The Narrative - Summer 2023

welcome

The Summer 2023 issue of The Narrative explores affordable housing, international school design, building equity, strategic planning, decarbonizing the built environment, and immersive travel design, among other topical matters. We also capture the thoughts of five of our architects, who reflect on life, work, mentoring, and more.

With rents rising across the country, the cost of housing has reached a crisis level in the United States. Eleven million people in our nation are seeing more than 50 percent of their paychecks swallowed up by rent. Read about how Perkins Eastman is addressing the problem with affordable housing designed to be sustainable, resilient, and, most important, a socially beneficial catalyst (p. 20).

Designing international schools around the world, a fundamental part of Perkins Eastman’s K-12 practice, provides a platform to develop and implement new ideas, which often find a home in our domestic school designs too (p. 28).

Earlier this year, we sponsored a Metropolis Think Tank panel discussion on how architectural firms can better integrate equity into our practices and processes (p. 6). We also implemented our inaugural De-Carb Design Competition to challenge our architects to radically reduce the carbon in the buildings we design (p. 44).

With strategic thinking from conception through completion of a project and beyond, Perkins Eastman often proposes options for clients they had not considered with benefits they had not expected (p. 10). The firm did just that with Collection 14. When our client asked us to design two separate multifamily buildings on a single block, our site analysis demonstrated that redeveloping the entire block would make a more meaningful impact on its historic neighborhood in Washington, DC.

Learn more about Collection 14 in “Project Scrapbook” (p. 12), one of three regular stories we’re debuting in this issue. “Studio Spotlight,” which focuses on one of our 24 studios, is another. In its first installment, meet a fascinating mix of people in our Dubai studio, where our staff of 11 PEople represent 11 different nationalities and speak 10 languages (p. 2). The third is “Gallery,” a visual essay series launched with a collection of exciting artworks installed in the public spaces of recent projects (p. 48).

After three years of COVID-19 confinement, people are ready to spread their wings and travel again, but now they seek hotels offering authentic, immersive designs that respond to the culture and context of their destinations (p. 36). To close our issue, a handful of architects share their inspirations, aspirations, and personal fun facts— imagine graduating high school with a class of nine (p. 52). We hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we enjoyed creating it.

The Communications Team

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Please send questions, comments, or a story to share to: humanbydesign@perkinseastman com

© 2023 Perkins Eastman. All Rights Reserved.

EDITOR IN CHIEF

TRISH DONNALLY

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

ABBY BUSSEL

CONTRIBUTORS

EMILY BAMFORD

SHAWN BASLER

JENNICA DEELY

MELISSA NOSAL

JENNIFER SERGENT

ALISA SHEV

EDITORIAL DESIGNER

BROOKE SULLIVAN

GRAPHIC DESIGN EDITOR

KIM RADER

PHOTO EDITOR

SARAH MECHLING

The cover, designed by Kim Rader, is inspired by Cedar Crossing, a transit-oriented affordable housing complex in Seattle, WA, designed by VIA—A Perkins Eastman Studio. Rader utilized Midjourney to create her distinctive illustration.

Opposite Page Top

The Connector building is a communal space at 2Life’s mixed-income senior housing complex in Newton, MA.

Rendering Copyright Perkins Eastman

Opposite Page Center

A central stair allows both pause and passage at Whittle School & Studios

Suzhou in Suzhou, China. Photograph

Copyright Tian Fangfang

Opposite Page Below

Juan Guarin co-leads a tour of Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Washington, DC, for White House

officials. Photograph Catherine Page/

Copyright Perkins Eastman

TABLE OF contents

studio stories

Studio Spotlight: Perkins Eastman in Dubai | 02

An inspiring workplace attracts top talent

Building Equity | 06

A panel discussion seeks equity in architectural practices and processes

Taking the Long View | 10 PE Strategies’ approach benefits clients, users, and communities

Project Scrapbook: Collection 14 | 12

Old and new harmonize in a Washington, DC, historic district

perspectives

Gallery: Art & Architecture | 48

Original works of art activate and enhance communal spaces

Take Five: Conversations with PEople | 52 Five Perkins Eastman architects muse on life and work

design lab

Affordable Housing as Social Catalyst | 20

Transformative designs prioritize community

Study Abroad | 28

International schools spur innovations and opportunities

Authentic by Design | 36 Hotels showcase immersive travel designs

Decarbonizing the Built Environment | 44 Perkins Eastman’s inaugural De-Carb Design Competition combats carbon

studio spotlight:

PERKINS EASTMAN in Dubai

An inspiring workplace attracts top talent from around the world.

BY ALISA SHEV

Eleven people representing 11 different nationalities “work closely together as one family” at Perkins Eastman’s Dubai studio, says Tarek Farid, who has been the studio’s managing principal since 2013, when he moved to Dubai from Egypt. Established in 2007, the studio has experienced ongoing growth, offering clients in the Middle East and North Africa a full selection of services. “We have extended our expertise across a variety of practice areas such as hospitality, healthcare, higher education, K–12, residential, mixed-use, and master planning,” Farid says.

Of the studio’s 11 team members, six are women who have come to Dubai from all over the world. “I moved to the United Arab Emirates from Spain,” says Senior Associate Helena Rodriguez Segovia, adding that she “was attracted to the high-end projects and professional opportunities here.” Associate Carolina Godinho is originally from Brazil and had worked in Perkins Eastman’s New York and Shanghai studios before joining the Dubai team. “Today, most of our team is composed of strong and skillful women I admire deeply,” says Godinho, who also notes that “Perkins Eastman’s Dubai studio follows the same cultural values as our other branches—all voices are equally heard and relevant.”

The only team member born and raised in Dubai is Senior Associate Preeti Mogali. She recently joined Perkins Eastman and already has a strong sense of belonging: “It has only been four months, but somehow feels like I have known the company and its people far longer.” Working in a small studio, says Mogali, provides “greater exposure to all components of the business, and the best part is that you get to know your colleagues really well.”

Dubai Studio

Staff: 11

Nationalities: 11

Languages spoken: 10

Dubai Facts

Population: 3.5M

Expats: 89 percent

Emiratis: 11 percent

Official language: Arabic

Languages spoken: 200+

Average house price: $923,000

Architectural fact: Dubai is home to the world’s tallest building, the 2,717-foot-tall Burj Khalifa

Opposite Page

Left to right: Senior Associate Carl Zaccardelli; Associate Christina Bahou; Intern Nicole D’Silva; Senior Associate Jana

Isaac; Intern Anna Starostina; Associate Lea Fernandez; Senior Associate Helena Rodriguez Segovia; Principal Tarek Farid; Associate Carolina Godinho; Associate Joon Park; Associate Jason Kamihira; Li Ren; and Senior Associate Preeti Mogali.

(D'Silva and Starostina have completed their internships and have left the firm.) Photograph Copyright The Photography Co

Diversity and collaboration are key to the studio’s success, Farid believes. The team often also collaborates with other Perkins Eastman studios, such as those in Mumbai, New York City, and Washington, DC. In fact, two PEople from the firm’s DC studio moved to Dubai, Christina Bahou, who is originally from Jordan, and Li Ren, who is originally from China. “We value the unique perspectives and experiences that each team member brings to the table, which help us collaborate more effectively and achieve better results,” Farid says.

The studio is currently engaged in several projects in the region, including Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University Hospital and Rua Al Madinah superblock in Saudi Arabia and Boubyan Bank Headquarters and The Public Authority for Applied Education and Training’s Technology, Business, Healthcare, and Education Complex in Kuwait. One of the studio’s recently completed projects is Act One | Act Two, a two-tower complex in Dubai comprised of 380 premium apartments with high-end amenities and panoramic views of The Dubai Fountain and Burj Khalifa.

“Despite working long hours on challenging projects,” Farid notes, the team finds time to socialize after work and take advantage of “the fantastic location of the studio in Dubai Marina.” They often enjoy the great dining and entertainment options in the area. Godinho describes Dubai as “a place apart from the rest of the world—clean, secure. And, most importantly, the city constantly updates itself.” With almost 90 percent of its population hailing from elsewhere, Dubai is a truly international city. “Meeting people with different backgrounds,” says Rodriguez Segovia, “makes living here very interesting.” N

Below Located in the heart of Dubai Marina, the Dubai studio boasts a contemporary design that is both functional and stylish. The studio’s aesthetic is further elevated by a Human by Design graffiti installation created by Dubai artist SyaOne.

Photographs Copyright Gerry O’Leary

Top Act One | Act Two, a two-tower residential complex in Dubai, is expected to be completed this summer.

Rendering Courtesy Perkins Eastman

Below The Marassi Beach Resort, comprised of the Address and Vida boutique hotels, is situated on the northern coast of Egypt and is due to be completed this year. Rendering Courtesy Perkins Eastman

equity BUILDING

A candid panel discussion identifies intersections and frameworks to support equity efforts in architectural practices and processes.

BY JENNICA DEELY

Resources and tools to help architecture firms seek equity in both their practices and processes continue to evolve. A recent Metropolis Think Tank Thursday panel discussion, “Building Equity in Practice and Process,” sponsored by Perkins Eastman, explored the topic with the firm’s PEople Culture Manager Emily PiersonBrown and Director of Sustainability Heather Jauregui and International WELL Building Institute Chief Product Officer Jessica Rose Cooper. Led by moderator Avinash Rajagopal, editor in chief of the magazine, the panelists addressed ways to increase equity both within firms and across the profession, setting out a three-part strategy: build toward equity within the practice; embed equity values in the design process with clients and community stakeholders; and work within a framework to qualitatively and quantitatively assess goals and results.

Practice: Building Equity Within

“We want an inclusive profession because we don’t want to be gatekeepers for the work we do. We don’t want anyone to be harmed by the work we do. We want everybody to benefit fairly from the work we do,” says Rajagopal. Yet long marginalized groups remain underrepresented in the profession, even as architecture and design schools have made significant progress in recent decades. “We lead from the place where we are,” says Pierson-Brown. When we are surrounded by others who are similar in age, gender, race, and background, she notes, we create our own echo chamber. Seeking diversity and welcoming change within firms and professional organizations is integral to building equity holistically.

Left

21% Global companies with more gender diversity are 21% more profitable. DRIVE LONG-TERM BUSINESS RESILIENCE

ENHANCE ESG REPORTING & PERFORMANCE

35%

Environmental, Social, and Governance metrics in S&P 500 executive incentive plans are increasing, with DEI being the most prevalent at 35%.

38%

Of the Fortune 200, 38% include diversity and inclusion metrics in ESG reporting.

BOLSTER EMPLOYEE RECRUITMENT & PRODUCTIVITY

33%

Diverse organizations are a third more productive overall.

75%

Over three-quarters of job candidates rated organizational culture a top consideration.

Increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace has many measurable benefits, as reported by McKinsey & Company (left); Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance (top center); Mercer (bottom center); Academy of Management (top right); and Glassdoor (bottom right). Chart based on research compiled by International WELL Building Institute

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Part of the expansion of a mixed-income senior living complex in Newton, MA, the Connector building, which links the existing 2Life Coleman House to the new Opus Newton building, accommodates social, culinary, and fitness needs for the intentionally diverse community. The gathering spaces extend outside with two expansive terraces that enable residents to enjoy the outdoors year round.

Rendering Copyright Perkins Eastman

Heather Jauregui agrees. “We must start with ‘we’—the firm. Naturally, the more we talk about and focus on equity at the firm level, the more our designers will talk about and focus on equity in their work,” she says.

