means I am familiar enough with the aspirational qualities of the work or the beauty in the architecture or the happiest clients. One of the things we do is survey all of our clients every year in a micro survey called Plus. It’s basically a customer satisfaction survey, asking our clients if they’re happy.
If there are clients that were unhappy for some reason, I personally talk to them. I’ve done that for about five or six years and I’m still doing that. But one of the things I told myself last year is I’m going to start calling the absolute happiest clients. What are we doing right? And both sides are really quite interesting. You know, we’re sort of introverts in our industry. We’re worried that clients are going to be unhappy with our work in some ways. We’re kind of shy about that.
Architecture and interior design and planning are the most joyful acts. It’s like a form of creation and we should be very confident with our clients and bold and form relationships that lead to trust and good things happening. We shouldn’t be shy to ask them how they feel about our work. If there’s one little point of pain in a relationship, it can turn into a snowball. And all you had to do was ask early on.
KS: In terms of the firm’s projects, can you identify two or three that you think are particularly meaningful, that hit all the right notes in terms of the firm’s purpose or went far beyond what the client thought possible?
PH: Yeah. One recent project was the Gardner Neurosciences Institute for University of Cincinnati Health. One thing I really love about that project is it relied on some of the research that was coming out of our Human Experience (Hx) Lab, which was basically taking human factor design neuroscience and incorporating that into the actual design process. And it resulted in a building for neuroscience research that was just a better building.
There was plenty of healthcare expertise and lab and clinical expertise that went into it that was more normative, but then there was this extra layer of human experience design, which had to do with thinking about light and acoustics, which actually then impacted the design of the building envelope, which has this kind of diaphanous veil on it, because it was a light control thing. People with brain trauma have different reactions to light.
To me, that’s just a really compelling project that relates to this next order of design innovation through thought leadership and just resulted in a really successful client experience. And everyone just loves that project. I mean, if we can love the spaces that we occupy, so many good things can happen. If architecture is just the sum of the parts, that’s depressing because bricks and mortar are just going to cost more and more every year. It’s just going to be more and more expensive bricks or more and more expensive mortar. But if it’s about the performance and the inspiration of the occupants of the building, that’s almost something that you can’t put a price on.
Canada’s Earth Tower, that’s not built yet, will be the tallest timber building in the world. It will be a forty story, residential, timber building. And the reason for that and why it’s called Earth Tower is carbon capture, and just thinking differently about material selection. Again, it’s not built yet; it’s caught up in some zoning issues in Vancouver not because of its material, but because of where it is the city. But I believe it will get built in time.
Gardner Neurosciences Institute
| Client: | University of Cincinnati Health |
| Architects: | Perkins&Will |
| Location: | Cincinnati, Ohio, USA |
| Size: | 194,000 square feet | 18,000 square meters |
| Completion Date: | 2019 |
Photo Credit: © Mark Herboth, courtesy of Perkins&Will
The Gardner Neuroscience Institute is a treatment, research, and teaching center for complex neurological conditions and integrates 15 specialty centers, including those for treating epilepsy, brain tumors, mood disorders, strokes, and Alzheimer’s disease. The six-level facility provides a singular place for comprehensive multidisciplinary neurological care, workspaces for researchers and students, exam rooms, consultation offices, specialty-care rooms, infusion-treatment rooms, and two levels of flat floor parking for patients with mobility issues.
The design team consulted with a patient advisory board of fifteen individuals representing a variety of neurological conditions. The Human Experience Lab at Perkins&Will translated its original scientific research into objective design principles for the team.
An elegant, sculptural mesh scrim wraps the cantilevered east, west, and south facades of the building. The sheathing softens direct sunlight and addresses the light sensitivity of patients while still allowing views outside. The scrim also reduces solar insolation, significantly improving energy performance. The infusion-treatment rooms, where some patients receive intravenous therapy for hours at a time, are placed along the perimeter. The physical therapy space also offers a large terrace for outdoor exercises.
I also love the school work we do in our firm. Our K-12 practice just finished a beautiful project for Billerica in Massachusetts. It’s inspiring to see when a community really invests in its young kids. I used to live up there when I went to high school and college and grad school, and it used to be called Taxachusetts. Maybe people still call it that. But, if you’ve been to Massachusetts recently, you realize that it’s one of the most successful states. It used to have a Republican governor, Mitt Romney, who implemented statewide healthcare and one of the best funded public education programs in the country.
And it shows if you invest in the right things, great things happen. And people want to live in Massachusetts because it’s got great social services and fantastic public education. So instead of building schools for $150 a square foot, they’re spending $500 a square foot, and this is as nice as any school anywhere in the world. Truly great architecture, amazing facilities, and just everything coming together to empower people. And so that project is stunning. Those are the kinds of things that I’m most excited about.
KS: You mentioned Dar Group, the majority owner of Perkins&Will. Do you work closely with their leadership? Or is it mostly hands-off?
PH: I would call it a collaborative relationship that is built on respect. Perkins&Will has no operational connection with Dar. We’re completely self-managed. The Dar Group Chairman and CEO sits on our Board and attends an annual meeting in which we present our annual business plan. And they review major things like changes to our stock plan or a major acquisition.
But we run the firm and there’s no operational connection. We don’t share any IT or accounting or anything like that. I now sit on the Dar Group Board, so I participate with group-wide strategy, but that’s really in addition of my role as Perkins&Will CEO. The essence of the relationship is one where we create value through collaboration.
We do work with Dar on projects and it’s a preferred relationship. If they ask for our support, we almost always give it. We’ll end up doing major health science education projects across the Middle East and Africa, mostly, sometimes some other types of projects, hotels, or airports, but usually it’s health science and education work. And we help Dar win and deliver major projects that they wouldn’t be able to do it without our expertise.
You know, they work with other architects, but basically, they have a preferred relationship with us. They know us, they trust us, and we know how to work with them. And it means that we’re able to do things that I think would be hard for them to do with another firm. But they still work with other firms from time to time because of client preference.
KS: It’s your earlier point about acquisitions.
