comfort but environmental well-being (including but not only for us) as a whole. Interior environments can be well tempered, of course, but any mechanical means to do this should also consider environmental impact now and in the long term.

How do you envision design fees as a percentage of development funds trending in the future?

It is hoped that the valuable role design plays in development will not be underestimated, but this might be an optimistic view.

Do you think there will be any stratification or leveling of architecture degrees so that lower “occupation” levels can provide work more cheaply?

We should be careful not to make this happen. Wisdom that comes with experience has always been an important design attribute. With current complexities of practice and design, wisdom is as necessary as it has ever been. If financial considerations are driving stratification, it is important that this does not impact the role of design.

How do you think client expectations changing in the future? Do you think architects will be expected to be more specialize, or will services broaden beyond the traditional?

I think this depends on the kind of service and the size of a given commission. On the one hand, practices have expanded to embrace a range of design and management roles, the broadening of services has already begun. On the other hand, there is great need for specialization given complexities of practice and some particular circumstances. One interesting trend for both small practices and large ones is the role of collaboration, within the architecture disciplines and also across disciplinary lines. Collaboration afford flexibility - to be able to specialize on the one hand, and to be able to join forces and provide a broad range of services on the other. This is a fascinating trend in design practice at this moment in time. It speaks again to the need to educate design professionals to have knowledge and experience well beyond the field of architecture.

Will the Internet, specifically social media and accessible, free online education, have a measurable impact on the profession?

The internet already has had an enormous impact. Social media connects us more intimately and allows us to find who and what we need, and this has been positive. Free online education is a developing area, and one we should all look at with great interest. It is not clear yet what impact this will have.

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First, I want to thank the practitioner friends and colleagues at Philadelphia University who shared their perspectives on these issues with me so I could present responses as well rounded as possible. Architects are not completely in agreement about the future of architectural practice, but they do envision some of the same possibilities.

With increased interest in and sensitivity to design, what roles do you believe architects should be playing in the built environment?

Generally, our society does seem more aware these days of the benefits of good design. Architects increasingly use more sophisticated technologies – of course young architects are acquiring those skills while in school – to be problem solvers in realms beyond the more limited roles they’ve had in the past. Among the comments I heard from colleagues is the importance of architects presenting themselves as creative problem solvers at many steps of the building process, from preliminary design services and programming to post-occupancy review. Also, we imagine that architects will continue to work with professionals from other disciplines – landscape architects, construction managers, engineers, health-care givers – earlier in the process. Again, we strive to teach this approach to design with students so they’ll be better prepared for the job market.

Do you think that designing for energy and workplace efficiency will become the norm, rather than being seen as an option or add on?

Everyone I speak with seems to agree that the emphasis on energy and workplace efficiency is not an ephemeral trend but a permanent change in the expectations that both architects and clients have. Architects provide added value when they bring expertise to these aspects of the relationship. Today, students leave the university assuming that they must be prepared to deal with sustainability, integrated project delivery, and building information modeling, so I can only see these trends as continuing.

David Breiner, PhD Director, Associate Professor, Architecture Department Philadlephia University

How do you envision design fees as a percentage of development funds trending in the future?

Today’s soft economy has provided different experiences for different offices. Some principals have had a very difficult time despite lowered design-fee percentages and expect opportunities will rebound slowly. Others, by broadening their services, have earned higher fees than before. Those services address issues such as building energy performance, new construction techniques and materials, site management, and financial development. I guess the lesson is to seize opportunities and use new tools when needed. When possible, it should make practice more interesting as well.

Do you think there will be any stratification or leveling of architecture degrees so that lower “occupation” levels can provide work more cheaply?

Stratification of degrees already exists with some students emerging from NAAB-accredited programs (both bachelors and masters levels) and others from pre-professional programs. On top of that, even two architectural interns from similar educational backgrounds can wind up with very different roles in an office. And of course outsourcing low-level work is already being done offshore. In general, the responses were that architects should be generalists as much as they can; however, I acknowledge that in certain fields, that attitude is contrary to the expectations of clients and others in industry.

How do you think client expectations changing in the future? Do you think architects will be expected to be more specialized, or will services broaden beyond the traditional?

Architects running smaller firms may not have seen much change in the recent past, but larger firms have a different reality. Some firms have become more specialized, while others have broadened. This is a positive thing, right? It allows architects to find the kind of practice they’re most interested in. As long as clients are educated in their choices, they also benefit from the variety of firms. Meanwhile, as architects deal with the battle between the specialist-architect and the generalist-architect, most hope that they will be able to retain their role as a manager and leader of multiple players. But architects must be increasingly proactive so their options won’t be limited.

Will the Internet, specifically social media and accessible, free online education, have a measurable impact on the profession?

I heard lots of divergent comments about this issue. Digital tools can be very convenient for continuing education, but are they as effective as learning experiences based on more direct personal interaction? There is room for improvement in how architects continue to keep current in the field, but for the most part digital media provide flexibility and a broad spectrum of opportunities. Someday, virtual meetings over long distances between architects and others will be even more productive, which will allow greater choices in global practice and result in better designs.

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Jon Coddington Department Head, Architecture and Interiors Drexel University

Frank deSantis Asst. Teaching Professor, Architecture and Interiors Drexel University

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With increased interest in and sensitivity to design, what roles do you believe architects should be playing in the built environment?

[CODDINGTON] I believe the question is both indicative of the problems facing the profession and the academy as well as holding the promise on how we might extract ourselves from our present marginalized position in the building industry.