Equitable workplace culture manifests in many ways, prioritizing diversity in recruitment practices and providing flexible policies that accommodate individual needs among them. For example, one employee may need to pause or finish their workday at three o’clock to pick up children from school, while another may need accommodations throughout the week for regular medical appointments. “That kind of equity, where we’re looking at individuals and making space and accommodations for them in specific ways, is what breeds engagement among employees,” says Pierson-Brown, “and engaged staff members stay.”

Process: Building Equity Throughout

Opportunities to build equity are manifold through client and community relationships, consultant collaborations, material specifications, and other aspects of the design and construction process. “Our responsibilities don’t just stop at our front door. The work we’re doing everyday can and should contribute to a more equitable society,” says Jauregui.

Addressing equity in the design process, however, can be a sensitive matter. “A lot of clients are curious but fearful,” says Pierson-Brown. “DE&I for a lot of people is a minefield of ‘Oh my gosh, am I going to say the wrong thing?’” But, as architects and designers, Pierson-Brown says, “We are creative problem solvers. A big piece of creative problem solving is knowing which questions to ask. If we aren’t curious in this space, we’re never going to get beyond where we are right now.”

Pierson-Brown works in Perkins Eastman’s Senior Living practice area, where discussions around diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are coming to the fore. “I’ve had really positive conversations about DE&I with clients,” she says. Currently, she is part of a team designing Opus Newton, an independent senior living community in Newton, MA, developed by 2Life Communities. Opus Newton is designed for residents in the middle-income market, and it is intentionally co-located with an existing low-income 2Life property, Coleman House, to create a mixed-income community. Amenities are spread across the ground floor of Coleman House, the new Opus apartment building, and a new centrally located “Connector” building to encourage community members to interact. This is also a key strategy to address some of the “us vs. them” mentality that can come with joining different socioeconomic groups.

The 2Life team has made a conscious effort to include Coleman House residents in the Opus Newton design process. For example, materials used to communicate various aspects of the project are printed in English, Russian, and Chinese so they can be understood by all.

Feedback from the current residents is highly encouraged. The mixed-income project is a prototype to expand the housing options in 2Life’s portfolio and provide an operational, architectural, and financial model that could be replicated across the country.

Jauregui provides another example—this one with an even broader potential impact. The District of Columbia Public Schools, a long-time client, accepted Perkins Eastman’s invitation to be part of the firm’s “Investing in Our Future” study to explore indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in modernized and non-modernized schools across the district. One part of the project measured noise levels in occupied spaces. The results showed that even

“Research shows that non-native language learners have an additional 28 percent reduction in comprehension at higher noise levels in classroom environments.”

recently modernized schools “were having issues with occupied noise levels and showed little to no improvement in occupied noise levels as compared to non-modernized schools,” Jauregui says. In part, the problem was due to existing acoustic standards, which were created more than 40 years ago at a time when learning environments were very different and few schools accounted for different types of learners (visual, kinesthetic, and auditory among them).

At the time of the IEQ study, which was conducted between 2019 and 2020, Perkins Eastman had just begun modernization work on the district’s C.W. Harris Elementary School and used it to test current acoustic materials. To improve noise levels in occupied learning spaces, the team installed noise reduction coefficient ceiling tiles, acoustic tack board on walls, and acoustic panels on columns in two classrooms and in phases to determine the relative impact of one strategy over another. The test applications proved successful, and today the team is working to integrate these modifications throughout C.W. Harris and in other schools across the district. “This has equity benefits,” says Jauregui. “Research shows that non-native language learners have an additional 28 percent reduction in comprehension at higher noise levels in classroom environments. It really affects the non-native language learners at higher rates.”

HEATHER JAUREGUI Director of Sustainability at Perkins Eastman

Framework: The Triple Bottom Line

Equity is an integral, if not yet common, element of sustainable design practices. In fact, Jauregui asserts that the two—sustainability and equity— are inseparable. “We take a triple bottom line approach,” she says. “It’s not just looking at environmental value. It’s layering it in with social value and economic value. Equity comes into play at the intersection of these three categories.” Building materials and products represent one such intersection. From a strictly sustainable perspective, they should be free of harmful substances that offgas toxic fumes and leach toxic chemicals into the environment. Their ingredients should be produced in a sustainable manner. And they should be packaged, shipped, and stored with minimal impact on the environment.

To help architects and designers assess and source the healthiest and most environmentally responsible materials, a variety of standards and lists are available: International Living Future Institute’s Red List, The Forrest Stewardship Council’s database, Products Innovation Institute’s Cradle to Cradle certification program, and Mindful Materials’ database, among them.

As Rajagopal underscores, however, global supply chains make specifying truly healthy materials a challenge. For example, nontoxic flooring products

Above Perkins Eastman led workshops with students during the firm’s “Investing in Our Future” study, undertaken for the District of Columbia Public Schools, which resulted in some expressive feedback about school design. Drawing Courtesy Perkins Eastman

Opposite Page

The Perkins Eastman “Investing in Our Future” study used the classrooms at C.W. Harris Elementary School in Washington, DC, as proving ground for acoustic enhancements to mitigate occupied noise levels. Photograph Copyright Joseph Romeo

are healthier for users. But if their raw ingredients are processed in facilities that employ child labor, packaged in single-use plastic wrapping, and loaded onto diesel-burning ships and trucks, then their benefits are limited to the end user at the expense of vulnerable populations and the environment. From this perspective, Rajagopal says, “There’s no way to talk about carbon without equity. There’s no way to talk about health and toxicity without equity.”

The current push for solar energy illustrates this issue, Rajagopal adds. For instance, solar panels are created from a menu of rare metals, many of which are mined in third-world countries under highly inequitable conditions. Therefore, he says, “The health impact is not only on the people using the spaces and materials, but on the communities involved in the supply chain.” Solar power, wind power, tidal power, and nuclear power are fossil fuel alternatives that employ a similar supply chain. For comprehensive change, it is imperative that every aspect of the process is examined and pathways are identified that don’t exploit at-risk populations and deplete nonrenewable resources. Much work remains.

Framework: Guidance and Goals

Flexible work policies, diversity in hiring practices and leadership, healthy materials, inclusive community engagement, the global supply chain—striving for equity in process and practice can be an intimidatingly complex endeavor. To address this, Metropolis has created the “Design for Equity Primer: 20+ Resources to Help You Design Inclusively and Fairly,” a digital repository of articles and links to a wide variety of resources, including best tools for equity in supply chains, best practices for seeking diverse talent, and best processes for leading community engagement, to name a few.

One such resource has become essential to Perkins Eastman’s processes and internal practices—the AIA’s Framework for Design Excellence. The framework is arranged for teams to measure the impact of their work against 10 qualitative and quantitative principles: design for integration, equitable communities, ecosystems, water, economy, energy, well-being, resources, change, and discovery. “What the AIA Framework reminds us is that we need to be addressing all of these measures and advancing them simultaneously,” Jauregui says.

Developing and following a framework, whether through the AIA principles or other methods, helps teams make the biggest impact at the intersection of social, economic, and environmental sustainability. When creating guidelines, Rajagopal says,“focus on areas of overlap. Focus on strategies that can have multiple benefits.”

Jauregui concurs. “If we cut out the extraneous and zoom into design strategies that can have an impact across the entire triple bottom line, then we can get more bang for our buck. We’re able to hit all of our goals . . . by simplifying our approach.”

For firms looking to advance their internal DE&I goals, external ratings products and services can also be valuable. Resources and ratings include the International Living Future Institute’s JUST Label (Perkins Eastman’s DC studio is a recipient), the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 26000, and the International WELL Building Institute’s WELL Equity Rating. The latter contains more than 40 measures spanning six impact areas: User Experience and Feedback, Responsible Hiring and Labor Practices, Inclusive Design, Health Benefits and Services, Supportive Programs and Spaces, and Community Engagement. Before selecting a rating system, however, WELL’s Cooper says, “We encourage our clients (and therefore architects and designers working with a client) to start by creating a DE&I assessment and action plan to reinforce the need for an integrative process.”

One of the differentiating elements of the WELL Equity Rating, says Cooper, lies in its flexibility. Companies with multiple offices using the rating system can pursue it on a location-by-location basis and tailor the strategies based on localized issues. “We are also encouraging organizations to think about this at scale,” she explains. To achieve effective results, the rating focuses on a bottom-up and top-down approach. “When you have engagement from employees as well as leadership, you have a better overarching outcome.”

Whether adopting an existing framework or rating system or creating new policies from the ground up, Rajagopal, PiersonBrown, Jauregui, and Cooper agree that taking a small, even tentative first step is the best way forward. To make headway, Pierson-Brown suggests being both proactive and self-reflective: “Ask yourself, ‘What can I do now?’” N

long view TAKING THE

From visioning through post-occupancy evaluation, a strategic design approach benefits clients, users, and communities.

BY SHAWN BASLER Perkins Eastman Co-CEO and Executive Director

Perkins Eastman has served as a strategic advisor to our clients for more than 40 years. As our world has changed and our firm has evolved, we’ve refined and expanded our capabilities as we consider the growth of our practice. One of our goals as a design firm is to be research-driven in all our markets, with supporting services beyond our core capabilities. This puts us in a position to provide services earlier in the project and stay longer as partners with our clients. Today, PE Strategies provides strategic consulting, analytical services, and design research to help clients make critical business and policy decisions, better align their resources with future needs, and optimize organizational performance.

These before and after phases bring additional value to the client. Beyond the traditional core architectural services, they give us tools to expand our capabilities and better understand our clients’ needs. While this helps us expand our services, it also reflects how our profession is changing and our clients’ expectations are changing along with it. As strategic advisors we can help analyze the value of projects and their impact prior to developing a concept, with an understanding of building, environmental, social, and economic performance.

From early strategic consulting to evaluating building performance, we bring valuable knowledge to each project. Our services help clients better evaluate their

assets and investments and measure their impact. It’s important to build an understanding with our clients that our advisory work—our deep knowledge of the market and industry trends, our ability to assess a project’s feasibility and viability, and our use of evidence-based design—is an essential part of the design process.

Our work spans many practice areas, including K–12 and higher education, urban design and planning, and workplace. We’ve seen dramatic results by engaging earlier and staying longer.

What we’re doing in K–12 exemplifies our work. It started several years ago when Principal Sean O’Donnell, who leads our K–12 practice, proposed we evaluate our schools and the impact they have on students and their education. We performed pre- and post-occupancy evaluations on two of our schools—Dunbar Senior High School in Washington, DC, and Martin Luther King, Jr. School in Cambridge, MA—and presented our findings to the District of Columbia Public Schools. Those efforts led to an indoor environmental quality (IEQ) study with the district that produced the firm’s “Investing in Our Future” report.

The establishment of our proactive, data-driven initiative called the Consortium for Design and Education Outcomes (CDEO), a research collaboration with Drexel University, a Tier 1 research university, soon followed. CDEO’s extensive research won the 2019 AIA Latrobe

Prize. This $100,000 grant was given to fund research with two large school districts, Washington, DC, and Baltimore, to assess IEQ, educational adequacy, and community impact in modernized and non-modernized schools to draw direct connections between the built environment, student and staff satisfaction, and educational outcomes. We have since greatly increased our research to the benefit of students and staff alike.

A different kind of project with long-term impact is the Imagine East Bank Plan, a district-wide, community-driven vision plan to revitalize a 338-acre, underutilized area on the East Bank of the Cumberland River in Nashville. In 2021, Perkins Eastman was selected to lead a multidisciplinary team, including HDLA Landscape Architects, to develop the plan in collaboration with Nashville Metropolitan Planning Commission (Metro) to envision a sustainable and resilient transformation of the East Bank waterfront. By holistically exploring the potential of an area currently covered with hundreds of acres of asphalt— through research, insight and analysis, visioning, scoping, programming, and design—our work produced a deep understanding of this once-in-a-generation endeavor. This project analysis and strategy demonstrates the type of strategic thinking and public-private partnerships Metro will have to employ in order to bring this development to reality.

