The American Institute of Architects (AIA) offers some helpful guidance on selecting a professional architect. Selecting the right architect could be vital to the success of your building program whether you are building a home or designing a commercial building. AIA is a good place to start, because it is the leading professional membership association [...]

In Dan Pink’s seminal book, A Whole New Mind of a few years ago, Dan gave us a new archetype of today’s creative worker supplanting Peter Drucker’s concept of the knowledge worker. The knowledge worker a generation ago was a novel concept compared to more of a blue collar, industrial, manufacturing mindset. Look, we barely had cell phones then [...]

When Crossland Construction Company founder, Ivan Crossland Sr., lost his battle with cancer in 2003, Ivan Jr. was ready with a vision for the company and the passion to take on the responsibility. Ivan Sr. and his wife Virginia had raised a family of ten children (four girls and six boys). All six [...]

 
High Rise, published in the early 90s, is a fascinating read about the development and unfortunate timing of the delivery of a Manhattan office building into the incredibly weak early 1990s market. The central character is New York developer Bruce Eichner, and the building in question is the now Bertelsmann Building, located at 1540 Broadway, [...]

We hear a lot about companies who strive to earn repeat business by exceeding customer expectations and delivering tremendous value. Still I wonder. Here are four Chief Executives. Tell me if you think they have happy and loyal customers.

Hard Goods Manufacturer Co. – The Mighty Kwinn CEO bends over backwards to listen to his customers. [...]

There was a survey done by SmartPulse where nearly 50 percent of respondents said “poorly defined scopes and objectives” were the main reasons for project failures. Compare that to about 20 percent claiming projects fail, because of lack of proper resources or poor execution, and you can see that inferior planning is hampering much of [...]

Do we really need architecture and design today? As we sit here and ponder, approaching what we are hoping will be the end of this great recession, I thought I would post about the necessity of architecture.  After all, buildings can get built without architects.  Spaces can be filled without interior designers.  To all those [...]

The decisions you make at the earliest stages of your project are the most critical. It is your building project, and you don’t want to leave your schedule, cost or quality to chance. Setting priorities early on will be the best way to get a finished project you deserve.
Your project may require unique expertise. For [...]

Build-to-suit or Settling for Low Cost Alternatives
Real estate professionals, architects, engineers, builders and owners can find themselves faced with a dilemma in an environment of economic uncertainly. It has always been true that buying exclusively based on lowest price is a dangerous way to do business. Catering to such clients can be hazardous as well. [...]

I had the pleasure of viewing this short interview of Rem Koolhaas held recently at the Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy. He talks about the work of OMA and their relationship/dialogue with history in their projects. Over OMA’s long history of built and built work, they’ve consistently been in constant dialogue about what it means to [...]