First the question; there is little or no hard data that there is “…increased interest and sensitivity to design.”

I am unaware of any broad-based research that demonstrates recent construction reflects this claim, whether architects or others execute the designs. While there is certainly some evidence that the public has an interest in design based on the plethora of television cable shows that have design content in them ranging from cooking to fashion, I have not seen any data that indicates an upturn in wide-spread client demand for increased “sensitivity to design.” If claims are to be made regarding design, the profession and their value to the public, qualitative and quantitative evidence will be required. As Philadelphia’s own James Timberlake observed, “Anything you need to quantify can be measured in some way that is superior to not measuring it at all.”

Architects and the organizations that represent them can no longer expect our public, especially those who commission our buildings, to rely on unsubstantiated claims regarding the value added the profession brings to the built environment. As evidence-based-design becomes increasingly the norm, new organizational structures as well as new ways of thinking and doing need to occur in both the academy and the profession.

For instance in regards to the academy, we need to develop instruments to measure the value of an architectural education. Evidence-based-education is the academy’s equivalent of the profession’s evidence-base- design.

In a recent study by McKinley Advisors for NCARB, 96% of the respondents - which included both academics and practitioners- agreed that, “Architects must work in collaborative teams…” How are schools teaching collaborative skills, how are these skills being measured, and how effective are these skills in the work-place after graduation are all questions that need to be measured. As part of the same survey 88% of the respondents agreed that, “Architecture students benefit from general/liberal studies.” How can this assertion be validated and how can schools of architecture demonstrate that they are indeed providing the public with graduates that are liberally educated?

Thus one critical role the profession and architectural education must play in the built environment is to develop believable metrics regarding the value added they bring not only to the design process but also to the built environment over time.

The other role the profession must play is not to just design for 10% (or less) of the population but to design for the entire population. Both schools of architecture and the profession must reorient themselves along these lines if architecture wants to reverse the increasing marginalization of the profession. In the McKinley report 67% of the respondents agreed that, “Architects are losing their role in the design and construction of the built environment.” It is well documented that the existing built-environment in the United States needs enormous investment including schools, transportation, infrastructure, housing etc., The roles architecture will play in regards to these enormous tasks confronting our country’s and the world’s built-environments, whether they be central roles or marginal roles, will be dependent on the profession’s ability to collaborate effectively with diverse constituencies and demonstrate the value architects and architecture bring to a robust design process, to the built environment, and to our society and its culture.

Do you think that designing for energy and workplace efficiency will become the norm, rather than being seen as an option or add on?

[CODDINGTON] Workplace efficiency and reduced energy consumption in buildings will be only two of a myriad of design parameters that will have to be integrated into everyday practice if the profession intends to remain relevant. Addressing all the major issues and opportunities that face the built environment must be the central role of both the academy and the profession. It is critical that information regarding the built environment is shared across the profession and across the design disciplines if progress is to be made. As evidence-baseddesign becomes the norm, students will have to become increasingly sophisticated in the use of digital modeling techniques to demonstrate their designs meet a range of programmatic requirements, from energy consumption to cost.

In practice the predictive power of models will need to be tested against the reality of building use over time.

Reversing current trends the profession will have to take on more rather than less responsibility for their executed work. In the McKinley survey, 45% of the respondents viewed “Architects losing their place as project leads to other professionals” as a lasting change, 20% viewed it as a short-term change, 22% were not sure and only 12% did not consider it to be an issue. Regarding research, the McKinley survey reported that 95% of the respondents agreed that architects need to have”…the ability to evaluate evidence and perform research.” If the profession is to take this responsibility seriously, then a series of new diagnostic tools will need to be developed, many of which will need to be imbedded in the designs themselves.

Research is certainly an area in which the academy and the profession can work together to assemble evidence and gain insights into best practices. As data is transformed into knowledge, the profession will have earned the a legitimate place at the table in formulating public policies that truly address the health, safety and welfare issues of our public.

How do you envision design fees as a percentage of development funds trending in the future?

[CODDINGTON] Architects can and should become much more creative in regards to increasing their design fees. For instance a portion of the design fees can and should be tied to building performance. On a personal note, a number of years ago I designed a house for a family for $250,000. As with all custom designed houses, I spent a great deal of time and craft getting it just right for the client. Two years later the family sold the house for more than double its cost. If I had been smart and tied my design to performance, including increase of value, I should have received a percentage of the “profit” the owners realized that was due to the value added I as an architect brought to their home. It is hard to imagine that practically every practitioner doesn’t have an equivalent story.

Another area in which architects could look for increased fees is in regards to the productivity of the building industry. As Phil Bernstein from Yale has pointed out, from 1964-2004, the non-farm productivity index rose 225% while the construction productivity index fell by 20%. Linking fees to increasing productivity in the construction industry, even if it is a small percentage, could result in increased design fees that are substantial. It is hard to believe that there isn’t some low-hanging fruit here waiting to be harvested.

Do you think there will be any stratification or leveling of architecture degrees so that lower “occupation” levels can provide work more cheaply?

[DESANTIS] Traditionally, the societal role of the architect, and her membership in a creative class supposedly furthering a sophisticated cultural agenda, has always been contrasted with and juxtaposed to the aims of skilled labor. The historical roots of this split between pragmatic efficacy and conceptual deliberation, between the master builder and the scholar-artist, run deep and the lingering effects of this self-definition as ”not craftsmen” are implicit in almost every discussion about architectural education and the architect’s role in construction.