On the workplace side, we’ve had success with our change management services. In light of the pandemic, companies are trying to figure out how much space they need, but the bigger problem is figuring out how to use that space. How do their teams work? How many people need to be in the office, and what do they do when they are there? The one thing companies know is they have to change. We’re helping clients understand how to be more efficient and effective in a new environment and get the most out of their teams and their real estate.

And there are many other strategic projects in the works. Our New York and Singapore teams are conducting a feasibility study, underwritten by the US Trade and Development Agency, for a destination cancer center near Bangkok. Our K–12 teams are building relationships with school districts across the country in need of help with their business and master plans. Our teams are advising landowners (churches, rail companies, and private families, among them) on the sale or possible redevelopment of their excess properties, as well as working with owners to reposition and redevelop existing suburban malls into vibrant mixed-use communities. And our Senior Living practice regularly advises clients on the latest trends and collaborates with them on strategic planning.

By engaging earlier with our clients and partnering longer, we enhance the potential for creating projects that will make positive impacts far into the future. N

Above The Imagine East Bank Plan, designed by Perkins Eastman in collaboration with the Nashville Metropolitan Planning Commission, will bring a sustainable and resilient transformation of the East Bank waterfront. This district-wide, community-driven vision plan reimagines a 338acre, underutilized area. Renderings Copyright Perkins Eastman

Opposite Page Perkins Eastman’s Senior Living practice has been strategically advising clients for decades. In April, the firm held a Think Tank for 10 CEOs from not-for-profit firms who met to explore future living scenarios for older adults. Photograph Tishawn Fahie/Copyright Perkins Eastman

PROJECT SCRAPBOOK:

14 collection

From initial concept through completion, a mixed-use development harmonizes old and new in a historic district of Washington, DC.

BY EMILY BAMFORD

Acollaboration between Perkins Eastman DC and Perkins Eastman, Collection 14 is an award-winning mixed-use development along the 14th Street corridor in the U Street Historic District of Washington, DC. The seven-story complex, which runs the length of a city block, was originally conceived as two separate residential projects on the same block. However, the design team’s site analysis generated a more ambitious idea: purchase the remaining properties on the block, including historic structures, and greatly expand the program. And that’s what the client did.

Through the combined expertise of the firm’s Large Scale Mixed-Use, Residential, and Interiors practices, Collection 14 marries residential development (market-rate and affordable units) with retail, office space, and a much-needed event space for the community. Its design and material palette blend historic and contemporary architecture as they celebrate the spirit and fabric of the neighborhood. Throughout the five-year process, the design team worked to comply with the city’s guidelines for new construction and reuse of existing structures in a historic district. Soon after its opening in 2022, Collection 14 earned LEED Gold certification and a Charter Award from the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU).

Collection 14, 1400 W Street NW, Washington, DC

Program: 233 rental apartments (213 market-rate and 20 affordable units); 5,000 sf office space; 25,000 sf retail; 33,664 sf parking; 2,000 sf community space

Size: 235,000 sf

Site: 0.85 acres

Completion: 2022

Client: Madison Investments

Project Team: Matthew Bell, principal in charge; Tim Bertschinger, senior project designer and project manager; Fawzia Ahmedali, project architect; Jeannine Muller, Austin Raimond, Matthew Miller, architectural designers; Kathleen Claire, Kristin Navarrete, interior designers; Tanya Eagle, Ryan Dirks, LEED coordinators; Michael Federici, specifications writer

Consultants: Ehlert Bryan (structural); Interface Engineering (MEP); GEI Consultants (geotechnical); VIKA Capitol (civil and landscape); EHT Traceries (historic preservation); ARUP (code and accessibility); Seal Engineering (waterproofing); Setty & Associates, Ltd. (lighting)

1From the project’s start in 2017, a mutual and deep connection to Washington, DC, aligned the client and project team as they navigated a multiyear public approvals process, including some 20 meetings with the community, to address the needs of neighborhood residents.

Photograph Courtesy McCullough Construction, LLC

Photograph Andrew Rugge/Copyright Perkins Eastman

SITE CONTEXT 14TH STREET CORRIDOR CHARACTERISTICS

2

SITE

GREATER U STREET

HISTORIC DISTRICT

ARTS DISTRICT

GREATER 14TH STREET

HISTORIC DISTRICT

KEY

CONTEMPORARY BUILDINGS

HISTORIC BUILDINGS

HISTORIC DISTRICT BOUNDARY

ARTS DISTRICT BOUNDARY

The site is located in the city’s U Street Corridor neighborhood within the original boundaries of the L’Enfant Plan, not far from the White House. It’s one of the densest, most walkable, and vibrant neighborhoods in the city. Associate Principal Tim Bertschinger says the team was mindful of environmental and economic issues and equitable outcomes for those who had previously benefited from the services a local nonprofit had provided on the site. (Martha’s Table sold its building to the developer and constructed a new headquarters elsewhere).

As Bertschinger explains, the project includes a variety of spaces to support new retailers, provides employment opportunities similar to those previously on the site, and delivers a community event space.

The building’s wellness benefits include an energy-efficient ventilation system that provides constant fresh air; access to daylight and views; acoustic performance; and proximity to cultural and commercial resources and bus and metro lines.

“Initially, the client came to us with a project idea that [involved] two small buildings, an apartment and a separate condo, on noncontiguous parcels on the block,” Bertschinger says. Based on the design team’s analysis of the site and assessment of city zoning regulations, the developer purchased additional properties on the block and created covenants to fashion a “through lot,” which allowed for additional height and floors and increased density. “We helped them work through the value and process to assemble the whole property into a far more significant project.” INTERMEDIATE

20' Platting Module

4

Contemporary Buildings

Historic Buildings Collection

14 embodies the placemaking ethos of the firm’s Large Scale Mixed-Use practice. The team mapped the history of development along 14th Street to understand the chronology, typology, and architectural characteristics of each building on the street. Some elements—including height, proportion, profile, and material—translated in obvious ways; others, such as the 20-foot module of the historic platting that informed building compositions, are more subtle.

The site is bracketed by seven-story buildings at either end, with new and historic structures woven together between them. At the south end, the team carved out a mezzanine level for office space, thanks to a significant grade change across the site. A long horizontal volume, set back from the street, forms a “bridge” above a former auto repair garage, creating an indoor-outdoor rooftop event space below. “Collection 14 skillfully modulates the height, mass, cadence, and articulation of its façades to relate to the retained historic buildings on the site and to the surrounding

U Street Historic District,” says Steve Callcott, deputy preservation officer of the DC Office of Planning. “It is an excellent illustration of how a larger building can be successfully and compatibly introduced into a context of smaller structures.”

With the help of preservation specialists, EHT Traceries, the team uncovered elevation drawings (circa early 1900s) for two of the historic buildings retained on the site and used them to recreate the original storefront designs, which had been heavily modified in the 1980s.

All Renderings Copyright Perkins Eastman

Existing East Elevation, 14th Street

Due to the massing strategy, there is no typical apartment floor plan. “By modularizing kitchen and bathroom designs, we were able to achieve the primary benefits of a repeating floor plan—stacked mechanical,

electrical, and plumbing—without having to keep the same floor plate every floor,” says Bertschinger. The building offers studios, one-bedrooms, one-bedrooms plus a den, two-bedrooms, and penthouses. 6

The project’s high-performance envelope, which features a vapor-permeable airbarrier system with three-plus inches of exterior insulation, is primarily masonry, but it includes areas of pressure-equalized rainscreen cladding. Norman bricks create deep return frames at openings, adding dimension while hearkening to traditional loadbearing masonry walls. A variable refrigerant volume and dedicated outdoor air system with 100 percent mechanical ventilation provides constant fresh air to the residents. Operable windows bring ample daylight and natural ventilation to the apartments.

8

Biophilic elements are found throughout the complex, including green roofs, rooftop trees and planters, and a green living wall in the residential lobby. The residential aspect of Collection 14 is no small feat with 233 apartments, including 20 designated as affordable units. Apartment sizes are small—the average unit is 630 gsf—to maximize unit yield in a very desirable, high-cost area, and to create more apartments with a lower overall rent.

Copyright Perkins Eastman

All Photography Andrew Rugge/Copyright Perkins Eastman

Since Collection 14 opened in 2022, it has become home to national and local retailers, and a café has set up shop in the lobby of the apartment building. Residents have moved into the apartments, the event space has hosted many gatherings, and affection for the project is palpable. “The design elegantly incorporates the historic façades and works with renewed ground floor retail spaces of various sizes, offering much to the neighborhood,” says Cheryl Cort, policy director at the Coalition for Smarter Growth. “The new apartments bring more life, vibrancy, and residents to urban living along 14th Street.” N

“Housing is absolutely essential to human flourishing. Without stable shelter, it all falls apart.”

MATTHEW DESMOND Pulitzer Prize-winning sociologist

affordable housing

AS SOCIAL CATALYST

Community building, social outreach, and a sense of belonging characterize three transformative projects.

BY TRISH DONNALLY

Tosay the United States is facing an affordable housing crisis is a major understatement. With rents rising across the country, many Americans are living a nightmare. Some teachers in Northern California are living out of their cars, in hovels in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and with multiple roommates in one-bedroom apartments in Daly City, because they can’t afford to pay market-rate rent. And that’s just California. It gets worse.

“Eleven million people in this country are paying more than half of their income for rent, and these are low-income people,” says Richard Burns, CEO of the NHP Foundation, a national not-for-profit provider of affordable housing. “Many of these people are one medical bill or one car breakdown away from being homeless,” Burns adds.

Housing Is Fundamental

“Housing is absolutely essential to human flourishing. Without stable shelter, it all falls apart,” Pulitzer Prize-winning sociologist Matthew Desmond told the Chicago Tribune on publication of his book Evicted.

Affordable housing is housing built for people who earn 80 percent or less of the area median income (AMI). Workforce housing is for people who earn between 80 and 120 percent of AMI, depending on the market.

With care and forethought, however, visionaries are creating civic-driven affordable and workforce housing that builds inclusive communities, fosters relationships among neighbors, and impacts residents in many positive ways. Perkins Eastman and its specialty studios have been designing such housing across the country for decades.

Yomo Toro Apartments in New York City, Cedar Crossing in Seattle, and Harrison Plaza Senior Tower in Philadelphia are among the examples conceived as more than just a roof overhead. Rather, they’re designed to cultivate a true sense of community.

Among the most important contributions architects and designers can make to help alleviate the affordable housing crisis is to integrate sustainability and resiliency into their designs. “We need architects to focus on all-electric buildings and net-zero-energy buildings,” Burns says. Architects, he believes, can help developers understand the various rebates available to projects with sustainable features, knowledge that could affect how a deal is structured. “Leverage green building practices to reduce the carbon footprint and produce bankable ROI that more than offsets the additional green costs,” he adds. “If you lower your utility costs by making your building more energy efficient, you can generate more income,” which makes affordable housing more attractive to developers.

Activating underutilized property such as land on school campuses, parking lots, and unused space owned by churches is critical too. Perkins Eastman is currently advising two school districts in California— Burbank and Sonoma—on long-range facility master plans and portfolio-wide strategies. “Given the high cost of living and the accelerated staff attrition, both school districts are trying to find alternative ways to incentivize teachers to come, and perhaps more importantly, to stay,” says Patrick Davis, principal of Perkins Eastman and former chief operating officer of the District of Columbia Public Schools.

