Buildings in a Landscape – ACE Mentor Program

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Buildings in a Landscape - ACE Mentor Program
ThenDesign Architecture actively participates in the ACE Mentor Program in Cleveland, Ohio. In a recent session, Jeff Henderson highlighted the different ways architects situate buildings in a landscape. He simplified this complicated concept for high school students, identifying six commonly used ways structures can shape the activity in a landscape.

ThenDesign Architecture is a proud participant of the ACE Mentor Program in Cleveland, Ohio. The ACE Mentor Program is an afterschool, educational program that exposes high school students to the architecture, construction, and engineering industries. Partnering with schools across the United States, including the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, designers from TDA recently explored how situating buildings in a landscape can impact the overall activity on a site. Jeff Henderson explained 6 ways that buildings in a landscape can shape this space and experience.

ACE Mentor Program

The ACE Mentor Program of America is an afterschool program which was crafted to attract high school students to the architecture, construction, and engineering industries as well as the skilled trades. With over 70 affiliates across 37 states in the continental United States, the program is mostly based in metropolitan areas and allows students to explore different design projects within the industry. Many firms who partner with the ACE Mentor Program, provide a well-rounded experience allowing students to see the many facets of our interconnected industry.

At TDA, several of our designers participate in this important program. We have seen the impact this educational initiative has on students who are interested in the field.

6 Types of Buildings in a Landscape

As an illustration in his presentation, Jeff modeled 6 ways to situate buildings in a landscape and how this will affect the site.

  • Object: When a structure is placed in the center of a landscape, it is seen as an “object.” This means that the building is the most important element on the site. This gives the architecture more visual presence over any other pieces on the site. When creating designs where the building is an object, it is often set apart and above the landscape, creating a clear separation between the two.
  • Street: When structures are placed in a tight row across from each other, they define a streetscape in the landscape. This street creates a thoroughfare that emphasizes movement, directing traffic and occupants to pass through the space. Usually, streets designed in this manner don’t allow for easy pedestrian traffic.
  • Boulevard: When the structures are pushed back, it allows for an additional street with landscaping in the middle. That larger space gives the street more of a sense of “place.” Often there are opportunities for plantings and additional pedestrian activity alongside the streetscape.
  • Park: With the streets moved outside, this allows the space in the middle to be used for purely pedestrian use. A park atmosphere is created since it is protected from busy traffic and can be used for a range of human activities. The structures adjacent to the park can easily access its interior with minimal effort.
  • Focal Point: Once the park area is enclosed, the landscape is now even more protected by the structures that ring it. This is a courtyard arrangement and visual emphasis is placed on the activity that happens inside this ring. This arrangement makes the interior park the most important aspect of the landscape.
  • Integrated Landscape: In this arrangement structures are actively engaged in the landscape. It’s possible for an occupant to experience both the structure and landscape at the same time. It opens up a range of architectural possibilities like installing a green roof or introducing plant life more extensively into the building.
"Our goal is to simplify complicated processes and make them easy for anyone to understand."
Jeff Henderson
Architect

While there are many other ways to situate buildings in a landscape, these major categories are commonly found in both urban and suburban developments. However, these strategies don’t just affect large developments, they can also be employed when designing schools and other educational facilities. At the start of each project, we have the opportunity to rethink how the structure engages with its landscape to promote a district’s learning goals and further their student’s education.

Let’s work together to make education better. Interested in speaking with us? Get in touch!

Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Communications

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Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Ryan is a communications specialist who is passionate about using digital media to further the goals of organizations and communities in Northeast Ohio. With a background in construction and a degree in architecture, he spent over a decade in corporate video production and brings this mindset to videography, editing, photography and content marketing. He is passionate about supporting the arts, and can be found hiking in the parks system.

A Different Perspective on Architectural Drawing – ACE Mentor Program

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A Different Perspective on Architectural Drawing - ACE Mentor Program
ThenDesign Architecture has proudly participated in the ACE Mentor Program for years. This year, we taught a session on the importance of communication through architectural drawing. In order to best engage high school students in a distanced format, the team needed to come up with a unique way to demonstrate these architectural conventions.