It really comes down to this. Either contemporary architectural education is going to figure out a way to reconstruct an inclusive, culturally relevant, intellectual agenda for the discipline, a non-reductive discourse that engages the quality of lived experience as well as the sheer facts on the ground, or else the discipline will continue to be marginalized by professional and educational narratives focusing on the twin poles of engineering or art.

Any “leveling of architectural degrees” to provide a cheaper architecturally skilled labor force would be a development that tacitly accepts that an intellectually rigorous cultural agenda for architecture and the goals of the construction industry and construction financing, with respect to late-capitalism, are mutually exclusive.

How do you think client expectations will be changing in the future? Do you think architects will be expected to be more specialized, or will services broaden beyond the traditional?

[DESANTIS] Unless the discipline fosters a culturally meaningful, non-reductive intellectual discourse then I believe it is almost inevitable that architectural clients will begin to focus on other value “narratives” about construction. Architectural value will be subsumed by rationalist narratives about performative parameters, by ethically persuasive narratives about humanitarian concerns, or by expressionist narrative about art. Clients will continue to face a confusing muddle of seemingly architecturally coded material, social, and conceptual arguments that are fundamentally about instrumental logic. Architectural services will necessarily then become even more specialized as a market response although specialization will now included such non-traditional expertise as “cultural icon” or “public intellectual.”

Will the Internet, specifically social media and accessible, free online education, have a measurable impact on the profession?

[DESANTIS] Setting aside the idea of free online education-a truly utopian vision that will transform all of society, the question is whether or not the discursive dialogs and visceral representations of new media will further the goals of architecture as a humanistic discipline. If the evolution of new media can help support a culturally meaningful, non-reductive intellectual discourse, then the architectural profession, and society as a whole, will reap the benefits. If new media, however, furthers the fragmentation of contemporary culture into solipsistic discourses that are either just about “science” or just about “ethics” or just about “art,” or worse just about commoditization, than the architectural profession, as perhaps the only humanistic practice left still standing, will obviously suffer. As always, the end will come not with a bang, but with a whimper.

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EFFICIENCY: AN ARCHITECT’S

By Stephen P. Mullin

As architects think about the future of their profession, many recognize it depends largely upon the economy, and the evolving nature of space needs for living, working, and playing.

The current economic environment generates pessimistic outlooks for many professions. Unsustainable booms are considered “great times” and the inevitable busts are seen as evidence of the evils of the rich and of capitalism itself. But the understandable fixation on the dramatic booms and busts of the past 25 years has obscured the far more important structural changes in the U.S. and world economies, along with our need and willingness to address them. Simply put, the rest of the world’s economy is growing up, and the U.S. (and Europe and Japan) no longer have monopoly powers in production. Popularly known as “globalism,” the emotional political battles about stolen jobs mask the true story of emerging economies. As more people become more productive, increasingly tough competition will face all of the world’s producers, forever. Combine this with the incredible acceleration of technological advances that make labor more productive and generate a breathtaking world of new products and services, and we have a recipe for a future in which resting on your laurels is tantamount to cruising on the Titanic.

Thus, the future will hold accelerating pressures for greater efficiency, and that’s a good thing. Efficiency has, basically, the same meaning to economists and engineers. That is, increasing the amount of output created from any level of input (or equivalently, reducing the amount of inputs necessary to create any level of output). Efficiency gains come from increases in productivity, which come from smarter work and application of new technologies to existing production processes. But lost to many is the reason why people work smarter or invent and apply new technologies. It’s directly the result of the continuous desire to generate profits in a competitive world, and it’s the key to increasing the living standards of all 7 billion of us on this planet.

Curiously, when I talk to architects, they often react to the term “efficiency” as if it an evil constraint foisted upon them by ruthless financial types. In this view, it is the greed of the financial evildoers that forces all architects to design suboptimal spaces, thereby harming the good peoples of the earth.

Yet, there exists a better way to look at this situation. Because of the increasing importance of efficient space, architects of the future will play a significant role in the overall health and growth of economies. Moreover, because of the importance of what architects “do” to the overall well-being of the economy, they will be more involved in all phases of the evaluation of space efficiency and fashioning the solutions to challenges rather than being a mere part of the process of building what clients already have determined they want. Thus, the architect will take on a much more value-adding role in the fucontext | SP/SU2012 | 18

NEW BEST FRIEND

ture. That requires different thinking, training, and approaches, all of which I believe the architectural profession is not only up for but could lead the charge. Indeed, efficiency will become the architect’s new best friend.

Economic Trends Will Influence the Future World of Architects How will the economic future impact the demand for space – quantity and quality – in the commercial, residential and public infrastructure sectors, thereby determining the role and also influence the “happiosity” of the architect of the future? While I argue that increasing efficiency is king, the real interest is captured in how to best do that. Technological progress is altering the economics of building construction, communication, transportation and commuting, business investments, and daily operations. Many of these general economic factors and trends will influence each and every one of these sectors, while other may be more focused in their effects.

Commercial Space: Offices, Retail, Entertainment Perhaps the biggest issue influencing the future demand for commercial office space is the nature of future business needs and the increasing role of communication and off-site storage, both tangible and intangible. Speaker after speaker at the recent WorkTech2012 Conference in New York discussed how workplace rules and roles are rapidly evolving in ways that fundamentally require not only less built space per worker, but also radically different configurations and technical capabilities of that space. Common themes throughout the presentations included the needs to encourage interaction among users, to foster collaboration and socialization, and to provide attractive personal environments and technological interfaces that are able to keep up with the rapidly changing environments.