“It’s better to retain high-quality staff rather than having to replace them every few years. [Efforts to do

that are] happening all over the country. California’s probably the furthest along,” Davis notes, which speaks volumes about how much more progress needs to be made. Two California laws, the Teacher Housing Act of 2016 and Assembly Bill 2295, are expected to have significant ramifications in the Golden State. The latter legislation will go into effect in January 2024.

According to EdSource, “Assembly Bill 2295 is the latest legislation to make it more affordable for teachers to live in California. The Teacher Housing Act of 2016 paved the way for district-provided teacher housing by allowing school districts to [develop] affordable housing specifically for district employees and their families. Previous state law required that homes or apartments be open to anyone who meets the low-income requirement if [their developer] used state and federal low-income housing funds or tax credits.”

Top of the Class in Harlem

Long before either law was passed in California, Perkins Eastman designed the DREAM Charter School and Yomo Toro Apartments, aka the East Harlem Center for Living and Learning, developed by the Jonathan Rose Companies and Harlem RBI, a nonprofit educational organization with deep roots in the community. The goal was to build a charter school and affordable housing and to restore adjacent park space, which together would foster a sense of community. The method was to activate an underutilized site in East Harlem, a parking lot that belonged to the New York City Housing Authority. The result—a LEED Gold, 143,000 sf, mixed-use complex that opened in 2015—includes a 60,000 sf home for the DREAM Charter School and an 83,000 sf building for the Yomo

Toro Apartments. The 88-unit, multifamily affordable housing tower offers studios and one-, two-, and threebedroom units to people who earn between 40 and 60 percent of AMI. Offices for Harlem RBI are on the first and second floors of the 11-story residential tower. The K–8 school and tower, which are in the same building with separate entries, have far exceeded expectations.

In a January 2016 New York Times story, “How to Build Affordable Housing in New York City,” Michael Kimmelman wrote, “Serving 486 neighborhood students, DREAM Charter School is the first new public school building in East Harlem in 47 years. . . . The school is light-filled, airy, transparent, with big windows opening onto the Washington Houses and rows of trees. Developers also paid for a new 20,000 sf public park to replace a decrepit concrete one that had been on Second Avenue in what’s effectively the school’s front yard.”

“It has been extremely satisfying to see how the work we did co-exists in a way that elevates all the parts. At the opening, it was fantastic to actually be able to see families not only get a place to live, but [also] a place to send their kids to school,” says Perkins Eastman Principal Mark McCarthy, the lead designer for DREAM Charter School who was also involved in the Yomo Toro Apartments. Since then, DREAM students have consistently outperformed their statewide, citywide, and district peers in English language arts and math.

The mixed-use development has lifted the entire neighborhood. As Kimmelman wrote, “In the case of the East Harlem Center, change can bring more than new housing. Neighborhoods need schools and parks, not just apartments, after all. They depend on good planning. That’s what earns public trust.”

Previous Pages

The DREAM Charter School and the adjacent Yomo Toro Apartments, aka East Harlem Center for Living and Learning, have given families an affordable place to live, plus a place to send their children to school.

Photograph Sarah Mechling/ Copyright Perkins Eastman

Above Students of the DREAM Charter School enjoy the roof teaching and garden space in a courtyard between the school and Yomo Toro Apartments. Photograph Copyright Paúl Rivera

Community-Oriented Transit in Seattle

Cedar Crossing, a vibrant transit-oriented development (TOD) located steps away from Roosevelt Link Light Rail Station in Seattle, is a transformative project that combines low-cost public transportation with affordable housing. Designed by VIA—A Perkins Eastman Studio in collaboration with Bellwether Housing and Mercy Housing, two affordable housing developers and owners, Cedar Crossing focuses on families and individuals who earn less than 60 percent of AMI. The fact that Sound Transit, the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, offered the property at a discounted price contributed greatly to making this dream project a reality. Susan Boyd, CEO of Bellwether Housing, describes it as “Seattle’s commitment to an inclusive and just community.” With 254 apartments, including 91 two- and three-bedroom units, Cedar Crossing, which opened last summer, is one of Seattle’s largest 100 percent affordable housing projects.

Following dozens of community workshops held during the TOD’s planning stages, Sound Transit made a pivotal decision, at the stakeholders’ request, to move Roosevelt Link Light Rail Station, originally planned for a site beneath a nearby freeway, to a

central location in the Roosevelt neighborhood, literally next door to Cedar Crossing. With this move, two of the project’s main goals were in sight: walkability and public transit accessibility. A community play area, a daycare, and early learning center that serves 68 students with a bicultural curriculum became part of the community too. Seattle Children’s Hospital and Mary’s Place, serving families with children who have experienced homelessness and have significant medical needs, also help make Cedar Crossing a safe place to live.

The Roosevelt Neighborhood Association and other local stakeholders wanted the site to be traversable and intimately engaged with the community, so a through-block crossing and grand outdoor staircase were designed to connect Cedar Crossing with the surrounding neighborhood. The design activates the perimeter and the interior of the block with retail, community spaces, and a plaza that has proven to be an inviting community draw. Sustainable elements are woven throughout the overall design, including a rooftop solar array, Energy Star appliances, healthy interior finishes, a high-performance envelope, bike storage for every household, and two electric vehicle charging stations. These features, among others, helped Cedar Crossing meet the Washington State

Below Cedar Crossing, designed by VIA—A Perkins Eastman Studio, is a transformative TOD affordable housing complex within steps of low-cost public transportation in Seattle. Rendering Copyright Perkins Eastman

Evergreen Sustainable Development Standards. This thoughtfully planned complex provides affordable housing for more than 500 people.

“The community was so happy to get this completed, they threw an open house, inviting all the new residents, which I thought was a wonderful, gracious gesture on their part,” says VIA Principal Jim Bodoia, the principal in charge and lead designer of Cedar Crossing.

A Homecoming in Philadelphia

When the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) wanted to transform Harrison Plaza Tower, a 15-story, multifamily high-rise, into 100 percent affordable housing for seniors, it turned to BLTa—A Perkins Eastman Studio to preserve and renovate the architecture and interiors. This meant gutting the tower, making the 116 units (104 one-bedroom and 12 two-bedroom) accessible, and refreshing the exterior dramatically. Milton Lau, lead architect for Harrison Plaza Senior Tower, led the team in giving the building its fresh look: multicolored metal cladding on the central bay of all four sides of the exterior, repointed brickwork, new windows and insulation, and a new patio that connects to the ground-level community room.

Harrison Plaza now favors residents 55 and older who are at or below 60 percent of AMI for North Philadelphia. The renovated building features a health-screening room, where doctors and other medical professionals visit periodically and provide basic healthcare to residents, especially those who are mobility challenged. Easy access to mass transportation and City Hall, where many residents seek services, are additional benefits.

Kelvin A. Jeremiah, president and CEO of PHA, is thrilled with the results: “This newly renovated

building allows Philly seniors to age well and with dignity. PHA preserved a 67-year-old landmark and, in doing so, transformed an aging tower of public housing in urgent need of costly repairs.”

To make this transformation possible, Jeremiah adds, “Low-Income Housing Tax Credits were . . . critical to address preservation, development, and redevelopment goals.”

Kyle Kernozek, BLTa’s project manager for Harrison Plaza who worked on the project since its inception in 2019, notes, “I was struck by the amazing amount of pride the everyday contractor took to build things correctly. From the questions we got, they wanted the best for the end user. . . . Everyone took a lot of care, more so than any of the developer marketrate housing I’ve seen.” When the team was going through its punch list earlier this year and an issue would be identified on a lower floor, Kernozek says, by the time they reached the higher floors, the problem had already been corrected.

Evelyn Lebron moved into Harrison Plaza in 2011 and was relocated in 2020 for the duration of the renovation. Over the final months before the reopening, she asked staff to take pictures so she could get a sneak peek, but they said they wanted her to be surprised. When she walked in for the reopening, she said, “I wanted to cry, . . . but they were happy tears.” Lebron appreciates the rails in the hallways, the grab bars in the bathrooms, and other life-safety features. The security cameras—in the elevator, the mailroom, and the lobby—really caught her eye too.

“We live in a world that is full of anxieties,” Lebron says. “The fact that PHA is making it easier for senior citizens that, in itself, is reason for hope. I hope they continue to build housing like this.” She adds, “I’m going to be A-OK.”

Above Cedar Crossing in Seattle, which provides affordable housing for more than 500 people, creates a sense of community for those who live there. Rendering Copyright Perkins Eastman

Harrison Plaza Senior Tower (top left and below), renovated and preserved by BLTa—A Perkins Eastman Studio, integrates sustainable and life-safety features. Evelyn Lebron (top right), a resident of Harrison Plaza since 2011, wanted to cry when she returned and saw the tower after it had been renovated. “But they were happy tears,” she says.

Photographs Andrew Rugge/ Copyright Perkins Eastman

Left

The courtyards are intended to bring community members together, both those living in Western Supply and outside. Landscape plays an essential role in fostering community engagement as well as creating meaningful park-like spaces in a downtown that is dominated by hardscape. Rendering Copyright TMRW Inc.

Below

The building conveys a sense of place, speaking to the purpose of Western Supply as a home for those relocating to the city as part of Tulsa Remote. Rendering Copyright TMRW Inc.

IN Tulsa talent village FOSTERING A

The George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF) is taking an innovative and holistic approach to housing as a social catalyst with a unique program called “Tulsa Remote.” GKFF is encouraging out-of-state remote workers to relocate to Tulsa, OK, by offering $10,000 grants, if they stay for one year. Each recipient receives the funds in installments— part to help with relocation expenses, part for a monthly stipend, and the remainder after completing the first year. Looking for fully employed individuals with the flexibility to work from anywhere, Tulsa Remote also provides a 36-month membership at a local coworking space, help in identifying housing, and support with community-building opportunities. Since the program began in November 2018, more than 2,200 people have been accepted into Tulsa Remote and moved to the city, where the median home price is $157,200, or 43 percent below the national average.

This ambitious program is growing into a more permanent fixture in the city. Perkins Eastman is currently collaborating with GKFF on Western Supply, conceived as a “talent village” in the northwest corner of the Tulsa Arts District on a former industrial site. The project, due to be completed in June 2025, will feature 318 residential units including studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom floor plans. Three-quarters of the residents in the building will be “Tulsa Remoters.”

contribute to a new corner of the Tulsa Arts District. The living units themselves capture this connection as well as embrace the remote working environment through flexible spaces and access to daylight and view,” Friebele says.

All units will feature work-from-home amenities. The lobby will include a small local grocery store and social spaces that are intended to create an active bridge between the culture of the Arts District and the community within Western Supply. Residents will be encouraged to hold free art exhibitions, poetry slams, and other gatherings in the lobby as well as throughout social spaces that permeate the project. An important distinction between Western Supply and the Tulsa multifamily housing market is the project’s minimal amenity spaces as a means to promote interaction with Tulsa Remote’s most important amenity, the city.

“The remaining quarter will actively participate in the nonprofit programs and organizations supported by GKFF with an intention to link new residents to individuals who are rooted in and passionate about the Tulsa community,” says Michael Friebele, senior associate of Perkins Eastman and the project’s design lead. Pairing newcomers with residents already passionate about Tulsa will help the transition go smoothly and present opportunities for critical social ties to form.

The architecture is designed to capture this energy and foster creative passion. “For housing, the project is [intentionally] porous. We want this building to connect meaningfully to its place and

The program has already reaped benefits for Tulsa.

“The ambition is not simply to gain in numbers through the program but rather welcome individuals to the city who are interested in making a difference in their community,” Friebele says. “For every $1 spent on incentive, there is a $13 return on investment in the Tulsa economy. More importantly, almost 500 members have purchased homes in the area, proving that Tulsa Remote’s mission creates a true staying power in the region,” he adds.

