Member Spotlight - Mitchell Sawasy, AIA, FIIDA

He looks you in the eye with a relaxed smile.  He listens and he has fresh ideas.  His enthusiasm ignites the room.  These were my first impressions of Mitch when we met for lunch over a tri tip salad and breadsticks at the Stonefire Grill on a fall day two years ago. 2013 president Alek Zarifian introduced us all and Nazanin, VP at the time, joined us planning her 2014 Board of Directors.  

Mitch was a local AIA member we had hardly heard of.  His focus was interiors, international interiors with offices in South Pasadena and South America.  He’s a designer with a strong understanding of what it is to own your own firm, establishing RSA with Mark Rothenberg in 1979.  Recognized for his exceptional leadership, he has been honored by IIDA (International Interior Design Association) as a fellow, and has served in various posts culminating as International President in 2008-09.      

The Pasadena-Foothills Chapter Board could also see his talents, enthusiastically supporting his election and rise to 2015 President.  His is a leadership of collaboration.  The rich, diverse programs we have each month are testimony to what he brings to the chapter. 

“His is a leadership of collaboration”   

Like the rest of us, as an architect Mitch was hurt by the recession.  He and his partner split and Mitch founded Sawasy Studio Partners Architects in 2012.  Mitch missed the large, complex projects and the collaborative spirit of energetic teams.  Challenges diminished.   

Events conspire to change our personal and career directions.  I remember Mitch’s installation as VP at the Altadena Town & Country Club.  His wife and father joined in the celebration.  I learned his dad was living with them and in failing health.  A year later he was gone.  The impact of losing a loved one forces us to think of our own legacy and end game.  Mitch was ready for a change.  Well timed, the international firm of Harley Ellis Devereaux called him and quickly recognized Mitch’s many talents.  When HED offered him a job as Studio Leader for their Corporate Commercial group, he couldn’t say ‘no’. 

 

After 35 years as the boss, our Chapter President is working for someone else.  My May interview with him revealed many insights.   

Getting to know Mitch before making the offer, HED had him thinking about what he really likes to do, like…

• Enjoying people
• Collaboration
• Nurturing young people
• Working on large projects
• Stability.

His office had become small and specialized, doing residential and commercial interior tenant projects.  He didn’t like doing proposals and preparing contracts.   

Mitch faced a paradox.  He says “to me, it’s hard to give up freedom.  But you don’t have freedom if you can’t hand off work.”  Small firm leaders often fail to delegate.  In a large firm you can expect stability and a steady paycheck. 

 

A lot can happen in less than two years, from a tri tip salad at Stonefire Grill, to chapter president, to studio head for an international firm.  His star continues to rise. 

LANCE BIRD, FAIA

Design Leadership

After the economic meltdown and a challenging five years, creativity has taken command and it’s on steroids.  Designers in every industry understood – “evolve or die”.  To capture opportunities has required a vigorous approach.   As designers we have a plethora of new tools and materials to choose from.   They’re often economical and vibrant, with less impact on the environment.   

“creativity has taken command and it’s on steroids” 

Evidence is abundant.  World-wide, construction is booming.  In Los Angeles, the Wilshire Grand Center; transformation of the L.A. River; big plans for the Los Angeles County Art Museum; a boom in multifamily housing; the emerging tech center in Culver City; and an ever-expanding transit system.    

Clients want an architect on crazy jobs.  We’re leading a design team replacing HVAC units in aging schools and another team installing a VoIP system in the headquarters of a major utility.  And we’re helping a local city develop and integrate their infrastructure and facility data into an easily accessible form.  Why don’t they just hire engineers?  Clients recognize an architect’s leadership skills and ability to synthesize complex problems.    

New Materials and Robotics – Have you seen this months’ Metropolis (April 2014)?  Consider this quote from page 16:  “Though few of us attempt to dive into the cultural tsunami we’re riding, we feel this massive wave raging and roiling around us.  It’s sweeping through every aspect of our lives….”  You can expect a real shake up in new materials and fabrication techniques in the near future.  You know about 3D printing, and you realize we won’t be printing whole buildings.  Andreas Froech, designer-technologist, has linked robotic fabrication and architecture.  Working with architects, they are designing amazing new forms (see “Blobwall” by L.A. architect Greg Lynn and architect Clive Wilkinson’s “Superdesk”, a 1,100 foot long working surface).  At Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, experts are exploring nanotech materials that could self-assemble.   

World-wide Challenges – Here comes the “downer”.  Did you hear that Habitat for Humanity is in bankruptcy?  That will be fixed, but globally we face seemingly insurmountable problems.  A raging religious war in the Middle East.  The widening gap between rich and poor and the shrinking middle class.  Extreme poverty.  Global warming.  Rising oceans and water shortages in the west.  Yesterday I heard that one-third of the fresh water globally is consumed by the dairy and beef industries.  Yikes! 