As sad as it may seem, just having the coolest, high fidelity internal eight-track office sound system will no longer cut it.

Demand for commercial space is a derived

demand, based on the demand for whatever can be produced in the space. In hyper-competitive markets, companies’ pricing flexibility is severely constrained, so the only sure way to increase profits is to reduce costs. Mark Marquis, Global Vice President, Global WorkPlace Solutions at Johnson Controls, notes that “only 48 percent of the U.S. workplace is utilized; 30 percent of conference rooms are not used.” Reducing the cost of space is clearly the ultimate driver, but that doesn’t simply mean shrinking everything down to Lilliputian scale. What it does mean is scaling down smartly, to what futurologist Philip Ross calls “the thin workplace.”I caution that this is not the same as the telecommuting future that people envisioned back in the late 20th century. We were painting pictures of the future with people telecommuting and teleliving, molded into our easy chairs at home, legs evolved away, with 30 fingered hands push-buttoning everything in our lives. Some science fiction! While estimates range for a quarter to a third of the domestic and global context | SP/SU2012 | 19

PHOTO COURTESY MARIKO REED

“Here, again, is an opportunity for architects to be part of developing the solution that doesn’t have to be dull housing units off the boring assembly line. Architects can help design the smart houses that not only waste fewer resources to build, but also waste fewer resources to live in.”

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LEFT: Smart houses, like Plumbob’s Margarido house in Oakland, CA, are prime examples of increased efficiency in that less resources are used in both their construction and inhabitation.

workforce working remotely, we have found that the value of real human interaction put a hard limit to that tele-living future. But that trend did make it very important to be efficient about workspace. So density and urbanization haven’t gone the way of the dodo bird, rather they have become even more important in the new world order.

And it’s not just data and communications and accommodating social networking that will shape the new configurations. Sources of efficiency enhancements include building construction and maintenance savings, paired with long run operational savings (including energy savings).

Housing This is the dawning of the Age of the Smart House Era, but don’t expect all of us to be living in houses that will do better than our kids on the SAT anytime soon.

Housing has always been an odd duck in the economics world.

We can almost envision a Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtain commercial: “It’s an investment!” “No, it’s a consumption item!” “No, it’s both!”

The bloom on the investment rose has pretty much fallen off, and the consumption value is directly related to discretionary income levels, which have also obviously taken a hit. While another round of herd mentality (and maybe too much Bernanke foot on the gas pedal and dumb U.S. government policies) will certainly foster another round of Tulipmania in the housing market, for the intermediate future both of these factors will mean demand for smaller and more efficient houses, whether owned or rented.

Part of that increased efficiency is already being wrung out of construction costs via new methods and lower commodity and labor (input) prices. This represents an important - but to many, a very unsexy - step in the right direction. Here, again, is an opportunity for architects to be part of developing the solution that doesn’t have to be dull housing units off the boring assembly line. Architects can help design the smart houses that not only waste fewer resources to build, but also waste fewer resources to live in. And again, based on lots of fine work in recent years, architects are clearly up to the task, but it has to be generated at a larger scale, and seen as the standard instead of just an idiosyncratic option.

Public Infrastructure Investment This world is changing, too. While some may think that calling for

more spending will be successful - because the alternative would be that the US drops to 147th in living standards - I don’t believe the issue is quite so black and white. Economists have always known (but since we all are political animals, we don’t all agree) that both the quantity and quality of investment is key to increasing productivity of economies and, ultimately, to generating higher living standards for all peoples. I believe that after all of the political braying and gnashing of teeth, the quality of public infrastructure investments will begin to play a more important role than just the quantity. This is because the willingness of taxpayers to pay more has reached its limit, and the taxpayers are expecting more from their dollars.

What does this mean for architects? Essentially, this is the same story as before: public infrastructure investment must become more efficient, meaning fewer dollars spent for even more investment. In economic terms, this raises the return on investment, which is always a good thing.

In architect terms, it means less money being spent per project and far more competition and pencil sharpening to successfully garner work on public works and other public investment projects. Architects will face more competition for their slice of project budgets. But since architects have the ability to play a more value-added role in the overall project, there is a good case to be made that the size of their slice could increase. Furthermore, more efficient public infrastructure investments should lead to the public being more willing to pay for even more, since they will see it as less wasteful.

A Bright and Challenging Future for the Architectural Profession To summarize, I see increasingly aggressive competition changing the way the world works, and generating never-ending pressures to increase efficiency (and productivity) in production, and hence for the spaces where we live, work, and play. I am an optimist. I believe we humans can handle the challenge, as we always have. For their part, I see architects playing an even more important role in the future of built space. And as I’ve noted, I think the profession is up to the task and ready to help lead the charge.

Stephen P. Mullin is Principal at Econsult Corporation in Philadelphia and serves on CONTEXT’s editorial board. He would like to thank Bill Krebs and Melanie Jeske for their help on this article. context | SP/SU2012 | 21

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expression

EX

Ugly Ducklings

Photographs and text by Dominic Mercier

Consider this my full admission of guilt.

With a background in newspapers and arts and culture, I knew little about architecture before I signed on as the communications director for the Chapter. Of course, I knew what I liked and didn’t like, aesthetically, but in the nearly five years that I’ve been on the job I’ve learned a lot and have come to appreciate the importance of architects, designers, planners, and just about everyone else involved in the built environment.