“It is hard to fully understand the impact of GKFF’s contributions until you immerse yourself into their process. We were deeply moved by how they think holistically of their city and consider the vitality, growth, and, above all, the people of Tulsa,” says Cristi Landrum, the Perkins Eastman principal in charge of Western Supply. “We have been working on Western Supply now for three years, with design options shaped by the challenges of the economy and the Remote program’s growing influence, resulting in a place that will be a welcoming front door to Tulsa and its vibrant community. This has definitely been a career-enriching experience for our whole team.” N

–TRISH DONNALLY

ABROAD study

International schools are fundamental to Perkins Eastmanʼs reach and impact, both at home and abroad.

BY JENNIFER SERGENT

Twenty minutes by high-speed rail from Shanghai, the ancient waterfront city of Suzhou is seeing a modern addition slowly rise on its north side, where an entirely new town, more than eight times the size of Manhattan, is being developed as a high-tech hub for computing, robotics, and artificial intelligence. While most of these offices, manufacturing facilities, and residential towers have yet to be built, the Whittle School & Studios Suzhou is a harbinger of what’s to come, having just completed its inaugural academic year for the first wave of what’s expected to be a total enrollment of 2,500 students in pre-K–12th grade. “This is a major milestone project,” says Perkins Eastman Principal Ron Vitale.

As managing director of the Shanghai studio, Vitale helped Perkins Eastman lead a global project team of more than 140 designers and consultants from Shanghai, London, Hong Kong, and New York at the project’s height, producing a campus of advanced academic facilities, a dormitory tower, and state-ofthe-art theater, music, and sports complexes. The accommodations for the 119,000 sm (more than 1.28M sf) Whittle School are so grand, Vitale says, it “looks more like a community college campus than an elementary, middle, and high school.”

Meanwhile, the new Ecopark Daesung International School in Hanoi is set to open its doors to 1,500 students in pre-K–12th grade this fall. Like Whittle,

the school’s design results from a collaboration of multiple practice areas and specialty studios within Perkins Eastman, including landscape architecture, interiors, and master planning in addition to the architecture. “These days, it’s rare that we get a contract that includes everything, however, in this case we’re controlling all the aspects of the building ourselves,” Vitale says. Not only that: the firm’s Large Scale Mixed-Use practice, under Principal Ming Wu, is contracted to design multiple towers in the surrounding Ecopark New Town that combine residential, office, retail/ food and beverage, and healthcare. This pattern of development in emerging markets has no real parallel in the United States, Wu says. In developing economies such as Vietnam, Thailand, China, and elsewhere in Asia, “there’s a burgeoning middle class that’s accumulating tremendous wealth. Parents make great sacrifices to ensure their kids excel in every way—but especially academically— and the development community knows that if it can include an international school in every new town, that’s a desirable amenity and a value-add.”

The breadth of expertise and collaboration the Whittle and Ecopark projects represent is a culmination of two decades of work since Vitale joined Perkins Eastman and brought the firm its first international school commission: the Concordia International School in Shanghai, a pre-K–12 campus whose high-school, elementary, and fine arts buildings won top AIA honor awards

and led to Perkins Eastman being its architect of choice for additional campuses in Hanoi and Bangkok. Vitale and teams across multiple studios in the United States and abroad have proceeded to build a portfolio of 65 international schools in 26 countries—and their ranks are growing. The work has unleashed many design innovations along the way and generated multiple business opportunities both within and beyond the K–12 practice.

Up for Adventure

International schools are generally built to serve communities of expatriates who are stationed abroad to work for corporations, governments, and nongovernmental organizations of all kinds. The schools offer multilingual programs for a mix of local and foreign students. To leave home to live and work in a new land, Vitale believes, takes a certain amount of bravery—and the design of international schools reflects this inclination.

“This is a really incredible niche sector in the firm—it has so much to offer,” he says. “The people who take these opportunities abroad tend to be more adventurous, more progressiveminded. They want to work in an environment that’s more experimental.”

International school tuition is in line with America’s top private schools, so clients can afford to push the boundaries. At Whittle, designers with the firm’s Workplace practice planned the nonclassroom spaces, while hospitality-focused ForrestPerkins, a distinct studio of Perkins Eastman, handled the dormitory interiors. Architecturally, these schools feature sophisticated materials and elements such as glass curtain-wall systems and extensive brisesoleil screens. Programs often include enviable arts and theater installations, high-tech labs and maker spaces, competition pools, fitness centers, and sports fields—which also serve the greater community of student and faculty families.

Above The 7.5-hectare (18.5-acre) waterfront campus at Whittle School & Studios Suzhou is among the latest to be completed in Perkins Eastman’s growing portfolio of international schools, an important niche in the firm’s work abroad. Whittle’s campus is organized into three courtyard structures for early learning, elementary, and middle and high school students that step up toward a dormitory tower and a horizontal structure for athletic and performing-arts facilities. Photograph Copyright Tian Fangfang

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Where it all started: Ron Vitale brought the Concordia International School project in Shanghai to the firm when he joined Perkins Eastman in 2004. The award-winning campus design includes a separate elementary school (shown), high school, and performing arts center. Photograph Copyright Tim Griffith

Left Perkins Eastman is designing a new innovation center at the American School of Guatemala in Guatemala City. Its rooflines find inspiration in the flowing, parabolic roofs of the school’s original buildings, which were constructed in 1962. Rendering Copyright Alejandro Pelaez, ARQ3D/ Courtesy American School of Guatemala

Referral Network

Working with international schools produces deep relationships that yield lasting bonds. “Because you’re traveling so far, you’re spending a lot of time—sometimes 24/7— with the people there,” says Principal Mark McCarthy, who is based in the New York studio and handles projects in the Middle East. It’s not unusual for him to share meals or even sleep at a client’s home. “It’s very intense. You get to know everyone so well. You become part of that culture for the time you’re working there,” he says. Those relationships lead to more business. After building the Ecopark school, the executives at Turner Construction referred Perkins Eastman to Fairmont, which then hired the firm to design its new hotel in Hanoi.

In South America, the firm’s initial 2013 master plan for updates to the pre-K–12 Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) in Lima, Peru, has led to further work there and elsewhere that continues to this day, Principal Omar Calderόn Santiago says. “That relationship really opened the doors to my practice, going around the world,” he says. Because the international-school community is tight-knit, the work in Peru has led to commissions in Austria, Germany, and Africa. In many cases, existing schools occupy longoutdated buildings that can’t accommodate modern learning, and clients “are in desperate need of rethinking their facilities. This creates fertile ground for a ‘Let’s try something new!’ attitude. It’s like a laboratory for exploring what a learning space could be, and I do a lot of importing back here to K-12 projects in the United States,” Calderόn Santiago explains.

Common Ground

One of these imports comes from the Commons at Colegio FDR. Designed to bridge two sides of the campus, the building’s three light-filled stories create a destination as much as a pass-through, making it a dual-purpose project that invoked new ways of thinking about the mingling of academic, gathering, recreational, and dining spaces. Whereas traditional school design calls for segregated cafeteria, library, and outdoor spaces, the Commons weaves them together—there’s no distinction between a table meant for study and one where students can eat lunch. “That’s an idea that we had, but it hadn’t really gotten a chance to exist” before this project, Calderόn Santiago says. Now, the plans in development for the new Alexandria City High School outside Washington, DC, eschew a dedicated cafeteria; students will be able to grab food from a servery and spread out at open seating across the school’s five levels. Likewise, at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in downtown Washington, there’s no dedicated library; at the center of the school, bookshelves are staggered across cascading terraces—a series of interconnected spaces and functions also known as the Commons.

Since the onset of COVID-19, K–12 PracticeArea Leader Sean O’Donnell says school plans have been pushing more learning opportunities outside—a feature that’s fairly standard in Central and South America and the Caribbean, where Perkins Eastman is currently designing renovations and new-construction projects for international schools in Guatemala City, Panama City, and the US Virgin Islands.

Opposite Page Schools are starting to blur the lines between common spaces such as cafeterias and libraries. This renovated space at Shanghai Community International School (above) offers seating for any endeavor, thus improving community, shared, and circulation spaces between its academic buildings and dining hall. This concept is currently being adapted at the new Alexandria City High School in Virginia (below), where study and dining areas are spread throughout the building’s five floors. Shanghai Community

Photograph Sarah Mechling/ Copyright Perkins Eastman; Alexandria City High School Rendering Copyright Perkins Eastman Above The U-shape plan of Concordia International School’s K-8 Hanoi campus organizes key community functions such as the library, cafeteria, gymnasium, and student breakout space around a central outdoor courtyard and student activity zone. Photograph Sarah Mechling/Copyright Perkins Eastman

“The outdoors is not just for recess or P.E. It’s just as much a part of the educational landscape,” O’Donnell says. The new John Lewis Elementary School in Washington, DC, has a campus that’s bookended by an amphitheater on one side and a “living classroom” on the other. “We’re seeing a lot more interest in using the outdoors across all our clients,” O’Donnell says.

Passages with Purpose

K–12 designers are also rethinking the interstitial spaces inside a school, such as stairways and corridors that can account for up to 40 percent of its square footage. The centerpiece of the new STEAM-focused Creativity & Innovation Centre at the Bavarian International School near Munich, Germany, is a wide stair that invites pause and interaction—a modern take on the gracious stone steps that have come to define the school’s original Rococo-style mansion. One can draw a straight line between that design and the wide, terraced stairs that anchor Banneker in DC and the newly opened Boston Arts Academy, Calderόn Santiago says. The elementary school wing of

Colegio FDR features wide corridors outside the classrooms furnished with round tables, bean bags, and soft, serpentine bench seating that serve as learning extensions for individual study or team teaching. “We’ve been exploring this approach for years, but now it’s really taking hold,” O’Donnell says, pointing to similar spaces found in John Lewis Elementary School and Zervas Elementary School in Newtown, MA.

Class Leader

International schools mark a significant presence within Perkins Eastman’s overall portfolio across 18 practice areas. The pioneering aspect of this work generates outsize benefits in the form of design innovation and new business for other markets. The reason, Ron Vitale says, is that “international schools get you in early to regions and cities where there’s investment, where there’s growth in the international community. Then comes healthcare, higher education, hotels, restaurants, and mixed-use. International schools lead the way.” N

To see more examples of our work and a list of our international school projects across the globe, visit perkinseastman.com/international-schools.

Opposite Page

The engaging outdoor classroom at the new John Lewis Elementary School (above) in Washington, DC, is an example of outdoor programming that s evolved from international school designs such as Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Lima, Peru. Its elementary school (below) features a central courtyard animated with multiple seating and recreational options, while broad stairways “carry” landscaping down from the main level, further transforming it into a destination. John Lewis

Photograph Copyright

Joseph Romeo; Colegio

FDR Photograph Copyright

Juan Solano

Below

The idea of employing corridors and stairways as instructional space first took hold at international schools, Principal Omar Calderόn Santiago says. Designers have applied that idea back home at schools such as Zervas Elementary in Newtown, MA, where multiple classes can spill into a central space for independent study or team teaching. Photograph

Sarah Mechling/Copyright Perkins Eastman

byauthentic DESIGN

Creating immersive travel experiences gives guests a genuine taste of local culture.

BY ALISA SHEV

The travel industry evolves with the interests of its clientele. Today’s travelers seek authentic experiences grounded in the lived reality of the places they visit. The standardized design and services that once made large chain hotels so popular are seen as barriers to the immersive travel people crave now.

