What Has Your Architect
Done For You Lately?
Don’t underestimate this valuable team member

By Mary Cyr, AIA
Mary T. Cyr Architect
Kansas City

Editor’s Note: We are pleased to accept articles for submission that are of interest to our clients and their volunteers. This month, we invite Mary Cyr to share how early engagement of the right architect can enhance your project and add to its success from the earliest pre-planning stages.

I invite you to take a few minutes to expand your notion of what an architect can do to support your capital campaign. Often, during campaigns that include facility expansion, the architect is invited onto the project team far too late to take advantage of all we have to offer. The profession of architecture has been around for a few centuries and our strength is rooted in a traditional training that hones multi-faceted thinking. Architects are adept at thinking globally while managing numerous details, and implementing practical solutions that support a holistic vision. While our facility with both creativity and technology may seem archaic in the present age of specialization, an architect may be just the team member your capital campaign efforts require.

I have found my projects for non-profit agencies to be both the most challenging and the most rewarding. The challenges are woven throughout the project from the multi-faceted nature of my clients’ constituents, to the multipurpose and sometimes contradictory functional needs of their building program, to their ubiquitously restrictive budgets. And lastly, but certainly not least of the challenges, is the “emotions” factor. The chief administrator of the agency is likely to be a person who in addition to his/her varied and impossibly lengthy list of day-to-day responsibilities, has just taken on the daunting task of supporting fundraising for the capital campaign and being a key member of the capital improvements team.

The later of these added responsibilities may be a new experience for both the chief administrator and volunteers. Board members and other volunteers may feel personally vulnerable when asking family, friends, and business associates to donate money to the project they have championed. These are real stresses and can make for a highly charged emotional environment. On the other hand, the altruism, enthusiasm and variety of experience the volunteers bring to the project and the experience, strength, skills, and vision of the chief administrator invariably create a stimulating environment for all. I find that to be deeply rewarding.

With this endowment of passion, commitment, and effort, it is wise to nurture that investment from the very start. An architect who is in-tune with the unique needs of non-profit clients will have much to offer during the “Pre-Design” phase. Before creating his/her first design sketch the experienced architect will ask a number of thought provoking questions that may challenge your early premise.

Ego deflation aside, this is a good thing, as hidden but unresolved flaws in basic conception are much less costly to solve in the pre-design phase than once they become bricks and mortar! Architects are comfortable with exploration and rarely end up where they start out, as they mine and refine the many possible ways to implement their client’s goals. The architect who has an affinity for non-profit agencies is comfortable with distilling the visions of staff, volunteers, donors, agency clients and patrons, and community stakeholders into a facility that responds to many needs, is an asset to the community in which it is located, and provides that agency with a physical presence that is reflection of their worthwhile mission.

Before the official launch of your capital campaign consider allowing a four- to six-month period for “Pre-Design” work. Invite your architect to join your team of volunteers and fundraising professionals and participate in defining your vision of the project and you will benefit not only from her creative solutions but, just as importantly, her skill at truly understanding and defining the challenge.

If your facility expansion is in support of program enhancement your architect will be able to assist you in making decisions about operations from a facilities perspective that may affect not only your new building, but the way you serve your clients. If your vision for program involves community participation your architect can facilitate a design “charrette”, which is a community engagement event where community stakeholders meet with project decision makers and the architect in an intensely focused manner to refine the proposed program, and start to mould the conceptual design of the project.

The process can continue through a cycle of discussion and design over a period of several days; or the “charrette” tool can be modified in scope and scale to meet your requirements. A “mini-charrette” can be completed in as little as two two-hour meetings. In this way a fairly large group of stakeholders can influence the understanding and interpretation of a planning problem and the direction that the architectural solution takes. Once this collaboration is complete the architect along with the project decision-makers can proceed with the development of the architecture for the project with a concept that is rooted in community ownership. These types of exercises allow your vision to be thoroughly examined and refined, so that your goals accurately reflect need and the resultant solutions have the effect you intend.

The final deliverable of the “Pre-Design” phase is a Pre-Development Report, in which your team’s thoughtful early planning and community engagement process is documented. In collaboration with you, your architect can compile this report which may include the following;

• A description of the project vision – program goals and means of attaining them,
• Documentation of the “charrette” process: notes, photos, final consensus, etc.
• The space usage program,
• Site selection criteria and site analysis,
• Renovation vs. new construction analysis,
• Conceptual design sketches,
• A budget estimate for project costs, and
• A project schedule.

Buoyed by this comprehensive description of your intentions and a plan for implementation, you can confidently approach donors knowing that you have diligently prepared for the “ask”. Donors will note that you have thoughtfully evaluated the challenges you seek to meet, and your efforts show that you respect the value of the resources they will commit to your cause. Having experienced a thorough examination of your project vision with your architect you can draw on the investment you have made and implement your plan with efficiency and confidence.

Mary Cyr, AIA is principal of Mary T. Cyr Architect, a Kansas City-based firm that specializes in providing integrated architectural services from community engagement through post-construction to privately-owned businesses and nonprofit organizations. You can find out more by visiting www.cyrarchitects.com. You can contact Mary at mcyr@cyrarchitects.com, or by phone at 816-960-0250.