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Not everyone has the luxury of being surrounded by architects, and for them architecture can be just something we stroll by, through, or over every day without stopping to think about its role or importance in our city. In my mind, photography serves as a gateway to understanding and appreciating architecture, whether it is gazing longingly at the technically perfect, two-page spreads in just about any shelter magazine to the full-color plans complete with Photoshoped folks moving through conceived designs.

In my personal work, which is often born from lunchtime walks with a camera in hand, buildings become a prime target when not much is happening on the street. One of the more common complaints I’ve heard about Philadelphia’s architecture is that we have quite a few inaccessible cold, concrete buildings with Brutalist or just plain baffling concepts. Now, I’ll readily admit I made my fair share of jokes about the core buildings that make up Temple University’s main campus back when I was a student there, but I’ve come to love buildings like this. There’s something fascinating to me when you break them down into geometrical slices. The symmetry … the lines … the shadows … there’s something transformative about a building when viewed this way. Oftentimes, they cease acting as buildings and become whatever the viewer wants them to be, functional abstract art on a grand and highly visible scale.

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design profile

DP

Lenfest Hall:

Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates

The Curtis Institute of Music’s Lenfest Hall is a 105,000-square-foot multi-use education and student residence building. The expansion provides state-of-the-art facilities for practice and teaching, an orchestral rehearsal room, dining and social spaces, and student residences, all in close proximity to existing facilities on Rittenhouse Square and Locust Street. The project is targeted for LEED Gold certification.

As the Curtis Institute grew, its facilities could no longer support its varied music programs -- nor could they accommodate modern technical requirements, including acoustically isolated teaching and practice spaces, and, most importantly, a rehearsal room for the full orchestra. Curtis had never provided housing or dining service for its students, a long understood need.

The team worked with Curtis to select and test the capacity of an underutilized site extending from Locust Street to Latimer Street, one block east of their existing buildings. The site enables Lenfest Hall to connect with Curtis’s existing facilities and with the Academy of Music and Kimmel Center where many faculty and students perform - establishing a linear campus along Locust Street extending from Rittenhouse Square to the Avenue of the Arts.

The primary challenges were to mass multiple program uses on a very limited site within a historic mid 19th century block of Locust Street, directly opposite the National Landmark St. Mark’s Church - and to design a building that, while contemporary, contributed to the different streetscapes of Locust and Latimer Streets.

The Locust Street façade is clad in brown sandstone with window groupings and other elements that relate to the rhythms of context | SP/SU2012 | 27

context | SP/SU2012 | 28

neighboring townhouses. Yet the design also promotes the new identity of the expanded institution: a carved frieze across the façade identifies the building with civic touch and generous windows bring transparency to the facade and express the spaces within.

The projecting bay, directly opposite the tower of St. Mark’s, highlights the entry and is visible from the Institute’s existing buildings and the Avenue of the Arts, helping to reinforce a sense of campus.

A five story residential block, overlooking a rooftop terrace, is set back from Locust Street and clad in buff brick making it minimally visible from the street and, where visible, blending with nearby buff colored high-rises.

The setback also minimizes the impact of shadows on St. Mark’s stained glass windows and gardens.

Along Latimer Street, a small entry plaza that brings amenity to the block. The use of red brick continues the scale of Latimer Street’s buildings while buff colored brick blends with the taller buff colored buildings nearby to minimize the impact of the building’s height and reflect sunlight into the narrow street.

To enable intense use of the site a non-

historical two-story building was demolished. In addition, demolition of the rears of two adjoining historic townhouses was approved by the Historical Commission “in the public interest” with concurrence of preservation organizations and community groups, after it was demonstrated that saving the rears was not feasible given the demands of the program and acoustical criteria.

In return, Curtis agreed to extensive restoration of the townhouse facades. This included replacement of lost features, most notably the richly carved masonry arched window (a modern storefront had been inserted) and balustrade on 1610 Locust Street.

Technically, Lenfest Hall provides stateof-the-art acoustical environments, using box-in-box construction techniques to limit sound transfer between music spaces.

All classrooms and teaching studios are equipped with recording and play back systems.

The Rehearsal Hall is designed for flexible use with adjustable acoustics and separate audio and visual recording studios. Mechanical and structural systems are carefully designed to meet demanding acoustical criteria.

LOCATION: Philadelphia CLIENT: The Curtis Institute of Music ARCHITECTURE: Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates Structural Engineer: Keast & Hood Co. Civil Engineer: Stantec Acoustics Consultant: Kirkegaard Associates Theater CONSULTANT: Cosler Theater Design A/V CONSULTANT: Metropolitan Acoustics Historic Preservation Architect: Noble Preservation Services Lighting Consultant: Grenald Waldron Associates LEED Consultant: Re:Vision Architecture Food service Consultant: Porter Khouw Consulting CODE Consultant: Hughes Associates CONSTRUCTION MANAGER: Intech Construction REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: Razak Company PhOTOGRAPHY: Tom Crane, Matt Wargo context | SP/SU2012 | 29

profile DP design

Shore Medical Center Surgical Pavilion:

Ballinger

Developed by Scarborough Properties, the new 145,000 square-foot, $62 million surgical pavilion addresses Shore Medical Center’s commitment to improve patient experience and expand surgical and clinical services.

