On the fast track to a long future

Corporate and institutional clients expect more, get more from design

Clients are more knowledgeable about design than ever before. They have a greater understanding of what they want their project to achieve. And they are using architecture as an extension of their values and as a tool to define or contribute to the culture of their organization.

Presently in Seattle, there is a heightened public awareness of architecture and its role in shaping successful cities. The public is keenly interested in design and its response to external factors as illustrated by the recent attention to the selection of architects for the city hall, library and aquarium projects.

Doernbecher Children's Hospital

Trends

Our diverse clients and their projects are intimately connected to the overall state of the economy, sources of available funding, and fundamental changes in the way businesses operate, research is conducted or classes are taught.

But perhaps the single most influential factor in the Northwest today is the meteoric growth of the high tech and biotech industries. The associated attitude, lifestyle and value changes have permeated every aspect of our daily lives, from the way we communicate with each other to the way we dress. For the built environment, this means that spaces designed for today's workforce must be flexible, adaptable, comfortable and informal.

There is general agreement that buildings also need to be durable, but often there is little attempt to predict what the building will need to accommodate in the next 50 years. Companies, products, employees and markets fluctuate widely in very short time frames. Often, there is no business plan in place for next month - much less for 20 or 30 years from now.

The rapid rate at which these companies start and grow puts unprecedented pressure on the supply of affordable and "wired" space. Aggressive construction schedules and the demand for increased infrastructure and bandwidth affect overall budgets and place additional scrutiny on money spent for exterior treatment or interior public spaces; the spaces where traditionally most of the design impact is made.

With offices in Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles and Washington D.C, our design portfolio represents a diverse national practice of public and private design commissions for national research institutions, college and universities, health care institutions, public and private headquarters, museums, libraries and cities with major transportation or urban planning needs. Many of the trends we are seeing in the Northwest are also prevalent across the rest of the country. They include:

• Increased stakeholders. There is a healthy move toward increased participation in the design of buildings; the collaboration of multiple stakeholders to achieve a common vision. Participants include deans and students on university or college campuses and surgeons and maintenance staff in hospitals.

  Other participants often include major donors, artists, family members and consultants representing a variety of disciplines and other interests. There are also increased public/private partnerships. Corp-orate America is very interested in what future employees are learning in the classrooms and what new discoveries are found in the research lab. Everyone is learning together.

• New definitions of sustainability. The discussion of sustainability begins with the simple premise of building well; using resources sparingly and intelligently. For example, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems mostly have a useful life of 25 years or less, but a steel or concrete framed building can have a useful life four times as long. So we design with full acknowledgement that one day the HVAC system will be removed and replaced.

  An obvious but often overlooked aspect of sustainability is the energy-saving consequence of siting and orienting a building according to resulting energy demands. Use of sustainable materials for building construction and finishing is now widely practiced. We are constantly looking for alternative materials and equipment that offer advantages in resource use, energy efficiency or longevity as a means of enhancing the long-term performance of the building.

• Increasing impacts of technology. The impact of technology on design goes well beyond providing enough clean and emergency power, data and communication infrastructure. Every building owner and user is seeking to balance the needs of computer users with the need for human interaction. A combination of gathering spaces and places for people to collaborate and share ideas across disciplines must be provided both interior and exterior.

MSN Toronto offices

• More competition among research institutions. While they go head to head for federal and state research money, research institutions need flexible spaces to accommodate changing grants or new enterprises. Building systems must be efficiently integrated with the lab planning and structural system.

  The sizes of new labs are in constant flux as attempts are made simultaneously to accommodate larger robotic and miniaturized research equipment. The architecture is expected to go beyond function and efficiency to increase productivity and inspire innovation by fostering the exchange of ideas.

  Increased competition for scientists is driving institutions to use research buildings or campuses as recruiting tools. For example, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, faculty offices are located to take advantage of views across a landscaped courtyard to Lake Union beyond.

