Archinect - News

Ellen van Loon departs OMA after 26 years

2024-07-26T19:10:00-04:00

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) announced the retirement of Partner Ellen van Loon from the firm after 26 years.

The announcement says: “Ellen has indicated that she wishes to enter a new phase in her life in which she will have more time to herself. It goes without saying that we deeply regret her decision. Ellen has been a trusted colleague and powerful force within our firm for decades. She also is, and will remain, a dear friend to all of us.”

Van Loon, who was born in the Netherlands and educated at TU Delft, joined the firm in 1998 after working at Foster + Partners. OMA is approaching its 50th year in 2025. Partners Shohei Shigematsu, Jason Long, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, David Gianotten, and Reinier de Graaf remain in charge along with founder Rem Koolhaas, who turns 80 in November.

Jeffrey Beers International presents new leadership team following the death of its founder

2024-04-10T15:20:00-04:00

Jeffrey Beers International (JBI) has announced a new leadership team in the absence of its namesake founder, who passed away last month from cancer at the age of 67.

The firm has appointed partners Michael Pandolfi, Nora Liu-Kanter, and Tim Rooney as new leaders of the 37-year-old New York-based studio practice. Together, they will now lead a team of more than 50 staff members. Pandolfi is the company’s longest-standing employee among the group followed by Kanter, who first joined the office in 2002.

“Jeffrey's impact on our studio, the architecture and design industry, and countless communities around the world is immeasurable. We are coming together to support the firm’s continued growth — our collaboration not only harmonizes our diverse design approaches and deep market insights but also underscores our shared ethos and dedication to upholding Jeffrey’s distinctive aesthetic, devotion to design excellence, and genuine kindness for everyone he worked with,” they each said in a s...

Pascale Sablan, Kofi Bio, Lucy Tilley announced as new co-CEOs of Adjaye Associates

2024-03-18T14:59:00-04:00

Adjaye Associates has announced the promotions of three new CEOs in an organizational restructuring that will see founder David Adjaye step into a new role as the Executive Chair of the group and the firm's Principal.

Pascale Sablan, Kofi Bio, and Lucy Tilley will now lead the New York, Accra, and London studios as CEOs, respectively. Sablan, most recently the 2023-24 NOMA President, is perhaps the best-known architect of the group. She will impart her past experience as an Associate Principal in the New York office, which she first joined as a Senior Associate in January of 2021. Her time there has coincided with a host of important national recognitions, including being named winner of the 2021 Whitney M. Young Jr. Award.

Bio and Tilley both have experience as Associate Prinicapls in the Accra and London studios, respectively.

In a statement published to the firm’s website, Adjaye said: “Today’s announcement reflects a fundamental change in the way Adjaye Associates will now be r...

MASS Design founder Michael Murphy announces he is stepping down, will join the faculty at Georgia Tech

2022-10-10T11:30:00-04:00

MASS Design Group President and co-founder Michael Murphy has announced he will be stepping down from his post after 15 years to pursue new academic and professional initiatives in a move announced on Friday.

The announcement stated that MASS will continue under the leadership of Senior Principals and Managing Directors Christian Benimana and Patricia Gruits and Founding Principal and Chief Design Officer Alan Ricks. Murphy will now join the faculty at Georgia Tech as its new Thomas W. Ventulett III Distinguished Chair.

The recent AIA Firm Award winners have become recognized throughout the design community for their commitment to restorative social justice projects and three core guiding principles of beauty, dignity, and the increased flow of natural air best exemplified in their designs for the Butaro District Hospital and subsequent commissions across Rwanda and the United States.

Previously on Archinect: new documentary tells the story behind MASS Design Group's cholera clinic ...

Are you tracking employee activity? Experts say transparency is key

2021-01-22T13:11:00-05:00

Maintaining a corporate surveillance program that operates only in the shadows might nab the occasional miscreant, but it does little to promote positive conduct or to deter inappropriate use of corporate assets when employees are working from home. A more balanced approach should include clear communications with employees explaining the reasons for, and existence of, corporate monitoring programs.

In a recent Harvard Business Review essay, two experts outline the need for transparency in corporations that monitor employee behavior, writing:

"Being transparent about how you’re monitoring employees should be consistent with a transparent culture and a relationship of trust. Helpfully, this also aligns with the underlying legal framework in the U.S., which is premised on concepts of legitimate interest and notice, and is strengthened further when employees provide their consent to be monitored."

UK Architects report exploitive work practices amid lockdown

2020-10-15T13:00:00-04:00

The Guardian's Oliver Wainwright sheds light on the incredible exploitive workplace abuses happening in the UK in a recent piece titled Furlough fraud, snooping and firings: architects speak out over lockdown exploitation. From never-ending work days, to secret webcam recordings, and even bizarre firings, people have been experiencing troubling behavior from employers, leading many to report instances to RIBA and the United Voices of the World - Section of Architectural Workers (UVW-SAW).