A recent survey conducted by Booking.com confirms this trend. More than 67 percent of respondents indicated a clear preference for accommodations that offer authentic expressions of local cultures and communities. Those results are reinforced by Marriott’s 2022 Loyalty Program Report, which reveals that travelers are more likely to choose a hotel whose design and decor reflect the communities in which they are located than a generic option with no visible connection to its context.

Authentic reflections of regional culture, natural environment, and local history require more than a few wall hangings in a hotel lobby. They represent an act of interpretation—a stylization of local culture— that requires sustained attention to detail and nuance. “Authentic design is not about recreating a literal interpretation of a time or a place,” says Sarah Fox,

a principal at Perkins Eastman’s Dallas studio, who has worked with leading hospitality brands. “Rather, it’s like an orchestra whose members work in concert to create a symphony. It’s an artist’s interpretation, not a literal translation.”

When architects and designers collaborate with local artisans to source a hotel’s building materials and decorative elements, they can directly contribute to the preservation of local traditions and bring substantial economic benefits to local businesses and families. In areas where traditional cultures are especially threatened by globalization, a newly designed hotel can make a powerful statement of cultural resilience.

A truly authentic space, whether in a historic building or a newly constructed one, is both visually and emotionally engaging. It showcases humanity’s shared history and inspires travelers to act mindfully as stewards of the world’s collective past and future.

From the heart of Manhattan to the historic French Quarter of Hanoi, Perkins Eastman has created many immersive experiences for travelers who embrace the world in all its cultural and historic variety.

The Jewel of Amman

For thousands of years, houses in Jordan and the surrounding region have been built around courtyards that welcome guests into a distinctive social space before they enter a residence. The courtyard greeting new arrivals to The St. Regis Amman Hotel reflects that tradition. Perkins Eastman served as architect and planner and worked with interior designer HBA to create a modern hotel that resonates with the most ingratiating traditions of Jordanian hospitality.

Upon entering the hotel proper, guests are welcomed by an intimate check-in area that opens to a grand lobby with a sweeping staircase, a bespoke element of St. Regis hotels, and columns referencing the Temple of Hercules, located just a few miles from the hotel. The 16story St. Regis Amman features 260 guest-rooms and suites. The outdoor pool and the Iridium Spa offer guests opportunities to relax, and the hotel’s signature restaurants and Amman’s largest column-free ballroom are among its stately and sumptuous offerings.

Locally sourced materials and natural stones play a central role in the interior design, drawing inspiration from the crystal waters of the Red Sea and the sculptured stones of Petra.

The hotel embraces modern Amman with an extensive art collection featuring works of artists from Jordan and the Levant region. The highlight of this collection is a mural titled the Arabian Horses, displayed at the St. Regis Bar, honoring the history of Jordan’s Hashemite Kingdom and the grandeur of legendary Arabian horses.

When it opened its doors in the summer of 2019, The St. Regis Amman embodied a degree of luxury not previously seen in Jordan’s hospitality space. It did so without pomp or ostentation, but rather by understanding what luxury means and has meant in the community and the region that surrounds it. Luxury whispers, it doesn’t shout.

Hanoi’s Cultural Tapestry

Communities and cultures often integrate disparate influences and turn them into something completely new and distinctively local over time. That disparity sometimes reflects the jarring effects of recent history, giving architects an especially sensitive challenge when they seek to reflect the complexities of their buildings’ surroundings. Hanoi’s celebrated French Quarter is just such a place, and the Fairmont Hanoi Hotel, scheduled for completion in 2024, is an expression of what can result when architectural challenges are successfully met.

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ForrestPerkins, a distinct studio of Perkins

refreshed the grand lobby of The Hermitage Hotel as part of the latest renovation and preservation efforts at the Nashville

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Eastman,

landmark.

Photograph Copyright Brandon Barré

The mural Arabian Horses takes center stage at the St. Regis Bar (above). An aerial view of The St. Regis Amman shows the arrival courtyard (below).

Photographs Courtesy The St. Regis Amman

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The Fairmont Hanoi Hotel in the French Quarter is expected to be completed in 2024. Rendering Courtesy Perkins Eastman

Since its founding in 1902, Fairmont Hotels has earned a reputation for distinctive landmark locations from The Savoy in London to the Fairmont San Francisco, where global history was made in 1945 when 50 countries came together to draft and sign the UN Charter establishing the United Nations. The Fairmont Hanoi honors the legacy of the brand and aims to be a destination for high-profile events in the city.

The design of the hotel embodies the cultural conversation between Hanoi’s legacy as the capital of France’s colonial empire of Indochina and Vietnam’s resurgent indigenous heritage. This is achieved through the building’s massing, detailing of Juliet balconies, and programmatic organization. The entrance façade is sculpted and structured to reference a traditional lacquer painting, creating an articulated street wall in response to the surrounding urban context. “We borrowed ideas and inspiration from the past and present of Vietnamese art, architecture, and landscape to create something tangible that people can relate to and experience during their stay,” says Jeremy Whitener, associate principal at Perkins Eastman.

The hotel’s inner courtyard blends architecture and landscape in a biophilic design, with overflowing planters adorning its balconies and creating a vertical tapestry of vegetation that evokes the historic Mu Cang Chai rice terraces northwest of Hanoi in Yên Bái province.

We Will Always Have Marrakech

Morocco has long been a source of inspiration for writers, artists, and filmmakers with its rich culture, alluring history, and stunning landscapes. The “Red City” of Marrakech is a place where the

past and present converge in a vibrant fusion of culture and history. The Medina of Marrakech, founded in the 11th century, remains the soul of Morocco’s fourth-largest city. It reflects a unique blend of traditional North African, Islamic, and Moorish styles, and it was the inspiration behind the design of Park Hyatt Marrakech. Located within the Al Maaden Golf Resort, the hotel, which is set to open this year, offers rooms and private villas overlooking the Atlas Mountains.

“We wanted to capture the sense of calm and comfort one feels when entering a Moroccan riad, which is a traditional residence of Marrakech. Most riads center around a courtyard with a soothing fountain, and as soon as you step inside the Park Hyatt, you leave the chaos and cacophony of Marrakech behind and enter an exclusive retreat,” says Shawn Basler, co-CEO and executive director of Perkins Eastman, who led the team for the design of the Park Hyatt Marrakech.

Beautiful fountains gracing the hotel premises offer more than just aesthetic appeal. Their cultural significance in Islamic design is profound, representing purity and rejuvenation and contributing to a calm and serene ambiance. Traditional mashrabiya screens featuring geometric motifs characteristic of Moroccan art provide privacy and shade while encouraging air circulation throughout the hotel’s central building and its private villas—age-old engineering wisdom that’s just as relevant today as it was a thousand years ago.

This blend of craftsmanship and traditional insights informs the hotel’s design, creating a balance of openness, privacy, and indoor and outdoor space, which immerses visitors in an enduringly authentic cultural experience.

Above Park Hyatt Marrakech features traditional mashrabiya screens in a modern interpretation. Rendering Courtesy Perkins Eastman

Extending a Historic Legacy

Some buildings are notable for their architectural significance and influence; others for the events that occurred within them. The Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, TN, is remarkable on both counts.

Designed in the Beaux-Arts style and opened in 1910, it is the only remaining example of this style of architecture in a commercial building in the state. The hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it is a member of Historic Hotels of America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The Hermitage Hotel was the headquarters for both sides of the fight over the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, which extended voting rights to women. Tennessee was the deciding state in the amendment’s ratification in 1920, making the Hermitage a key site of the women’s right-to-vote movement. One hundred years later, the hotel was designated a National Historic Landmark.

When ForrestPerkins, a distinct design studio of Perkins Eastman, undertook a major restoration of the building in 2002, it was charged with repositioning the hotel as a five-star luxury destination while renewing its vital legacy for generations to come. Working from historic photographs, ForrestPerkins faithfully returned The Hermitage

to its bygone glory. Two decades later, the firm was once again invited to imbue The Hermitage Hotel with modern sensibilities and bring its full spirit to life.

“Restoring or renovating an important historic hotel involves respecting the original building design while insuring the hotel’s relevance to modern guests,” says Deborah Forrest, founder and principal of ForrestPerkins. “Our focus was to pay homage to a significant historical Tennessee landmark, enhance guest comfort, facilitate functionality for the hotel staff, and create a compelling venue for important life events in the community.”

As part of its latest renovation, the historic interior has been refreshed to better showcase the lobby’s stained-glass skylight, its Tennessee marble floors and columns, and the Circassian walnut paneling and ornate plaster ceiling of the ballroom. A lighter paint scheme highlights the Hermitage’s distinctive architectural elements. The Hermitage Suite, which overlooks the Tennessee State Capitol, was reimagined as a luxurious penthouse with a dining room, an elaborate coffered ceiling, and an elegant bathroom with a freestanding soaking tub set against an antiqued mirror.

Below The living room of The Hermitage Hotel’s Presidential Suite has a residential ambiance.

Photograph Copyright Brandon Barré

A Destination unto Itself

A city’s older buildings stand as witnesses to the history of their surroundings. The relatively brief architectural history of the United States and the often headlong pace at which cities such as Chicago and New York have ushered in new waves of construction can make extant historical buildings all the more precious. The Madison Square North Historic District of New York City will soon become home to The Fifth Avenue Hotel, located on the corner of 28th Street and Fifth Avenue. The building is just steps away from Tin Pan Alley, known as the birthplace of the modern music industry, and historic Madison Square Park, which hosts cultural and educational events and installations. It has undergone restoration and remodeling to honor its past and celebrate its future.

The original five-story building, designed by McKim, Mead & White, was built in 1907 for the Second National Bank. Six years later, the firm designed a two-story addition on the building’s north side, and a second addition was constructed behind the building in 1928.

McKim, Mead & White also proposed a “tall loft building” adjacent to the site in 1913. This proposal was forgotten until the current team of architects discovered a reference to it in a 1911 New York Times article. Perkins Eastman and PBDW Architects collaborated on a complete reimagining of the original interior that resulted in its melding with a new 24-story tower set mid-block. The original buff-colored brick and limestone building, which has a terra-cotta cornice, was meticulously restored and its woodframed windows were precisely replicated.

When it opens this fall, the hotel will offer 129 guestrooms in the new tower and 24 in the “Old Mansion,” as the client has deemed the original building in an ode to a Gilded Age residence that once occupied the site and neighborhood. “Our goal for the design of the hotel was to preserve the charm and history of the historic property and neighborhood, with a modern intervention to reflect the current traveler,” Basler says. “Each detail tells a story of the hotel in a modern day narrative.”

The Fifth Avenue Hotel’s public spaces will include a mirror-clad lobby, a two-story Edwardian-style library, and a dining experience created by the critically acclaimed chef Andrew Carmellini. The hotel’s design and historic location will inspire guests to explore the treasures of Gotham at their own pace as true flaneurs.

Immersive by Design

Traveling is no longer simply about reaching a new destination. For many travelers, it’s about the personal growth that comes from the journey. Today’s travelers want to be fully immersed in their destination’s culture, history, and way of life. “Authenticity has changed the heart and soul of hospitality and it continues to evolve,” says Colletta Conner, managing principal at ForrestPerkins, who has led projects with major hotel brands in the US and abroad. “As designers and architects, we constantly strive to build a story and create an identity for each hospitality project.” N

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The Fifth Avenue Hotel, located in the heart of Manhattan, will open its doors this fall. Rendering Copyright Perkins Eastman

decarbonizing the built environment

Perkins Eastman’s inaugural, firm-wide De-Carb Design Competition generates innovative ideas to meet the AIA 2030 Commitment.

BY JENNICA DEELY

Carbon is elemental. A tiny fraction of the 1.85 billion billion tons of carbon on planet Earth is in our bodies and those of all living organisms, and another tiny fraction is in the air we breathe in the form of carbon dioxide. But the majority of carbon—more than 99 percent of it—is stored within the Earth’s crust. If carbon is foundational, why is decarbonization, aka getting rid of it, such a pressing issue?

