Office Insight 080818

08.18.08

GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGS

A Minute with Ira Joe: Restaurant Problems

“No problem.” That’s what the young woman behind the countercountered with when I thanked her as she handed me a cup of Rhode Island clam chowder*. An odd rejoinder, don’t you think?And not the

ﬁ

rst time I’ve heard it in this young century.

FULL STORY ON PG.18

Young + Wright & The IBI Merger

Succeeding at succession: Earlier this year,

Young + Wright Architects

, a125-person Toronto-based

ﬁ

rm, joined forces in a merger/acquisition withcross-town giant

IBI Group

. Their combined

ﬁ

rm has a new handle,

Young +Wright/IBI Group Architects

.

FULL

STORY ON PG.3

Prize Prairie Interiors

The author recently took a tour of the Prairies, from Dallas to Minneapo-lis, stopping along the way to enjoy exceptional art and design – somenew, some old, some renovated. The following is a report on three out-standing interiors.

FULL STORY ON PG.7

Indoor Air Quality, Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is

Every cheesy teenage “slasher” movie includes the same scene: thevictim opens the attic door and peers into the blackness. What lurkswithin is evil and she knows it – but she ventures up the stairs none-theless. Fool.

FULL STORY ON PG.11

USGBC-NY Natural Talent Competition

The

Emerging Green Builders

of NY held the

USGBC-NY Natural Talent Com-petition

Award Ceremony on July 30th at the Mohawk Showroom. This yearthe Emerging Green Builders of NY focused its Natural Talent Competition on agreen school project in DUMBO, Brooklyn.

FULL STORY ON PG.13

Karen Brown and G3

Karen Brown

of

Perkins+Will

is more than an interior designer. The SocialResponsibility Leader for the

New York Perkins+Will

of

ﬁ

ce has an upliftingoutlook on life that will take her to three countries – Republic of Georgia,Ghana, and Guatemala – in three months starting on August 21.

FULL STORY ON PG.16

CITED:“EVERYTHING ISFUNNY AS LONG ASIT IS HAPPENING TOSOMEBODY ELSE.”—WILL ROGERS

08.18.08

GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGSPAGE 2 OF 29

Oct. 15-17, 2008

Begin

your

our

World Workplace experience at

WWW.WORLDWORKPLACE.O

RG

G

brought to

you

by the International Facility Management Association, the leading authority on facility management

Dallas Convention Center||Dallas, Texas, USA ||Oct. 15-17, 2008

The most important conference and exposition for facility management,addressing challenges that are universal to the profession.

the keynote

hekeynote

speakers

peakers

Chip Heath

A FREEcopy of ChipHeath’s book,

Made toStick

, with registration*!

Stanford University professor, Chip*certain registration categories qualify;please see Web site for details.

Jonas Ridderstråle

“Funky Business Forever” At the forefront of a newgeneration of European-basedbusiness gurus, Dr. Ridderstråleshares his insights on neworganizational models andleadership styles in theinformation age.

the educational

heeducational

experience

xperience

85% of surveyed 2007registrants have applied newpractices and techniques learnedat IFMA’s World Workplace. Thisyear, more than 80 educationalsessions will address:

Benchmarking & Best PracticesIndustries & InterestsGlobal OutlookMaintaining the Built EnvironmentPeople PerspectiveStrategic Facility PlanningSustainabilityTrends & Innovation

PLUS – Dallas facility tours,panel discussions, workshopsand more!

the

he

networking

etworking

experience

xperience

see where you fit into the FMyouniverse

IFMA’s World Workplaceconnects you to a globalcommunity of industryprofessionals. Networkingis one of the primarybenefits of attending.

he buyig

xperience

the

fir st

buyinevent of200

ore than300olutionsroviders repreeting aiversecross-sctionof

industries.Prepar forthecoming yearbybrowsingcountless solutions to helpyou maximize the

erformanceofyour facilitie.