Although the modernization of surgical services served as the driver for the new pavilion, the Medical Center capitalized on this opportunity to update space for cardiology, oncology and endoscopy services; improve patient and visitor arrival with adjacent parking and convenient drop-off; create outdoor space for patients, visitors and staff; and commit to an aesthetic that speaks to the quality and standard of care provided by the Medical Center.

Located on the site of a former parking lot, the expansion connects existing hospital facilities with a new medical office building and a new parking structure to establish a campus-like development for this Jersey Shore institution. The addition is sited to improve the relationship between the hospital and its context, to create a convenient arrival courtyard and to take advantage of existing adjacencies.

The design of the expansion incorporates a series of pavilions and interlocking spaces that responds to the scale and character of the surrounding coastal landscape. The new surgical services suite on the top floor is expressed by a large volume that cantilevers over the building entry, housing prep and recovery areas. The additional programmatic spaces provide outpatient services and occupy the lower levels for patient convenience and proximity to patient and visitor amenities.

An integral part of a beach community, the interior of the new surgical pavilion reflects the surrounding landscape of the Jersey shore and uses transparency to connect occupants to nature. The design is made up of three layered components: a public realm context | SP/SU2012 | 30

consisting of the lobby and amenities on the outer layer; the semi-public patient waiting areas in the middle; and the clinical spaces dominated by surgical suites which are masked in two volumes above and internal to the other components.

The materials used for the public and semi-public components were chosen to emulate the stress-relieving atmosphere the beach evokes. Layers of transparent and translucent glazing are employed to distinguish between open, public areas and more private patient waiting areas. The warm wood accents and the terrazzo flooring in sand-like tones in the lobby mix with abundant natural light to provide a welcoming

environment for patients and visitors.

Shore Medical Center and Scarborough Properties are committed to a sustainable approach to healthcare development. The new surgical pavilion demonstrates environmental stewardship by using building materials that are manufactured within 500 miles of Somers Point, using building materials with recycled content (primarily steel and concrete), selecting low VOC interior materials and finishes, installing energy efficient light fixtures and occupancy sensors, installing low-flow plumbing fixtures, using indigenous landscaping materials and green roofing, and directing storm water to irrigate the gardens.

LOCATION: Somer’s Point, NJ CLIENT: Scarborough Properties ARCHITECTURE: Ballinger Structural Engineer: Ballinger MEP Engineer: Ballinger Civil Engineer: Speitel and Speitel, Inc. Geotechnical Engineer: TRC Landscape Architect: Morris & Ritchie Associates, Inc. Construction Manager: Massett Building Company Photography: Tom Crane

context | SP/SU2012 | 31

profile DP design

West Philadelphia High School:

Kelly/Maiello Architects & Planners Students and faculty at the new West Philadelphia High School at 49th and Chestnut Streets see the City all around them - Center City in the distance, the Market Street El, neighborhood homes.

The School District of Philadelphia challenged the architect to design the urban high school to embody three guiding principles and meet one additional goal: • Architectural design to support the education program • School building and campus that fit into the neighborhood context • A school building that functions as an after-hours community center, and • Sustainable design to meet LEED Silver Status.

For Emanuel Kelly FAIA, principal of Kelly/ Maiello Architects & Planners, the design approach was familiar but with a personal twist. He lives in this neighborhood and is a graduate of West Philadelphia High School.

The comprehensive facility serves approximately 900 students with a four minischool curriculum that includes 9th Grade Success Academy, Creative and Performing Arts Academy, Auto Academy, and Business & Architecture w/JROTC. The exterior materials of the new threestory 170,000-square-foot building - brick masonry, metal panel, and aluminum glazing systems - are in keeping with the scale and materials of the neighboring two and three story brick houses. The main entrance is at the corner of 49th and Chestnut Streets, where the building turns the corner and crecontext | SP/SU2012 | 32

LOCATION: Philadelphia Client: School District of Philadelphia ARCHITECTURE: Kelly/Maiello Inc., Architects ates an urban edge along 49th Street. This orientation limits classroom exposure to noise from Chestnut Street and the Market Street El to the north. The courtyard on the west side of the school welcomes students and the community who use school facilities after hours.

Inside, the first floor includes the main administrative spaces, common spaces, and those for community use. Classrooms are on the upper two floors.

A lively yellow glass tile wall at the front entrance signals arrival at the administrative offices. Along the main street corridor brightened by daylight from the skylight are the auditorium, arts curriculum suite with music classrooms, practice spaces, dance and art classrooms; information media center/library, cafeteria, and two gymnasiums, Bright, bold geometric patterns in the floor tile patterns signal major transition points in circulation within the building. Kelly/Maiello’s design partner CDA&I Architec-

ture and Interiors developed interior design and the tile patterns that were inspired by the quilts of Gee’s Bend.

Women of the rural Gee’s Bend community of southwest Alabama for generations had stitched quilts of ever more distinctive design. In 2002 the art world discovered the Gee’s Bend artists and their art form and in September 2008 the quilts were featured in an exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The tile patterns established in the first floor continue on the classroom floors and with different colors identify the four separate academy programs.

The many energy reducing features in the school have led to its achieving LEED Gold Certification. Robert Glick RA, LEED AP, responsible for LEED design for the school said, “What better place than a school, to share with the neighborhood, a new way to do things - in this case, with a building and a site.”