In one instance, Wainwright reports on a woman who discovered her boss had been monitoring her webcam and secretly recording her client meetings. "I only realized I was being monitored when something I said was later quoted back to me in a team meeting," she says as reported by Wainwright. "And another recording of me was used in a presentation. It was completely insane. It felt like being back at school, with added hyper-surveillance."

Other case studies include employers who have signed up for th...

Survey discovers few architecture firms seem to care what users think of their buildings

2020-07-22T11:41:00-04:00

The 2020 AJ100 survey found that post-occupancy evaluation is ‘always’ done by just 4 percent of AJ100 practices and ‘frequently’ done by 22 percent, while a quarter of firms never do so and around half (48 percent) only seek to evaluate the performance of their projects ‘occasionally’.

Philip Watson, director at HLM Architects, reflected on the survey, writing, "Too often it seems, architects want to design a building, take pictures prior to its occupation – without the messy inconvenience of having people and their clutter in them – and move on to the next project." Post occupancy evaluations allow architects to understand the implications of their design to the user. This, Watson argues, would be a powerful way to utilize an evidence-based approach to understand the value of design, which in turn could aid architects in communicating that value to clients.

To address the issue, RIBA and the University of Reading have recently launched the Social Value Toolkit for Architecture to help the profession understand the social impacts of design.

When everything is urgent, nothing is urgent

2020-04-16T15:59:00-04:00

A colleague and I were recently talking about something we've both experienced during a project's construction administration phase. The contractor sends an RFI, expressing the urgency of the request, advocating for a speedy response from the architect. As the architect, we investigate the RFI and provide our answer in a timely manner. Everyone's happy. Then we receive two more RFIs, these are both "time sensitive" as well. We then receive 5 more, each of these also "require immediate response." You get the picture. When everything is urgent, the very meaning of the term becomes moot. Suddenly, the point of priority disappears. We tend to expect this from (some) contractors, but this hyper-prioritization also unfolds within design teams, leaving staff overwhelmed, stressed, and frustrated. But what should be done instead?

Chaos creates confusion

"Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid."

- Fyodor Dostoevsky

I remember early in my caree...

How does the recent coronavirus FMLA bill affect the architecture industry?

2020-03-20T15:31:00-04:00

President Donald Trump signed an emergency bill Wednesday to expand family and medical leave as well as guarantee paid sick leave for certain U.S. workers... The bill allows the Secretary of Labor to exempt employers with fewer than 50 employees from the emergency FMLA leave requirement, "when the imposition of such requirements would jeopardize the viability of the business as a going concern."

According to HR Dive, The U.S. Senate passed the bill, titled the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, by a 90-8 vote earlier in the day. It was first passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 14, and a revised version passed Tuesday. The bill will take effect starting April 2nd and end December 31st of this year. According to the Washington Post, the new sick leave law only applies to employers with more than 50 and fewer than 500 employees.

MBB Architects offer employees travel grants to broaden cultural perspectives

2020-02-17T12:36:00-05:00

In an effort to expand cultural competency, Murphy Burnham & Buttrick (MBB) Architects has instituted its own private travel grant. Established in 2016, the Harold Buttrick Travel Grant offers one employee five days of paid leave and paid travel-related expenses to "[broaden] his or her understanding of architecture through a research project."

In a field so influenced by culture, it's not uncommon for students of architecture to take advantage of their institutional travel opportunities. Be it a study abroad program or even a fellowship opportunity for a recent graduate, these trips undoubtedly inform the cultural compass of the travelers who set out on them. Yet, when one enters the workforce, these opportunities become less of a reality.

"Offering this grant helps MBB expand our perspective and professionalism in ways that can only be achieved through experiencing architecture as it’s practiced in worlds other than our own. The research is brought back to the firm and shared wit...

Managing different personalities in the workplace

2020-01-14T11:32:00-05:00

Architecture is a highly collaborative practice that calls us to work with many different kinds of people. Sometimes this brings challenges. With firms seeking to build diverse teams, a diversity of personalities and work styles can be forgotten. Particularly for leaders, it can be bewildering to navigate such a large group of people. As a part of Harvard Business Review's The New Science of Team Chemistry series, Suzanne M. Johnson Vickberg and Kim Christfort with Business Chemistry, a workplace personality classification system write:

"Organizations aren’t getting the performance they need from their teams...But often, the fault doesn’t lie with the team members, our research suggests. Rather, it rests with leaders who fail to effectively tap diverse work styles and perspectives..."

Through research of more than 190,000 professionals, the pair share the differences between four primary work styles, each with their unique strengths, weaknesses, preferences, and triggers.

Four worki...