While our reliance on fossil fuels, dependence on plastics, and clear-cutting of forests are among the many factors contributing to climate change, the built environment is one of the larger contributors to global warming. According to the latest data from the World Economic Forum, buildings are responsible for 39 percent of global energy-related carbon emissions: 28 percent from operational emissions (from the energy needed to heat, cool, and power buildings) and the remaining 11 percent from materials and construction. Simply put, architects hold an enormously consequential role in slowing—and, if possible, reversing—the effects of climate change.

To proactively take on this monumental task, Perkins Eastman’s sustainability team launched the annual De-Carb Design Competition in January. Entrants were invited to investigate approaches to decarbonization through the design of a new or renovated mixed-use academic building on a university campus in the Northeast US.

Following their participation in educational sessions covering both operational carbon and embodied carbon, entrants worked to develop submissions that showcased progressive thinking to make significant strides toward carbon neutrality. Six impressive submissions, each generated by a threeperson team, were reviewed by five jurors: Perkins Eastman’s Heather Jauregui, director of sustainability, and Dan Arons and Andrés Pastoriza, principals; Stephanie Kingsnorth, a principal of Pfeiffer—A Perkins Eastman Studio; and Nico Kienzl, a principal at Atelier Ten, a top environmental design consulting firm.

Jauregui and the sustainability team developed the competition to explore decarbonization in the built environment from a technically robust, holistic perspective. “We really want this competition to foster a process that includes a more comprehensive strategy around operational and embodied carbon for all of our projects,” she says. With fewer than seven years for the firm to achieve the AIA’s 2030 Commitment goal, which targets carbon neutrality for all new buildings and major renovations, “we must act now,” Jauregui says.“This competition is an important stepping stone toward achieving our carbon-neutral goals.” In support of the firm’s objectives, the three winning teams shared their work in a firm-wide presentation in March, and this year’s submissions, along with the educational presentation developed for the competition, are available as reference material. The second annual call for entries will be announced this fall.

The mass-timber-framed building is organized around a central spine that connects the east and west ends of the site. The spine is demarcated by large, cantilevered glass volumes that bookend the building, displaying the structural wood trusses and providing an abundance of light into the central corridor. The façade is envisioned as a mix of glass, terracotta, masonry, and an accent metal such as Corten steel or copper. In addition to its focus on carbon reduction and sustainable materials, this contemporary take honors the school’s history of red-toned masonry buildings. A communicating stair connects multiple levels of the building, encouraging health and wellness and providing for intimate gathering places at the landings on each floor and a larger, open gathering area on the main floor.

All Images Copyright Perkins Eastman

Honor Award: Mass Timber and Passive Strategies

A new school of mechanical engineering employs a rigorous mass timber approach and passive strategies alongside on-site renewables to reach near net-zero targets.

Chicago Studio Team: Robert Chorazy, Baine Rydin, Ryan Stahlman

“This submission delivers the competition’s most successful and holistic response to decarbonization. The team followed a good process from the beginning, resulting in a clear parti, efficient programming, and technical investigation of passive design strategies and methods to lighten the building’s energy load. The team’s very comprehensive design submission includes a great combination of sketches, diagrams, and analysis to fully represent their idea.” –Jury Right

Merit Award: Materials Analysis and Reuse

To meet the programmatic demands of a 21st-century learning environment, the renovation and expansion of an outdated campus building incorporates solar panels and green roofs and repurposes construction materials.

Stamford Studio Team: Kyle Crozier, Brandon Fuentes, Bradley Yoon

“This submission does an excellent job of tackling the challenge of decarbonizing an existing building through materials analysis and reuse. We were impressed with the team’s thoughtfulness in exploring how to take advantage of the current structure while maxing out the site’s potential.” –Jury

Citation: Thermal Comfort and Wearable Technology

An all-passive design relies on occupants’ wearable technology, rather than mechanical heating and cooling systems, to provide personal comfort, decreasing carbon emissions from building operations.

Pfeiffer—A Perkins Eastman Studio Team: Alberto Cavallero, Sean Tittle, Lanhua Weng

”This well-developed submission provides out-of-the-box thinking on how to address decarbonization, reconsidering how thermal comfort is accommodated in the built environment.” –Jury N

35% HEATING, VENTILATION, A/C

18% MAJOR APPLIANCES

11% LIGHTING

36% MISC. (INCLUDES ELECTRONICS)

Top Renovating and adding on to the original brick building provided many opportunities for energy savings and carbon neutralization. Solar panels, green roofs, louvers, and perforated metal panels are incorporated throughout. The brick façade of the original building will be modified to provide for new windows and an internal courtyard. The excess brick will be saved from the landfill and instead crushed and used in the addition’s foundation.

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By focusing on key warming and cooling areas of the body, this design challenges architects to explore ways to forgo building HVAC systems by utilizing wearable devices: wrist, neck, and ankle cooling and heating bands; and vest and waist wraps to regulate core temperature. Focusing on individual comfort, as opposed to the broader internal environment, provides massive savings on a building’s typical energy load, as shown in the chart on the right.

Art Architecture GALLERY: &

Works of art activate and enhance communal spaces in schools, offices, and public places as they celebrate contemporary and historical figures and modern and traditional forms of expression.

BY MELISSA NOSAL

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Ron Brown Lives by Jay F. Coleman at Ron Brown College Preparatory High School, Washington, DC. Photograph Andrew Rugge/ Copyright Perkins Eastman

Above

Restoration of 1934 WPA frescoes by Michael Kirby at Theodore Roosevelt High School, Washington, DC. Photograph Copyright Joseph Romeo

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Memory/Diffusion by MASARY Studios at Boston Arts Academy, Boston, MA. Photograph

Copyright Robert Benson

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Portrait of Najaee Hall, 2020 by Kehinde

Wiley at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, NY. Photograph

Copyright Chris Cooper

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Untitled work by No Kings Collective at Collection 14, Washington, DC. Photograph

Andrew Rugge/Copyright Perkins Eastman

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Flying West by Martha Jackson

Jarvis at John Lewis Elementary School, Washington, DC. Photograph Copyright Joseph Romeo

TAKE5Conversations with PEople

Nasra Nimaga New York City Studio

Nasra Nimaga, who was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Nairobi, is a senior associate with a passion for advocacy and nearly a decade of design experience in K–12, higher education, cultural, and civic projects.

BY EMILY BAMFORD

You have played an integral role in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) initiatives at the firm-wide level and in the architectural community. Why do these initiatives mean so much to you?

Advancing equity requires nurturing a sense of belonging and affording access and opportunity to people from different walks of life. The lack of diversity—both in school and, magnified tenfold, in the workplace—is exhausting. It is hard to feel like there is practically no one (who looks) like you in a workplace of hundreds and no one who looks like you in leadership. I strive to do all I can to ensure those who follow me do not feel this way. We often talk about centering equity in our approaches to work, but in order to shape equitable communities, we must foster equity within the profession, our workplaces, and ourselves, and this drives my involvement with DE&I, the National Organization of Minority Architects, and the Association for Learning Environments’ Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee. Furthermore, I grapple with questions about our impact on the environment and the neighborhoods in which we work. My advocacy is shaped by the unswerving belief that architecture can and should improve the lives of people.

In 2021, you completed AIA New York’s Civic Leadership Program. What did you learn from the experience?

The program nurtures civic engagement by refining the critical skills necessary to help emerging professionals better represent the people they serve and build for. When I applied, I had a passion for advocacy, but I needed to learn how to use my voice for myself and others. The program afforded me guidance on community engagement, an opportunity to gain leadership skills while engaging in forums of cross collaboration, insights into the

bureaucracies of public policy, and a deeper understanding of the connections between design, policy making, and the civic realm.

You’ve recently taken on leadership of Perkins Eastman Elves Holiday Book Drive for Kids, an annual program started by the late Christine Schlendorf, an architect who worked at the firm for years. What does it mean to you to continue her legacy?

I will forever be inspired by Christine’s drive and generosity. I had helped her in previous years and enjoyed it immensely, so it seemed natural for me to take over after her passing. It is an honor to continue her legacy—and to spearhead something so meaningful. And it’s great to share holiday cheer while fostering literacy and a love of reading.

You work on projects of various scales and scopes. How has working at Perkins Eastman supported your design goals?

I have been fortunate to work on K–12, cultural, government, and higher education projects both locally and internationally. The breadth of experience, the flexibility to collaborate with numerous practice areas, and the ability to work with different studios has been instrumental in my career growth.

You are a published portrait photographer. Do you feel photography is similar in some way to architecture?

I have enjoyed photography in some capacity most of my life. For me, both architecture and photography center the human experience but in different ways. Architecture is my team sport, whereas photography is an individual endeavor and an art of expression that affords me the opportunity to celebrate the nuances of people’s lives.

Photograph Copyright Perkins Eastman

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Top Nasra Nimaga pursues portrait photography in her spare time. She took this photograph on the Brooklyn Bridge in 2017. Photograph Copyright Nasra Nimaga Center Nimaga (front row, far left) attended the AIA Women’s Leadership Summit in San Jose, CA, last year. Photograph Emily Pierson-Brown/Copyright Perkins Eastman

Nimaga worked on the Green Ivy: Pine Street School in New York City. Green Ivy International Schools are communitybased private schools that emphasize experiential learning. Photograph Copyright Paúl Rivera

TAKE

Juan Guarin Washington, DC, Studio

A sustainability specialist, Juan Guarin is a member of Perkins Eastman’s firmwide sustainability team with expertise in building performance analysis. He is also a mentor in the New Buildings Institute’s Next Gen program, which fosters sustainability and inclusivity in the building industry.

You began your architecture career in Colombia nearly 10 years ago. What spurred you to move to the United States?

After earning my BArch in 2014 and receiving my Colombian architectural license shortly thereafter, I managed to get a job with my thesis advisor—a prestigious architect in Latin America. I quickly realized working with a “starchitect” wasn’t right for me. After many bathroom and parking lot details and multiple projects for the Colombian elite, I got frustrated with the architecture industry and started doing side projects in low-income neighborhoods in Bogotá, providing schools with small pavilions they could use for multiple purposes. Seeing the smile of kids who knew they’d have a safe place to play, study, and explore was the trigger I needed. I realized sustainable architecture was what I wanted to do for a living. That’s why I decided to pursue a master’s of environmental building design at the University of Pennsylvania.

As a sustainability specialist, you support the firm’s efforts to design resilient, climate-focused projects. What ignited your passion for sustainable design?

In high school, I got involved with a nonprofit organization, TECHO, that provides transitional housing and social inclusion programs in low-income neighborhoods in Latin America. I worked with displaced communities from the Colombian conflict and witnessed how families were living under extreme poverty in deplorable conditions. It remains the most eye-opening experience of my life, and I saw architecture as a way in which I could provide disadvantaged communities with a better future.

Sometimes I think we underestimate the power we have to create spaces that can change people’s lives. Yes, architecture should be beautiful, but it should also have a positive social and environmental impact. Good design is sustainable design, plain and simple!

You’ve worked on projects in several of the firm’s practice areas. Which projects do you find most rewarding?

The projects that have a special place in my heart are those that have a positive impact in underprivileged communities. I’m fascinated by the concept of democratizing sustainability; there’s no reason why only a certain few should have access to sustainable buildings. John Lewis Elementary School is a perfect example—a project set to become the first LEED Platinum, WELL-certified, and Net Zero Energy school in the world that serves a population of students from low-income Black and Hispanic families.