ThenDesign Architecture is a proud participant of the ACE Mentor Program in Cleveland, Ohio. The ACE Mentor Program is an afterschool, educational program that exposes high school students to the architecture, construction, and engineering industries. Partnering with schools across the United States, including the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, designers from TDA recently explained the importance of communication in our field. For this engagement session, Jeff Henderson, Claire Bank and James Cowan built a “super-sized” architectural canvas to emphasize why we need to take a different perspective on architectural drawing.

About the ACE Mentor Program

The ACE Mentor Program of America is an afterschool program which was crafted to attract high school students to the architecture, construction, and engineering industries as well as the skilled trades. With over 70 affiliates across 37 states in the continental Unites States, the program is mostly based in metropolitan areas and allow students to explore different design projects in the industry.

The program brings together more than 4,100 professionals, high school teachers and students at events, with each one covering a different aspect of the architecture, engineering and construction industry. Trade professionals deliver educational sessions, engagement activities and take students on site visits to help them better understand how the built world is shaped. ACE also awards approximately $2.5 million annually in scholarships to those who are pursuing industry centered careers.

Interestingly, more than 70% of ACE seniors enter a skilled trade program or enter college with an industry-related major. According to ACE’s student surveys, the majority of students passing through the program felt motivated to attend college and picked up skills and knowledge that weren’t covered in their formal education.

At TDA, several of our designers, have participated in this important program. We have seen firsthand the difference it makes.

"Just as a writer uses words to create a verbal story, an architect uses drawings to tell a creative visual story."
Jeff Henderson
Architect

A Different Perspective on Architectural Drawing

Jeff Henderson, a 12-year ACE mentor at John Hay High School in Cleveland, who presented this year’s session on drawing commented: “Architectural drawing is really about telling a story. It’s a story about a building. Just as a writer uses words to create a verbal story, an architect uses drawings to tell a creative visual story.” A foundational principle of architecture is that a designer must communicate their ideas to a client or other professional on a collaborative team. To be a leader in this industry, we must be able to communicate effectively.

For Jeff, the importance of drawing touches on three vital areas–learning, thinking and communicating. He states: “For me, drawing is a form of learning. When architects see a building or walk into a space, they suddenly shift into “architect mode” and they begin asking themselves questions. “Why does it look like that?” “Why did they use that material?” “How was that detailed?” It is said that inspiration comes from anywhere and that is absolutely true. So, we analyze good buildings and good spaces and record them through drawings and notes. The second part is that drawing is a form of thinking. It is in the process of drawing where you start to think about the design of a building and it becomes a process of testing, looking at different ideas and making decisions to move the design along. The third portion is that drawing is a vital tool for communication. The ability to clearly communicate designs, visually and verbally, to clients or stakeholders is crucial. That is probably the most important skill an architect can have.

“Behind the Scenes” Setup

As a firm dedicated to educational design, we continually think about unique ways to engage students, educators, and communities. While these sessions are normally conducted in person, during this time of distanced learning and remote workshops, the mentorship team devised a new way to communicate architectural drawing conventions.

They devised a setup that involved suspending a high-definition camera, with a wide angle lens 10′ in the air in our unfinished office building. Then we laid out (3) 4’x8′ sheets of wall board side by side creating a “life sized canvas” that was 12′ wide x 8′ high. The team then took turns sketching plans, sections, elevations, and perspectives on the sheets to demonstrate how designers use these different types of drawings to communicate their ideas.

In the presentation, Jeff used these examples to illustrate how a simple drawing can communicate a complicated architectural idea.

This unique presentation method allowed us to engage with students in a novel way, forcing them to take a completely different perspective on architectural drawing and its impact on communication. For Claire and James, longtime ACE Mentor participants, they found the exercise helped them see drawing in a new light. It gave the whole team an opportunity to think through the best way to engage a remote audience using technology, while underscoring the necessity of drawing throughout the architectural process.

For Claire, education has always been a focus of her career, “So I try to find other ways, besides designing schools, to weave education into what I do with my career. I think ACE brings architecture and its related fields to schools that may not focus on it as much. Especially serving schools in Cleveland, we are focusing on developing skills that could lead to opportunities for underprivileged communities, leading to more diversity in the industry.”