8 things leaders do that make employees quit

2019-09-10T19:37:00-04:00

Employee retention is a big issue in today's job market and many firms have had to deal with the undesirable reality of losing valued team members. While the reasons someone might leave a job are wide and complex, there are some factors that leaders can address themselves to counteract employee departure. In a recent essay, Jon Christiansen, Ph.D., lists 8 mistakes he says leaders do that make employees quit and presents ways to avoid them:

"Mistake 1: Setting inconsistent goals or expectations."

Christiansen explains that "when employees are forced to choose between tasks in order to meet competing expectations, the result is a team of stressed out people without clear priorities." For example, let's say a junior designer has to choose between finishing a set of drawings on time for a project and doing adequate research for a presentation. They know that there's no way they can be late with the drawings, but they also realize that if they don't do the right amount of research they...

The AIA has some advice about leadership succession

2019-09-01T15:00:00-04:00

As a firm leader begins to plan the next season of life away from their business, succession becomes a natural point of focus. "Current principals and owners should look ahead, recruiting employees who have the potential to take the firm into the next generation and providing them with professional development opportunities that will ensure their success," writes the American Institute of Architects.

The organization emphasizes the importance of development and retention to the next generation of leaders, advocating fair compensation and adequate mentorship to ensure employees will "remain with the firm and contribute to its future success."

Should leaders be hired for what they have done in the past, or for what they can do in the future?

2019-08-28T22:00:00-04:00

"Academic studies show that promotions are still largely a reward for past performance, and that organizations continue to assume the attributes that have made someone successful so far will continue to make them successful in the future (even if their responsibilities change)," reads a recent Harvard Business Review article.

The two authors, Josh Bersin and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, believe that organizations should ask three distinct questions when considering promoting someone into a leadership role:

"Does the candidate have the skills to be a high-performing contributor or the skills to be an effective leader?" The authors express how performance level is measured by someone's ability, likability, and drive. And leadership is something that "demands a broader range of character traits" such as integrity. They explain how experts can tend to have fixed mindsets because of their years of experience and that leaders need to be able to remain open and adapt, despite their experience...

How should a leader delegate to their team?

2019-08-20T10:00:00-04:00

Architecture's collaborative nature means that leaders, more than ever, need to understand how to guide their teams. We've all had that supervisor or project manager who asks us to do something, only to leave us feeling confused and unsure of what needs to be accomplished. When we finish the task, we discover that we had it all wrong and have to redo hours of careful work. Or perhaps, if we switch roles, we remember those moments where we've asked someone below us to complete something. When we return, we discover the work is nowhere near what we were looking for.

In both cases, it's often the one doing the delegating who needs to refine their approach. The person who received the direction has typically done their best to follow the instructions they were given. Delegation, like most other things in professional work, is a skill that we can improve. Leadership coach, Deborah Grayson Riegel has identified eight practices of leaders who delegate successfully:

They pick the right pers...

When "Friendly" Competition Becomes Backstabbing Survival

2019-07-24T14:57:00-04:00

An organization that relies upon individual goals or performance benchmarks to evaluate employees...needs to be careful to design competitions and structure comparisons that thwart the efforts of some workers to sabotage their colleagues. Otherwise, saboteurs may bring down everyone’s numbers — including their own.

Associate professor, Szu-chi Huang at the Stanford Graduate School of Business has been studying how competitions within the workplace materialize among larger teams. She explains that competition inside companies "is something that needs to be carefully structured and managed." And that while they do increase engagement, destructive effects can be had as well.

Colleagues can grow preoccupied with proving that they are better than one another, especially, when competition is encouraged inside a professional work environment. According to Huang, this distracts from the larger goals of the group.

One proposed solution for better in-house contests is for companies to try to "restructure the comparison by matching employees who are at different phases of their careers instead of the same phase, for instance through a mentorship system...Or they could highlight the differences and uniqueness in each employee’s background, task, and project, and thus make the comparison less meaningful....

When Our Job Becomes Our Identity

2019-07-22T21:09:00-04:00

It is critical that we learn to distinguish and differentiate our roles from our self. We get into trouble when we lose ourselves in our role instead of thinking in a detached way about how the role is viewed by others...we forget that others in our organizations are reacting to the role we represent in their work lives, not necessarily the interesting and thoughtful people we think we are.

When we identify who we are with what we do professionally, set backs at work can often prompt us to spiral down emotionally. When something is merely an organizational issue we take it as a personal issue. Harvard University Lecturer, Timothy O’Brien, talks about the importance of distinguishing who we are as individuals from what we do at work. People tend to relate to us based off of the role we play in their lives. So for example, if we are in a leadership role, those working under us may not invite us to social gatherings, not because of who we are as people, but because of our relationship to them at work. O’Brien says that many leaders struggle to “be a boss and a friend at the same time.” But, when we embrace our role and the inevitable repercussions that come along with it we are better equipped to draw the line between ourselves and our role.