& Planners; Emanuel Kelly FAIA, Principal in Charge; James Karmolinski AIA, Project Manager; Bruce Thompson AIA, Project Architect; Robert Glick RA, LEED AP; Project Architect; Victor Guarino RA, Project Architect; Troy C. Leonard AIA, Project Architect; Terrence Kennedy, Designer; Glenn Snyder, John Smith, Christopher Deemer Interior Architecture and Design: CDA&I Architecture and Interiors Ltd.; Ltd., Cecilia Denegre AIA, IIDA, Principal in Charge; Joseph Denegre, AIA, Principal/Project Manager MEP Engineer: Brinjac Engineering, Structural Engineer: Hunt Engineering Co. Civil Engineer: Hunt Engineering Co. Landscape architect: Synterra Ltd. Acoustics designer: Metropolitan Acoustics Food Services: Renald Corsi & Associates Construction: Daniel J. Keating Co. Photography: Halkin Photography LLC context | SP/SU2012 | 33

profile DP design

Rehabilitation Of The Original Farm Show Complex:

Converse Winkler Architecture The Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex is an extensive Agricultural Exhibition Complex comprised of connected exhibit halls, arenas and meeting rooms. The first hall was completed in 1931 and was followed by numerous expansion programs.

Today the facility has over 21 acres under roof, and it is the largest Agricultural Exhibition Complex in the United States. The goal of this renovation was to bring the older portions of the complex up to a standard close to that of the last expansion completed in 2001. Improvements include renovated lobbies, new conference rooms, repainted exhibit halls, a new connecting stair, a new elevator, restroom renovations, new wayfinding signage, and a new zoned sound system.

The project focused on the Maclay Street Lobby and conference rooms above it, but there is additional work throughout the complex in selected locations. The Maclay Street Lobby was originally the main entrance to the Farm Show Complex, but since the 2001 construction of the Cameron Street Lobby, context | SP/SU2012 | 34

had become secondary. The project brings life back to this entrance using the Art Deco Ornament gracing the exterior of the original Main Hall and Large Arena as an inspiration.

One of the great strengths of the historic Farm Show Structure is the Art Deco ornament on its exterior. Incorporation of the Art Deco Heritage in the Interior to Transform the Farm Show into a themed tourism destination The design concept used this Art Deco style as a thematic element both to create visual interest in the interior, and to create an identity for the Farm Show that would make it memorable and a thematic destination. The Art Deco theme is reflected in the glass fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) frames around the doorways, in the signage

and graphics, and in the decorative railings at the new Grand Stairway.

Art Deco Design Elements Including: • New Art Deco style articulated frames were added at major entrances and exhibit cases.

• A new grand stair was added to establish the entrance to the new Keystone Conference Center. Art Deco inspired railings and an articulated archway continued the theme.

• An Art Deco inspired color pallet with deep rich colors and strong contrasts were used throughout.

• New suspended lighting grids and builtout bulkheads beneath structural beams established a visual plane to mask the existing piping above. Exposed structure and piping were painted out grey to make them disappear while retaining the height and volume of the Lobby.

The Art Deco theme is continued in the wayfinding sign system. Prior to the renovation there was a problem with orientation and finding your way. The firm used Art Deco style graphic images and colors in the sign system. “You Are Here” maps are placed at entry points and decision points throughout the complex. The way finding works on three levels: (1) Color, the exposition halls are color coded with an accent color up to wainscot height and on the columns. The hall identification signs have matching colors; (2) Name, each hall has a

prominent room identification sign centrally placed; and (3) Image, each exhibition hall has an animal on its identification sign.

• I’m in the red hall • I’m in the East Hall • I’m by the horse The tired under-utilized meeting rooms on the second floor were transformed into the Keystone Conference Center with new lighting, ceilings, carpet, and audio visual system. A new grand stair invites people from the Maclay Street Lobby up to the conference center. The Art Deco animal images and the decorative sunburst on the walls create a festive inviting atmosphere. The decorative arch and the railings with the sunburst pattern further reinforce this theme.

The Keystone Conference Center has been very popular. A number of people have used it for wedding receptions with the departure down the Grand Stair as the crowning event.

Technological Improvements include: • Extension of a Fiber Optic Network throughout the historic portion of the Complex with Fiber Optic Backbone and Intermediate Distribution Closets; • A new zoned Public Address System with the capability to broadcast to a single hall or any multiple of Halls; • Meeting Room Technology for the renovated meeting rooms, which includes internet connection, voice amplification, overhead projector, and telephone connection.

LOCATION: Harrisburg, PA CLIENT: Pennsylvania Department of General Services ARchitecture: Converse Winkler Architecture; James Winkler, AIA, Principal in Charge; Mimi Converse Winkler, AIA, Principal; Susan Chisholm, Project Manager; Scott Maritzer, Project Architect; James Welch, Designer; Melissa Mayer, Interior Designer Landscape Architect: Brinjac Engineering CIVIL ENGINEER: Brinjac Engineering Structural Engineer: Brinjac Engineering MEchanical Engineer: Brinjac Engineering Electrical Engineer: Princeton Engineering Acoustic Consultant: Metropolitan Acoustics Wayfinding and graphic panels: Jack Hulme Design Photography: Bates Photography context | SP/SU2012 | 35

NB

note book

calendar Design Awards Exhibition

Oct. 7-21

Design Awards ceremony

Oct. 10

Design on the delaware

Nov. 14-16

Holiday Party

Dec. 6

Procrastinators pro Con

Dec. 13

photo: Dominic Mercier

MEMBER NEWS Archer & Buchanan Architecture, Ltd. reported that a building designed by the firm has been named in the Philadelphia Business Journal’ s List of the Top 25 LEEDcertified Buildings. The List, which appeared in the Feb 10-16 issue, ranks the Wister Education Center and Greenhouse of Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College twentyfifth in terms of total square feet.