Similarly, James learned about educational design through mentors involved in the ACE program. This led him to a love of this kind of design. “What’s funny is I didn’t know I would be as passionate about educational design until I got to TDA. They had a mentorship program through ACE and I started to learn more about them. Once I got here, I started understanding the impact within a community, and that’s something I wanted to be a part of. It’s very exciting to see the groundbreaking, then openings and kids running into a new school. You can see how it impacts someone’s life.”

We are committed to bringing a different perspective on architectural drawing, educational design and developing new ways to engage with communities on their projects. We look forward to providing new vantage points for the next round of high school students entering the AEC industry.

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Let’s work together to make education better. Interested in speaking with us? Get in touch!

Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Communications

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Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Ryan is a communications specialist who is passionate about using digital media to further the goals of organizations and communities in Northeast Ohio. With a background in construction and a degree in architecture, he spent over a decade in corporate video production and brings this mindset to videography, editing, photography and content marketing. He is passionate about supporting the arts, and can be found hiking in the parks system.

ThenDesign wins NorthCoast99 2020 Award of Excellence

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ThenDesign Architecture, Honored to Be Named a NorthCoast99 Award Winner and Receive a 2020 Award of Excellence
TDA is honored to receive NorthCoast 99's, 2020 Award of Excellence. We firmly believe as designers, we can positively impact the lives of generations to come through good design. Whether an architect, construction administrator or support staff, this core value informs our unique culture and drives us to be better each day.

ThenDesign Architecture is thrilled to receive NorthCoast 99’s, 2020 Award of Excellence in the small business category. Organized by ERC, they work to highlight companies making an impact in our region.

Northeast Ohio has faced many challenges in 2020. A volatile job market caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has caused major problems for companies operating in this part of our state.

The City of Cleveland, which was once a powerhouse in manufacturing has had its difficulties over the last century. Between 1950 and 1990, the population nearly halved, while simultaneously the city lost over half of the manufacturing jobs as this market constricted. In order to rise to these challenges, Cleveland laid groundwork to surge back and is now decades along in redeveloping its economy. A 13 year plan, which started in 2007, sought to put developmental measures in place for revitalization. The focus was on developing connections, between people, places and opportunities. This included buttressing the medical industry, universities and entertainment outlets. The city hoped this development would spread into the surrounding metro areas, ultimately benefiting all Northeast Ohio.

Before Covid-19 hit, Cleveland was ranked #5 in Glassdoor’s ranking of the 25 Best Cities for jobs. This online employment website, calculated the ranking from three factors: hiring opportunities, a median base salary vs. home prices and surveys of job satisfaction. Cleveland outranked all other cities in Ohio. This, along with being the 33rd largest metropolitan area in the US, makes it continue to be a major economic market. While times are still difficult during the pandemic, there continues to be hope and great working opportunities in Northeast Ohio.

One organization spotlighting employers offering these opportunities and making an impact in our region is ERC.

2020 Northcoast 99 Award Winners Video:

ERC organizes NorthCoast 99, which is an awards program that recognizes the top 99 employers in Northeast Ohio. The basis of the award is to promote organizations that prioritize positive organizational culture, HR policies that align with the company’s mission, good work-life balance, staff growth and employee satisfaction in the workplace.

During the application process, employees provide feedback on the workplace environment. This is calculated into the overall judging process. Since the applications are often completed by team members in different fields, (whether in human resources, leadership or production), collaboration on the submittal is encouraged.

This year, we are thrilled to receive the NorthCoast 99’s, 2020 Award of Excellence in the small business category. In order to honor the winners, a video production was assembled with select leaders talking about how their culture has fueled their success.

Chris Smith and Angie Staedt Interviews:

This year, our firm president Chris Smith and Angie Staedt, our Human Resource Director spoke on what drives our culture and the core belief that we can enrich lives through good design.

Typically Northcoast 99 hosts a gala each year for the winning firms to celebrate and network with others in adjacent industries. This year due to social distancing guidelines, the event was held online with a live keynote and comments from several award winners.

For those dedicated to furthering their workplace environment, culture and the lives of their employees, it is an excellent opportunity and an honor to be selected for this award.