• A balance of technology and community in colleges. Traditionally, faculty and professors have worked with college administration to develop curricula. Graduates are now in high demand, particularly those with information technology skills.

  Colleges are competing for these students, and as a result they have greater influence in determining their curriculum. Team teaching, collaboration and interdisciplinary interaction mean buildings are being designed to balance technology (data ports at every seat in the cafeteria or library) with the need for human interaction between faculty, students, and business people.

  Also, as with Lowry Wyatt Hall, the new academic building under construction at the University of Puget Sound, buildings are expected to contribute to the sense of campus community.

• Building faster for offices and corporate headquarters. Real estate developers and business leaders are under increas-ed pressure from equity partners or stockholders to "build it faster and control costs." There is increasing pressure on architects to respond with creative solutions, often requiring the use of affordable materials in creative ways.

  Technology is driving electrical demands and the increased need for emergency and backup power. Large floor plates are desirable for flexibility, but the desire for fixed walls and ceilings is decreasing. High tech and bio-tech clients are beginning to demand urban locations, partially to satisfy their young workforce that is less interested in commuting to the suburbs. Consideration must be given to sustainable design.

  For example, in designing the Millennium Tower for Martin Smith Development Corporation, we worked to create a live-work environment in a high rise mixed-use project with an informal appearance that would attract the next generation of urbanresidents.

• Corporate interiors designed for "teaming". The office of the future will be further influenced by the concept of "teaming." Teaming rooms, featuring more informal arrangements of furniture; large, sometimes movable walls; marker-boards; and plenty of data ports and docking stations, are interspersed throughout an office for brainstorming and more flexible work environments. Some companies are incorporating cyber-cafe's with counters, stools and small tables, to provide more relaxed spaces to interact with colleagues, or as a respite from the office environment.

  As companies restructure to achieve less hierarchical organizations, the size and number of offices in some professions are being reduced. "Hoteling" continues to become more prevalent in some of the professional services firms, where offices are shared by many employees, and reserved as needed.

  On the other hand, for Northwest software and other technical professions where focused, individual effort is demanded, the private office is still more prevalent, with employees able to exert more control over such issues as privacy, climate and lighting.

• Patient-oriented health care. Trends in healthcare design and planning continue to be driven by the need to quantify planning and operational efficiencies and the demand by patients and their families for immediate and easy access to services. There is a continued shift away from hospital based services to patients being seen in non-hospital settings, including "boutique" specialty centers for women's services, rehabilitation, or even cancer treatment.

  For patients treated in the hospital, the rise in acuity is dramatically increasing the demand for critical care beds and new models for intensive care units or "universal" rooms are being developed. There is a continued focus on prevention and wellness, with increasing attention to alternative treatments. Advancements in technology are mandating that space and building infrastructure be flexible to accommodate these technologies while still being patient and family focused.

  For example, the design of Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland illustrates the trend toward involving patients and families in the design.

• Mixed use and transit in urban design. Our recent experience suggests that community infrastructure, including transportation and transit oriented development, continues to transform urban centers by redefining existing areas and directing suburban growth.

  As growth management evolves, particularly in the Northwest, there will continue to be pressure to improve urban and inner city livability and sustainability by improving the mix of uses in existing neighborhoods and reusing existing buildings. The integration and coordination of land use and transportation issues related to growth management continue to drive projects.

The big picture

Millennium Tower Photo courtesy Zimmer Gunsul Frasca

The livability of converted inner city neighborhoods will have its effect on developers of new projects in the suburbs, which will have to compete with the convenience and conviviality afforded by the integrated, nonresidential facilities that have recently made loft living so popular in city centers. By the same token, we can expect increased demand for workplaces that are close to those same sets of amenities. Mixed-use zoning is here to stay, and with it comes the feasibility of wider transportation choices, including access to public transit for a much wider segment of our society that has been possible in the past half century.

As architects in the Northwest, we are in a unique position to make the future happen - for our clients and for the region as a whole.

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