Blackney Hayes Architects announced that Radnor Middle School in Wayne, PA, was named a 2012 National Green Ribbon School by the US Department of Education.

One of four schools in the Commonwealth to receive this honor, it is also one of only 78 nationwide.

BluPath moved offices to 428 North 2nd St, Philadelphia to team with IEI Group on projects. The firms have worked together successfully on projects in 2011.

BWA Architecture + Planning relocated its offices to 230 North 2nd Street, Studio 3-C, Philadelphia, PA. The studio, located in the Old City section of Philadelphia, occupies a loft space in a former power plant.

Casaccio Architects of Havertown and GYA Architects of Philadelphia have turned their frequent collaboration into a permanent partnership. The new practice, Casaccio Yu Architects, based in Havertown, provides architectural design services for academic, religious, corporate, healthcare, context | SP/SU2012 | 36

senior living, library, civic, and corporate/ commercial clients.

In celebration of its 20th anniversary, CDA&I Architecture and Interiors, Ltd. launched a redesigned website in late February. The site showcases the firm’s portfolio and people within an intuitive, interactive online environment.

Trish Perevich joined Charles Matsinger Associates as Director of Business Development.

Converse Winkler Architecture has received a 2012 Merit Award for Architectural Excellence for their design of The Rehabilitation of the Original Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg.

Eimer Design was selected by Children’s Crisis Treatment Center to assist with their corporate headquarters relocation along Delaware Avenue.

EwingCole was selected by the Phelps Memorial Hospital Center to develop a five-year facility master plan. Located on 69-acres in Sleepy Hollow, NY, Phelps Memorial Hospital Center is a 235-bed notfor-profit acute care hospital.

Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP, moved into its new headquarters, a former Federal building, after extensive renovations

by Francis Cauffman. Young Conaway is

the sole tenant of the notable Daniel L. Herrmann Courthouse in downtown Wilmington.

Heritage Design Collaborative Principal, Richard I. Ortega PE, AIA, FAPT organized and moderated the first in a series of events sponsored by the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Association for Preservation Technology, on the use of Epoxies in Preservation.

John Milner Architects was selected as the recipient of the 2012 Palladio Award for Residential Restoration and Renovation for its work on The Jayne House in Philadelphia.

The historic residence was designed in 1895

by Frank Furness as the home of his niece Caroline Furness Jayne and her husband, eminent zoologist Dr. Horace Jayne.

Preservation Design Partnership received an award from AIA Pennsylvania for the Design Guidelines for the City of New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission.

Margaret Boccella was hired as Marketing Manager for PZS Architects.

Re:Vision Architecture was recognized as “Best in the World” in a list of businesses creating the most overall positive social and environmental impact.

Schradergroup Architecture received an Honorable Mention from Learning by Design for the Mount Nittany Elementary School in the State College Area School

District. The project will be featured in the Fall 2012 edition of Learning by Design.

Weaver’s Way Co-op recently commissioned UJMN Architects + Designers to design the first significant renovation of its original retail store, which opened in Mt. Airy in 1973.

Voith & Mactavish Architects announced three new additions to their growing architectural design team: Nora Wedemeyer, Mirai Yasuyama and Andrew Lipschutz.

The 2012 EcoDistricts Summit selected “Federal and State Support for District-Scale Sustainability” for presentation, featuring Yogesh Saoji, Sr. Associate at WRT, and Abby Hall, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The 2012 EcoDistricts Summit will take place October 23-26, 2012 in Portland.

Affiliate News

Bruce E. Brooks & Associates Consulting Engineers announced the formation of Brooks + Wright Commissioning, a NEBBcertified firm dedicated to verifying that building systems function effectively.

The Allegheny East Conference Center in Pine Forge, PA, was recognized by the Associated Builders and Contractors in the Commercial- $5-10 Million category in 2011.

The project was built by C. Raymond Davis & Sons, Inc. The project was designed by Architectural Concepts of Exton, PA.

CADapult announced that it has earned the new Consulting Specialization designation for value added resellers from Autodesk, Inc.

At its annual Excellence in Concrete Design awards banquet held 26 April 2012, the Eastern Pennsylvania & Delaware Chapter of the American Concrete Institute awarded the Cast in Place Structural Framing Award to Lenfest Hall at the Curtis Institute of Music. Keast & Hood Co. provided structural engineering for the project designed by Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates, Inc.

Microdesk was named Autodesk North American Partner of the Year for FY12, a top honor in Autodesk’s prestigious Platinum Club awards program.

Specialization designation for value added resellers from Autodesk, Inc.,

Urban Engineers was selected by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University to design environmental improvements to storage rooms that house its world-renowned Entomology, Ornithology, and Malacology collections. Urban is teamed with SaylorGregg Architects for the project.

David Porter of Wohlsen Construction Company won the Gold Medal at the National Associated Builders and Contractors Craft Championship held in San Antonio, Texas Porter took the top honor in the Carpentry division.

W.S. Cumby is in the final stages of constructing a new 44,000-square-foot student residence complex in the heart of Haverford College’s arboretum campus. Once completed in August of 2012, the new Kim and Tritton Halls will house 160 students in single rooms. The buildings were designed

by Tod Williams Billie Tsein Architects

Microsol Resources announced that it has earned the new MEP Systems Engineering context | SP/SU2012 | 37

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