Every day, millions of breastfeeding mothers head to work knowing they will need to express milk in dark conference rooms, converted closets and other makeshift spaces not appropriately designed for privacy, personalization of sanitization. These same women will also have to visibly pack and carry their equipment each time they need to pump and store the resulting milk in small refrigerators under their desks or in communal areas. To be direct, these women deserve better. Our team has conceptually developed a better solution called Sona that confronts traditional, segregated and clinically driven spaces typically devoted to new mothers for expressing milk. Taking into account the often taboo nature of “pumping”…

The Baltimore office is steadily deepening our roots into our local communities! As the workplace is our house for where synergy happens, we must remember to spread that energy with our friends for a better, healthier environment. Our partnership with Baltimore’s chapter of the Neighborhood Design Center (NDC), a nonprofit organization facilitating the development of healthy, equitable neighborhoods, allows us to explore pro bono services and involvement beyond the office. The NDC provided a monumental opportunity: to design storefront and streetscape guidelines for Pennsylvania Avenue. The site is in plain-view from our office. This corridor holds historical and cultural significance to everyone, ranging from public interest due to the 2015…

As temperatures (hopefully) start to warm up, construction projects should also pick up around the Midwest in advance of the summer crunch. But while April showers bring May flowers, the same isn’t necessarily true for construction turnaround in today’s market. The construction industry is facing challenges somewhat unique within the job market; labor shortages are bucking against previous trends of historically low unemployment. Unlike years prior, this round of labor tightening is accelerating new territory in technology and management. The US labor market is currently enjoying four percent unemployment. Bloomberg recently released a piece that provides more insight into what this looks like for communities that are already experiencing what…

What began as a casual introduction between our firm and the New England Aquarium last summer, has now developed in to an impressive display of youthful ideas for urban resilient design all highlighted during Boston’s recent Design Week 2018. Specifically, the New England Aquarium introduced us to the ClimaTeens – a group of nearly 50 15- to 18-year olds passionate about our planet, oceans, and forging a healthy, sustainable future for our community and the world at large. Teens accepted in to the aquarium’s educational program arrive with various levels of knowledge about climate change, but they are united by their collective desire to understand it fully and their commitment to…

It has been 48 years since 20 million+ people demonstrated across the United States of America in an unmistakable call for environmental reform and to mark the first ever Earth Day. The collective push of those 20 million+ individuals helped spur significant change in environmental policy and practice, including the extension and passage of both the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts along with the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency. The progress launched that day in 1970 has never really ceased. Earth Day is now celebrated in over 193 countries and is said to be the most widely-observed secular holiday in the world.  The annual event is broad…

Brian Skripac and I recently attended the Canada BIM Council Regional Conference in Montreal on April 12.  It was a fantastic event that united BIM leaders from various industries across Quebec. The Canada BIM Council (or CanBIM) is Canada’s collective voice for the construction industry, education community and owners who are working with Building Information Modeling technologies and practices. The group’s mission is to provide professional support, advocacy, learning opportunities and best practices for BIM in a Canadian context while maintaining a close relationship with international BIM groups. The organization hosts numerous sessions throughout the year to bring together members and guest speakers to openly discuss the latest trends, standards…

Our Boston office was proud to take part in Architecture Design and Thinking Day on March 23 when we hosted a group of local high school students and guidance counselors for a fun, activity-filled day that introduced them to life in a design office. A joint initiative between the Boston Society of Architects (BSA) Foundation and the Boston Private Industry Council (PIC), Architecture Design and Thinking Day sought to connect youth with workforce partners to provide opportunities for students to identify rewarding career paths. Our hosting team consisted of one facilitator (me) and two chaperones, Marisa Nemcik and Jamie Graham. The three of us share a passion for educating youth…

Personalized learning – the idea that educators, designers, etc., can tailor lessons or spaces to different levels of student learning – is a term that’s been growing in popularity over the past few years within education. And while the term has become better defined, methods to achieving personalized learning have broken into new realms of focus – from academic, to socioeconomic, to demographic – based on increasingly diverse student needs. When I was onsite at this year’s SxSW Edu conference, many of the talks and discussions I heard focused on creating personalized learning experiences through establishing differentiation. The methods proposed ranged from new forms of curriculum design through the development…

On March 19th the International Facility Managers Association (IFMA) hosted a BIM Pre-Conference Event at their annual Facility Fusion event in Chicago. This was the fourth annual conference specifically designed to address BIM for owners, facility managers, and service providers with a theme of providing Practical & Effective BIM for Facilities Management (FM) and beyond FM. Speakers shared key insights into the reality of BIM and related technologies, workflows, legalities and case studies reflecting the current state of BIM. The conference began with an overview of a recent IFMA survey to better understand how facility mangers are taking advantage of digital data. The survey’s initial findings revealed only 32% of facility…

I recently had the chance to attend and present at the NASPA Annual Conference, an event that joins over 7,000 student affairs educators and professionals to examine the latest trends affecting every aspect of student life. NASPA is the leading association for the advancement, health and sustainability of the student affairs profession, and this year was the 100th anniversary of the conference. While I sat in on many important and thought-provoking sessions, two core themes resonated strongly with my fellow attendees and myself: the growing importance of inclusivity, and the changing needs surrounding student wellness. In regards to inclusivity, conversations focused on gender bias, how institutions can best serve first-generation…