I f y o u ’ r e r e s p o n s i b l e f o r t h e p l a n n i n g , d e s i g n , m a i n t e n a n c e , p r o t e c t i o n o r m a n a g e m e n t o f t h e b u i l t e n v i r o n m e n t , t h e n I F M A ’ s W o r l d W o r k p l a c e i s f o r y o u .

Heath, offers a practical (andclever) guide to effectivecommunication. “Stickiness”is the art of making ideasunforgettable.

08.18.08

GIVING VOICE TO THOSE WHO CREATE WORKPLACE DESIGN & FURNISHINGSPAGE 3 OF 29

companies

Young + Wright & The IBI Merger

by David LaskerSucceeding at succession: Earlierthis year,

Young + Wright Architects

,a 125-person Toronto-based

ﬁ

rm, joined forces in a merger/acquisitionwith cross-town giant

IBI Group

. Theircombined

ﬁ

rm has a new handle,

Young + Wright/IBI Group Architects

.Consistently pro

ﬁ

table, Young +Wright (Y+W) has designed projectsvalued at least $1-billion in construc-tion value every year since 2000.Unique, because they work in thefull range of building types, (excepthealthcare). The

ﬁ

rm has not onlycompleted over a quarter of a mil-lion housing units and many of thecountry’s largest laboratory buildings,but it also has designed half a dozenchurches recently. Eight designerswork full-time on custom residences(featured in

Architectural Digest)

inthe $1 million-to-$5 million range.As designers of Toronto’s SkyDome(recently renamed the Rogers Cen-tre), Chairman Emeritus,

Rod Robbie

,invented and patented the mecha-nism for a retractable roof on a largestadium. The

ﬁ

rm’s Wickaninnish Innon Vancouver Island was named thetop hotel in North America in 2002and the third-best hotel in the world by

Travel and Leisure

.The Y+W staff is subdivided intostudio groups of eight to 12 so thatemployees have the informality of asmall practice and the bene

ﬁ

t of teamwork. The

ﬁ

rm even has a partner incharge of human relations guardingthe culture they have developed overthe past 30 years.There is another very unusualaspect to Y+W’s business model: Over10 years ago, Y+W had hired architect

Gerry McMaster

, formerly in-houseproject manager for a large Canadianbank, to manage its extensive work inCanada and the Eastern United Stateswith an American multiplex theatrecompany. Mr. McMaster was on theY+W payroll, yet he thought of himself,and their client thought of him, as theDirector of Project Development. Thisallowed Y+W to expand the traditionalrole of the architect as well as its in

ﬂ

u-ence on the project.As the cover-story feature in busi-ness section of

The Globe and Mail

ex-plained, Mr. McMaster, “knew not onlythe ins and outs of the architecturalside of the business but the more pro-saic planning details of securing leaseagreements, hiring lawyers, developingmarketing plans and even securingfavorable

ﬁ

nancing.” He even attendedto the installation of seats and projec-tors in a virtual turnkey operation.“This is unusual,” said Mr. Mc-Master in an interview. “It’s unheardof. I don’t know of any other similararchitectural example.”Over the years, the founding part-ners

Richard Young

and

Jamie Wright

utilized a little country of

ﬁ

ce upstairson the main street of Creemore, ON,where members of the

ﬁ

rm wouldgo every four months for manage-ment brainstorming sessions. Duringone such retreat, they devised their18-point “go/no-go” Business Devel-opment decision grid. For instance,whereas relevant experience wouldearn one point on the 35-point scorenecessary to proceed, personalrelationships with one of the clientdecision-makers, or strategic marketpositioning, gained more value on the

ﬁ

rms evaluation chart. This helpedminimize time and money wasted onunsuccessful project bids.As for IBI Group, the publicly traded

ﬁ

rm offers services in four areas of practice: urban land, building facilities,transportation networks and systemstechnology. The integration of thearchitectural personnel at the com-bined of

ﬁ

ces of Y+W with IBI GroupArchitects aggregates approximately450 personnel in Canada – the biggest

GARY ERICKSON & JAMIE WRIGHTRICHARD YOUNG