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BALA From the Architects' Perspective



December 17, 2004
HousingZone

Chris Porter, Web editor at HousingZone.com, talks with previous BALA winners Carson Looney, FAIA, principal in charge of housing and planning at Looney Ricks Kiss, and Chris Moore, a senior planner and landscape architect, and Thomas Kopf, a partner in community design studio, both of Downing Thorpe & James, about their experiences with the BALA awards.

Porter: What does having a BALA award mean for a company like yours?

Kopf: Downing Thorpe & James is really focused on developing a reputation-based marketing approach, and that reputation is enhanced and reinforced by winning awards, including BALA. BALA provides for us an opportunity to celebrate good design with our clients and with the industry and with future potential clients as well. It gives us a reason to communicate. It reinforces the importance of design to our firm and to our clients' success. One of the reasons we participate — and a big reason we participate, quite frankly — is because it helps our clients market their projects and differentiate themselves in the communities in which they are building. ( Listen. )

Moore: It really gives our clients and ourselves credibility in the industry. Credibility for their buyers, specifically, knowing that they've hired an award-winning design team and they are an award-winning builder. ( Listen. )

Looney: I think that it's a very good marketing aspect for clients to see, that year after year it looks like we're on top of the housing industry. In a nutshell, for marketing and recognition on a greater-than-regional basis, it's positive. But also, it fosters very good client relationships. Many times we actually purchase the awards objects [posters, etc.] that they give, and we give those to our clients as tokens of our appreciation. And, of course, they display them prominently in their offices, and it just keeps for a good ongoing relationship. ( Listen. )

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Porter: You had said this helps reinforce the importance of design in your own company. Can just the process of applying be a learning experience?

Thomas Kopf
Kopf: We take lessons from applying on how we might do better the next time we apply. We don't learn design things from our application. What it does is it forces us to focus on the essential points of design elements of a project. We have to be able to communicate quickly and succinctly to the judges what was important about a particular project. That helps us communicate the idea of the design with our staff, with other people within the firm. So it's a good way to double-check on your communication ability. And it's actually a recruiting tool as well. When you have a firm that wins awards, people want to be part of that. Young architects and landscape architects and planners say, "I want to win an award, too," and they put in the effort and the thought that it takes to create a project that's an award winner. ( Listen. )

Moore: We're also hoping that the eyes of the BALA judges and the BALA committees are also the eyes of the buyers of these potential homes in these potential communities. So, it's almost routine now that we go through many of the similar processes that are involved in filling out the application for BALA. That's part of our normal process, or at least a part of it. We're hitting all of those things on every single one of our projects because we know those are potentially things that buyers are looking for also. ( Listen. )

Looney: Positively, absolutely. Each and every time we enter an award — at least that I'm involved with — I very carefully look at the requirements … and absolutely think about: What is the story line here? What sets us apart from the others? It helps train some of our younger interns how you speak about a project. What are the aspects that you speak about? So many architects speak architect language. We have to deprogram them after they get out of college because what we need to do is learn how to communicate to our clients and our builders what are the aspects of quality design that are worthy of winning the award. And typically if you speak the language in such a way that people understand it, it works better. That's what we always try to do in our entries: put it out very clear, very positive. No smoke and mirrors. Here it is, and these are the issues. And let it stand for itself. ( Listen. )

Porter: How do you select which projects you submit? And is there a point during the house's evolution where you say, "This could win an award"?

Carson Looney
Looney: I know I've actually said this many times: We never start a project with the intent to win an award. I'll flat say that on the front end. We start a project with the intent to solve whatever it is, whether it's a budget issue, whether it's a livability problem, a community building issue. That in itself is what distinguishes it — or how well we do that — is what sets it apart as being a potential entry. If you have a mission and you accomplish the mission, that typically distinguishes you from all other projects. ( Listen. )

Certainly during the design phase I can anticipate this could be good. But I don't preach that throughout the firm or to the designers or intern architects. I stay on the track of what our mission is that we're hired for. The interesting thing is, you've got to get a project built, it has to be built well, the user has to come in, and hopefully they respect what's been done. Then you've got to go through the process of the photography. ( Listen. )

Kopf: A lot of times you can have a hint that you have a project that's worthy of an award when you meet a client that has a passion for design and a market that is willing to pay for it, for the quality that it takes to win an award. Sometimes we think about submitting projects for awards even before they're designed because we realize that there's the right combination of market and client and consultant to make it happen. ( Listen. )

Porter: Do you look at some of the other winners and say, "This is amazing. This is something we should be doing"?

Looney: Absolutely. It projects an image of being on the — I don't know if cutting edge would be the proper term — at least on the forefront of the housing industry and where it's headed. Hopefully, the judges each year don't necessarily look for the new spaceship, but it projects trends that are developing and will be desirable in the marketplace over the next segment of time. So, certainly, we always look at the entries that have won. At times, you might question, "Well, why this?" It could be a one-time shot, but it could be also something that has some very valid merit that we need to be aware of and educate our clients and folks here in the office about. ( Listen. )

Chris Moore
Moore: What's really beneficial when the winners are posted and presented is to see the variety across the states, and not just on the West Coast and not just in the midsection, but what's happening across the states. To start to draw from that, to understand the differences and nuances from East Coast to West Coast. So that gives a lot of information that, if we're not in a certain region, we may be missing out on partially. ( Listen. )

Kopf: We think that DTJ is definitely one of the leaders in the design community and, as a leader, we have a responsibility to educate ourselves about the different markets and our competition as well. We think that BALA represents what people are buying and what people's desires are, and we can learn from that. We always look at trends of BALA. We go to those presentations. We listen to it. We like to see what markets in other parts of the country are thinking and how architects are responding to those design preferences. ( Listen. )

Porter: Does this in any way help your bottom line at all? Can you get more money for an award-winning home?

Looney: Nope. The other quote that I've said many, many times: You walk down the street, and people say, "I can't pick up the paper without seeing another award." Comments like that make you feel good. My comeback for years has been, "Hey, I'll get three of my awards, and you get a dollar, and we'll go get one cup of coffee." I can't see a direct relationship to making money on that individual project. Some of our award-winning projects have been actually lower-budget projects that have been done very well, and that sets it apart. That's why it wins an award. Literally, we've taken whatever profit was made on that project — when you take into account the time and effort to enter the awards programs and photography, you've eaten up your profit. It's a marketing expense that we project for future income and future projects. I've never had a client come in and say, "I'll pay you more because you've won awards." Business is business. I think they appreciate it. Maybe sometimes they'll not interview as many architects. They may come to us first, and if our fees don't scare them off, they may stick. But I don't think there's any direct correlation there. ( Listen. )

Kopf: That's a tough question to quantify. But I can tell you that Downing Thorpe & James is a very well-respected design firm in the residential industry. Part of the reason for that, I think, is BALA. It probably plays some part in it. The fact that our passion is design is what builds our reputation, and it's recognized by BALA. We put ourselves definitely in the elite class of residential planning community design in the country. And we think BALA just supports that contention. ( Listen. )


© 2009, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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