Ethics, Architects, and Our Future – At last, our profession is talking about ethics.  See Architect, February 2015. The Harvard Graduate School of Design is requiring an ethics class for architecture students.  Architects share obligations with other professionals:  “Do no harm, pursue fairness in every engagement, behave appropriately” (page 41).  But beyond that, don’t designers face a dilemma each day as our clients tell us what they want?  Their wishes may not be right socially, environmentally, etc.   We are given a choice – do we take the job and take the money?   

So What? – Good news.  There’s a huge need for designer–architects. A couple of suggestions:  1) in your incredibly busy life, take time to ponder and think big;  2) consider what you can do to begin to solve our global problems by starting locally.  Do you know about Public Architecture’s 1% Program?  It’s pro bono service, giving back to those in need for 1% of your annual work hours.  That’s just 20 hours a year.  Embrace this program and you may discover how great the rewards are by helping others.   

 

 

LANCE BIRD, FAIA

Effective Leaders

Can you learn to be an effective leader?  Do you have the personality to be a leader?  Are you willing to take risks?  Are you decisive?  Last month I spoke of our profession’s failure to lead, evidenced by the trend for our clients to hire program/project management and construction management firms, diminishing our role.  

The Right Personality - Jason Ankeny writes in the March 2015, Entrepreneur, page 37 “A winning personality?  The center of the personality spectrum belongs to ambiverts – individuals with characteristics of both introverts and extroverts.  Could this balance equip them (you) to be superior business leaders?  In ambiverts you see a good balance between talking and listening.”  Ankeny refers to the book The Fall of the Alphas: The new Beta Way to Connect Collaborate, Influence—and Lead, by Dana Ardi, “which contends that business leaders must dump traditional vertical models of hierarchy and control (“alpha culture”) in favor of a more horizontal, inclusive approach.” The message is to balance talking and listening, and to be inclusive.   

Teamwork and Collaboration - Millennials get this.  They have grown up in an inclusive, participatory environment contrasting with Boomer’s top down culture.  School classrooms encourage children to work together in teams (pods) instead of the teacher at the front of the classroom lecturing to bored students.  Today as architects we collaborate with large, interdisciplinary design teams. We share Revit files, using clash detection to discover conflicts.  Is the strong movement towards Design-Build, Program/ Project Management, and Construction Management a logical result of ever-greater project complexity and a more collaborative, team-oriented culture? Like it or not, many clients are happy with the result.   

Project Delivery - Last year, TTG’s Edwin Najarian presented an IPD (Integrated Project Delivery) hospital project.  Armando Gonzalez, FAIA echoed Edwin’s praise of the approach stating “IPD is where it’s going” at the final 2014 First Friday Forum.  Stated simply, IPD can be a contract between owner, architect and builder, sharing project delivery risks.  The contract encourages stakeholders to work together towards the common goal of project success. Screw up and the resulting cost overruns (losses) are shared by the stakeholders.  IPD is being used on large, non-public projects.  Is it applicable to public projects and/or small projects?   

Decisive Leadership – Okay, so you think you can balance talking and listening.  You believe in teamwork.  Are you willing to take risks?  President Theodore Roosevelt may have said it best with “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”

 

LANCE BIRD, FAIA

Architects Failing As Leaders

Growing intrusion of non–architects into our world is a failure of architects as leaders.  

Design-Build, Program/Project Management, Construction Management.  Dominated by contractors and trained managers, this trend is putting architects in the back seat.  Clients hire architects as leaders of the process. But they seem to have lost confidence in our profession to manage the construction process when time and schedule equals big dollars.   

In the days of “Master Builders” life was simpler -- fewer regulations, less complex buildings.  Today it’s a more complex world.  We have larger projects and greater complexity.  Clients are more sophisticated and their knowledge and expectations greater.  The size and bureaucracy of public agencies has grown.  In few circumstances is a corporate or public “client” a single person.  Required approvals by five or more executives are common.  Building systems are more complex. Larger projects require a multitude of disciplines and during construction many trades.  This need has lead to greater specialization and greater demands on leaders. 

Architectural schools are not training leaders.  The focus is design.  Students learn to be competitive and to work as individuals.  Students find team projects challenging.  They fail to learn the value of collaboration.   Students don’t like the “pro practice” class and they aren’t learning the essential tools of management.  Do students know what “management” is?  Are they repulsed by the ghosts of business diminishing their design time and focus?   

Architects need to be leaders. If schools are failing, then our practices need to pick up the slack.  We need greater emphasis on training staff to lead the design-construction team.  Emerging professionals need to seek uncomfortable situations, understanding discomfort may mean an opportunity to grow.  Learn to speak up, with foresight and knowledge.  That means you do your homework before diving in.  In the office, expect your boss to give you leadership opportunities.  When given the chance, perform.  No opportunities?  Then find another job.   

Next month we’ll explore what you can do to become an effective leader, and the exciting prospects of Integrated Project Management (IPD), our chance to be a partner with owner and builder. 

LANCE BIRD, FAIA