Online Event:

Starting over 30 years ago, TDA began prioritizing organizational culture long before it was common in business. Bob Fiala, who is a Founder and Executive Chair at TDA, along with others on the leadership team, often take time during the week to engage with employees on their work and provide updates through regular staff meetings which provide strategic insight into architectural design and furthering company culture.

A huge thanks to ERC for continuing to spotlight the various organizations who call Northeast Ohio home and are committed to developing their firms as a viable place to live, grow and work.

Also, a big thanks to Mark Wayner of Wayfinding Creative for putting together the video shown during the award ceremony.

To learn more about TDA’s efforts, read about our school projects and ways we continue to develop educational spaces in Northeast Ohio, visit TDA Insights and sign up for our mailing list.

Let’s work together to make education better. Interested in speaking with us? Get in touch!

Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Ryan is a communications specialist who is passionate about using digital media to further the goals of organizations and communities in Northeast Ohio. With a background in construction and a degree in architecture, he spent over a decade in corporate video production and brings this mindset to videography, editing, photography and content marketing. He is passionate about supporting the arts, and can be found hiking in the parks system.
Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Communications

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Virtual Staff Meetings: Reconnecting While we are Apart

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Virtual Staff Meetings: Reconnecting While we are Apart
Covid-19 has posed many serious challenges to normal business operations, especially for those in the creative, collaborative fields.

A challenging aspect of 2020 has been social distancing from our co-workers, our offices, and our normal routines. Staying home means a disrupted schedule and stopping into the office isn’t a reality for many of us. If we are parents, then we automatically became full-time teachers, cafeteria workers and crisis managers, juggling learning schedules, lunch breaks, and work-related deadlines. Seriously, how many times have we had our own “quarantined co-workers” (spouses, children, and the occasional dog or cat) “helpfully” join our client meetings to provide their opinions? The lines between work and home are blurred and we have to remember to find ways for self-care and manage these new sources of stress.

It’s been tough; however, we look forward to getting back together as creative professionals. Collaboration is the hallmark of the architectural field and it would be nice to see people again. TDA has been open throughout the pandemic as an essential business, and projects continue to move forward on schedule through the use of technology including video conference meetings with clients, contractors, and co-workers. Recently, we are seeing more of our staff coming back into the office to gather work, prepare for meetings, and to just check in.

The virtual staff meetings in which we’ve been engaging have been tremendously helpful to stay connected with our team of over 50 professionals in Northeast, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. These forums provide updates from the partners, allow us to meet new hires, and learn about what projects are on the horizon. Also, sometimes it provides us with shared good humor and the occasional webcam hijinks (–careful, the mics are hot!)
We are characterized by "Good people doing great things!" and recognize it is more important than ever to stay connected.
ThenDesign Architecture

With some staff coming in on a rotating basis, we also have around 15-20 members of our team working in the office regularly. To support a safe and productive culture, we’ve now adopted a “hybrid work model” allowing our architects, interior designers, and support staff to work remotely when possible and come into the office as needed. This allows us to remain dedicated to supporting our clients and current projects, and to remain supportive of each other. Additionally, we perform “temperature checks” using an infrared forehead thermometer when staff and visitors enter the building, and once inside, everyone wears a mask when interacting within 6 feet of contact. (Remember to smile with your eyes, otherwise, we look angry all the time!) We continue to practice thorough handwashing throughout the day, wipe down workspaces at the end of the day, and the offices are sanitized regularly. We are determined to keep these measures in place as long as they are needed, ensuring everyone is healthy and safe as we move forward as a creative team.

TDA continues to be a firm of “Good People Doing Great Things!” and we’re using our “What If” mindset to do so in the safest possible way in this health-challenged environment.

Let’s work together to make education better. Interested in speaking with us? Get in touch!

Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Communications

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Recent Posts:

Ryan Caswell

Ryan Caswell

Ryan is a communications specialist who is passionate about using digital media to further the goals of organizations and communities in Northeast Ohio. With a background in construction and a degree in architecture, he spent over a decade in corporate video production and brings this mindset to videography, editing, photography and content marketing. He is passionate about supporting the arts, and can be found hiking in the parks system.