What inspired you to become a part of the Next Gen mentor program at the New Buildings Institute?

Mentoring and sharing my knowledge around sustainability with as many people as possible is a big priority for me. I also feel I have the responsibility of sharing my experience as a Latino immigrant who decided to leave everything behind to pursue his dream. Many people are going through similar career struggles and need that extra push to pursue something they are passionate about.

What do you wish you had known before becoming an architect?

I wish I would’ve known about the obsession some in the profession have with how their designs look. I’ve always had a conflict with prioritizing aesthetics over performance. We design spaces where people spend most of their lives, and it is important to provide comfortable, healthy atmospheres without compromising the resources of our planet. One of my favorite quotes is from American architect Buckminster Fuller, who said, “When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty, but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”

–EMILY BAMFORD

Photograph Copyright Perkins Eastman

In April, Guarin, along with Director of Sustainability

Heather Jauregui and Perkins Eastman DC Principal Mary Rose Rankin (not pictured), led a tour of Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Washington, DC, for senior White House officials, who used the occasion to announce a $250M federal grant for heat pump production. (Banneker uses an extensive geothermal heat pump system.) Photograph

Catherine Page/Copyright Perkins Eastman

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Gaurin worked on the sustainable elements of John Lewis Elementary School, which is set to become the first LEED Platinum, WELL-certified, and Net Zero Energy school in the world. Photograph Copyright

Top Juan Gaurin (far left) and his fellow TECHO members worked on a project site in Colombia. Photograph Copyright TECHO – Colombia Center

Joseph Romeo

TAKE

Ceyda Metghalchi New York City Studio

Ceyda Metghalchi has nearly two decades of experience in the planning, programming, and design of buildings and environments for education, science, and research and development projects. A member of The Society of Turkish American Architects, Engineers, and Scientists, known as MIM, she also mentors Turkish women who are interested in pursuing an architectural career.

You’ve been with the firm for 10 years. What is it about Perkins Eastman that encourages such longevity, and what have you learned during your time here?

Perkins Eastman has both a strong sense of a family unit and a reputation for investing in its employees. With time, I’ve learned that being organized is key. But staying organized as a busy working mom has its challenges. My way of staying on track is making “to-do” lists with a time frame associated with each item—my colleagues and family are well aware of this system.

In February, Turkey was struck by a devastating earthquake, and you quickly led efforts within the firm to donate aid materials. Why was this so important to you?

Growing up first-generation Turkish American and spending every summer in Turkey, I hold my country and culture close to my heart. When the earthquake hit, I was completely heartbroken for my people, as the scale of destruction and grief was unfathomable.

With the support of my Perkins Eastman family, I helped gather clothing donations and urgently needed supplies. I brought them to the Turkevi Center, which shipped them to the affected region. I also arranged monetary donations for the purchase of food, first aid, and tents. Currently, I’m working to set up direct lines to collect donations within the Turkish community in New York City by reaching out to Turkish businesses, such as shipping and medical supply companies.

You’ve worked on a variety of complex projects. What is the most fulfilling aspect of the design process?

I love interacting with researchers and university deans throughout the project cycle. Many scientists, for example,

spend more time in their lab than they do at home, and they are so appreciative of their new spaces, which is extremely satisfying. From state-of-the-art science buildings to large-scale international projects, I enjoy solving the organizational aspects and coordination of the trades. Besides being a designer, I am also the building information modeling (BIM) manager and coordinator for most of my projects. For instance, I helped manage, plan, and organize seven models, which included a total of 17 buildings, for the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training’s new Technology, Business, Healthcare, and Education Complex in Kuwait.

Have you always been interested in architecture, and what sparked your passion for it?

Since I was born! I grew up with architect parents, and, as a kid, I used to color their project elevations. As I grew older, my imagination and creativity grew too. Around age eight, I designed my Barbie Dream House using home design software—long before I knew about computer-aided design and BIM. I was able to design in 2D and create 3D walk-throughs that showcased my fabulous McMansions. The architectural magazines we had at home influenced my future designs too.

Outside of work, how do you spend your time?

I enjoy snowboarding, museum hopping, and exploring new cities with my two boys and husband. My five-year-old son has recently become interested in the New York City Subway map; on weekends, he chooses new stations for us to visit. When I have time to take off my mom and architect hats, which is rare, I find true joy playing the drums to the Beatles and Queen.

–EMILY BAMFORD

Photograph Copyright Perkins Eastman

Top Ceyda Metghalchi with her sons at the Jardin du Palais Royal in Paris. Photograph Courtesy Ceyda Metghalchi Center Rendering of the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training’s new Technology, Business, Healthcare, and Education Complex. Rendering Copyright Perkins Eastman

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Exterior of the Perkins Eastman-designed Turkevi Center in New York City, where donations were collected to support those affected by this year’s earthquake in Turkey.

Photograph Andrew Rugge/ Copyright Perkins Eastman

TAKE 5

Min Shu Shanghai Studio

Min Shu, a council member of the China Society of Architecture’s Institute of Healthcare Facilities and an active lecturer in China’s healthcare community, has 27 years of experience in healthcare design, urban design, and mixed-use projects.

BY ALISA SHEV

What inspired you to pursue a career in architecture, and what do you find most rewarding about the profession?

During my high school years, I was given a wall calendar by my parents. It depicted beautiful photographs of some of the world’s most iconic buildings. I eagerly looked at these images every day, and they inspired me to pursue a career in architecture. The creative nature of the profession offers both challenges and enjoyment, and there is nothing quite like witnessing the lines and shapes on my drafting paper transformed into tangible structures. However, the most fulfilling aspect of my career is witnessing individuals appreciate the buildings we have designed for them.

You play a key role in Perkins Eastman’s Healthcare practice in China. What are some of the unique challenges and opportunities in this market?

The healthcare design market in China has evolved significantly over the past 20 years. It has become increasingly competitive as firms from all over the world bring their own design styles and medical planning expertise to the country. While this globalized market presents challenges, it also provides an opportunity for firms to learn from one another. For example, European [architects] typically design hospital buildings with a relatively shallow depth, allowing most of the rooms to receive ample natural light and ventilation.

The scale of healthcare projects in China has grown remarkably, with new public hospitals often having more than 2,000 beds, which poses a challenge for medical planning. Additionally,

meeting the aesthetic preferences of decision makers is often crucial for winning competitions in this market.

Could you provide insight into a project you’re currently working on?

I am working on the Xi’an Zhongda International Hospital project, a high-end private hospital with 500 beds in Central China. The master plan is inspired by the Chinese seal, and it features nine courtyards, reflecting more than 3,000 years of the history and culture of Xi’an. The beautifully landscaped courtyards provide healing environments for patients and medical staff, and the outpatient, diagnostic and treatment, and inpatient areas are vertically stacked to create a highly efficient circulation system.

How are new technologies impacting hospital design?

The potential of advanced technologies such as AI, molecular medicine, and genomics is immense, as they have the power to revolutionize hospital design—creating smaller, more effective facilities. We can expect to see a transformation in the way care is delivered, making it more accurate and efficient. A good example is a proton therapy center with a building area that typically ranges from 30,000 to 60,000 sf. With the new compact equipment, building area can be reduced by as much as 40 percent.

How do you spend your time outside of work, and what types of activities bring you joy?

I love spending time with my family, especially exploring new places together. Traveling is a great way for us to create lifelong memories. We enjoy immersing ourselves in different cultures, trying new foods, and seeing all the amazing sights that the world has to offer.

Photograph Yanqian Lu/Copyright Perkins Eastman

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and Center

The intricate artistry of Chinese seals serves as the inspiration for the design of the Xi’an Zhongda International Hospital, one of Min Shu’s projects.

Exterior Rendering Courtesy A-Promise; Interior Rendering Copyright Perkins Eastman

Shu gives a presentation at the 2021 China Hospital Construction and Development Conference in Hangzhou, China.

Photograph Courtesy HCDE

TAKE 5

JinHwa (Gina) Paradowicz Chicago Studio

JinHwa (Gina) Paradowicz, an associate principal, focuses on senior living, hospitality, and multifamily residential design. She is a board member and past president of the AIA Chicago Foundation and a former scholarship committee chair of Chicago Women in Architecture.

BY JENNICA DEELY

How does your fluency in Korean contribute to the firm’s projects?

Recently, a Korean American gentleman contacted me at Perkins Eastman. He was in pursuit of an architect who could speak the language as well as understand the cultures of both Korea and the US. He wants to build his dream project—the Korean Cultural Center in Chicago. We have since completed the concept design and look forward to seeing this project take shape.

I also recently received a Request for Proposal for a master plan and concept design for an international school in Korea. My fluency in Korean helped win the project, as the client feels comfortable knowing there is a leader at Perkins Eastman who can communicate in their mother tongue. We are designing the campus in collaboration with the Chicago, Washington, DC, and Shanghai studios. Beyond speaking the language, it’s rewarding to bring value to this project through my personal design approach.

Being a Korean woman at Perkins Eastman means I can provide a unique perspective within the firm and on our projects. I believe architecture is a tool to communicate with our surroundings, culture, and people, and I know the importance of bringing diverse voices into the conversation.

What drew you to the architectural profession?

I have been interested in design for as long as I can remember— curious since childhood about how and why architects create buildings. I grew up living in different countries across Asia and Europe, so I’ve developed an appreciation for how architecture evokes emotion and represents people, culture, and home.

How did you gravitate toward senior living design?

After completing a convention center as a lead designer right after grad school, I wanted to work on projects with a more

human scale that have a direct impact on people’s everyday lives. I came to Perkins Eastman and was pleasantly surprised by the forward-thinking nature of the firm’s Senior Living practice, which embraces enriched lifestyle choices and the dignity of aging adults.

As we live longer, I believe “senior” is becoming an outdated term. I am passionate about the design of intergenerational living, which is a more inclusive model. With all generations intertwined and supporting each other, this model creates a sense of real community, provides solutions to social isolation, and fights ageism. It’s a deeply fulfilling experience to design spaces and places that enhance community well-being and improve quality of care.

What do you enjoy about being in Chicago—both at the Perkins Eastman studio and in the city in general?

The fact that I’ve been with the firm for more than 18 years speaks to how much I enjoy working with my friends at Perkins Eastman. We are lucky to work in a city that provides constant architectural inspiration. As a result, I am actively involved in Chicago’s architectural community, including Chicago Women in Architecture and the AIA Chicago Foundation. I’m also a passionate supporter of diversity in design and helped roll out the AIA Chicago Foundation’s Diversity Scholarship program. I also sit on the Lincoln Central Association’s zoning committee.

After nearly two decades at Perkins Eastman, what is something most people don’t know about you?

I moved from Korea to Myanmar when I was in high school, and I attended the International High School in Yangon, Myanmar, where there were only 40 students, including nine in my graduating class. Due to its size, I was involved in everything—the softball team, drama club, school choir, yearbook committee. And, most importantly, I initiated the high school’s first-ever prom! N

Photograph Copyright Perkins Eastman

At the 2018 AIA Chicago Designight, Paradowicz, then president of the AIA Chicago Foundation, launched the AIA Chicago Diversity Scholarship Award (left); Paradowicz worked on the Anthology of King of Prussia, a senior living complex in King of Prussia, PA (right).

Below

Top JinHwa (Gina) Paradowicz is contributing to the master plan for an international school in Korea. Rendering Copyright Perkins Eastman Center

AIA Photograph Courtesy JinHwa Paradowicz; Anthology Photograph Andrew Rugge/Copyright Perkins Eastman

Among the senior living projects Paradowicz has worked on is Maravilla at The Domain, an awardwinning, amenity-rich community in a walkable district of Austin. Photograph Copyright Brandon Barré

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