Author: Murrye Bernard, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP - Contributing Editor

Event: SMPS-NY’s MARKETING IN A RECESSION: Lessons Learned and the Impact on the Future of the A/E/C Industry
Location: Center for Architecture, 11.05.09
Keynote Speakers: Mike Reilly — Reilly Communications; Connie Mugno — Mugno Consulting
Speakers: James Cooke — Chairman, James Cooke Consultants; Clifford Selbert — Partner, Selbert Perkins Design Collaborative; Nancy Ruddy — Principal, Cetra/Ruddy; Yeng Wu — Principal, ZGF Architects; Gary H. Pomerantz, PE, LEED AP — Executive Vice President, WSP Flack+Kurtz; Stephen DeSimone, PE, LEED AP — President/Chief Executive, DeSimone Consulting Engineers; Peter Marchetto — President, Construction Operations, Tishman Construction Corporation; Eric McGovern — President & CEO, Pavarini McGovern
Moderator: David Koren, CPSM, Assoc. AIA — Director of Marketing & Associate Principal, Perkins Eastman
Organizers: SMPS-NY in collaboration with AIANY Marketing & PR Committee
Sponsors: Handel Architects; Service Point

While both marketing professionals and firm principals struggle with conflicting expectations when it comes to marketing strategies, current economic conditions magnify the fact that marketing is a firm-wide responsibility. Michael Reilly of Reilly Communications believes that now is the time for firms to recast themselves. There are five steps for firms to reinvent themselves, according to Connie Mugno of Mugno Consulting: don’t go for everything that comes your way; reevaluate your firm’s vision and then identify its core strengths; avoid engaging in a long-term strategic planning process; instead, develop a brief, two-to-three page, action-oriented plan; and finally, communicate this plan to everyone in your firm by making it visible.

Mugno suggested that marketing professionals take a proactive approach by serving as strategists for their firms. Firm principals should use down time to update computing systems and train employees in BIM, which is no longer a competitive advantage but rather a service that clients expect. She also recommended that firms build cost-cutting options into proposals, and even help clients get construction loans.

Some firms have creatively adapted to the changing economic climate, Reilly said. One of his clients had specialized in theater and performance spaces, but now completes case studies for much-needed rehearsal spaces at colleges and universities. A geotechnical firm researched opportunities to work with stimulus money. Another firm switched its focus entirely to healthcare projects, a specialty that will always be in demand. In each case, he pointed out, the leadership came from the firms’ marketing directors. While many firms have cut their marketing budgets, Reilly said those that have focused on staying visible have been more successful at getting new work. He also emphasized that social media is an important tool to attract press and, more importantly, new clients.

In small discussion groups, attendees expressed that fear is the most common barrier to progress, with staff simply not knowing what to do to help market a firm. Some marketing professionals expressed difficultly communicating with firm principals. Others expressed frustration with staff members for not following up on proposals in a timely manner or providing the marketing department with the information they need. Reilly suggested that marketers should not only promote the firm, but also promote themselves and their contributions within the firm.

At the Principal’s Panel, it was agreed that marketing practices of previous years are no longer valid. Moderator David Koren, CPSM, Assoc. AIA, director of marketing and associate principal at Perkins Eastman, asked the panelists how they have prepared staff for this changing landscape. Many admitted to diversifying their portfolios, but Nancy Ruddy, principal of Cetra/Ruddy, said that even though it is challenging firms can examine their previous experience and core strengths and adapt accordingly. For example, if a firm specialized in housing pre-recession, then they might go for dormitory projects now.

The principals agreed that face-to-face interaction with existing and future clients is a must. “Cold calling and answering RFPs, that’s not business,” said Stephen DeSimone, PE, LEED AP, president of DeSimone Consulting Engineers. Sometimes previous clients don’t realize that firms are willing to do smaller-scale projects, and Ruddy believes that principals shouldn’t be afraid to ask. However, firms can still be selective in this economy, stated Yeng Wu, principal of ZGF Architects. Unless a project aligns with her firm’s core values, she is willing to pass it up.

Many RFPs elicit hundreds of responses, but this panel agreed it’s not worth getting caught up in the panic. Gary H. Pomerantz, PE, LEED AP, executive vice president of WSP Flack+Kurtz, suggested going for projects with better odds. Marketing departments are being asked to do more with fewer resources and are under tremendous pressure to bring in work. Similarly, principals are busy keeping current clients happy and working their own connections. “Don’t keep your ideas to yourself, think out of the box. PUSH,” Ruddy emphasized.

Murrye Bernard, LEED AP, is a freelance architectural writer in NYC and a contributing editor to e-Oculus.

Event: Five Principles for Greenwich South: A New Model for Lower Manhattan
Location: Center for Architecture, 10.30.09
Introduction: Chris Reynolds, AIA, LEED — Alliance for Downtown New York
Speakers: Elizabeth H. Berger — President, Alliance for Downtown New York; Stephen Cassell, AIA — Principal, Architecture Research Office; Neil Kittredge, AIA — Partner, Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners; Paul Lewis, AIA — Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis;
Panel Respondents: Rick Bell, FAIA — Executive Director, AIANY, Greenwich South Study Committee; Eric Anderson — Anderson Equities, Greenwich South Study Committee; Jordan Gruzen, FAIA — Principal. Gruzen Samton Architects & Co-Chair, New York New Visions
Moderator: Ernest Hutton, FAICP, Assoc. AIA — Co-Chair, New York New Visions & AIANY Planning and Urban Design Committee, Hutton Associates
Organizer: AIANY Planning and Urban Design Committee
Sponsors: AIANY; New York New Visions

Courtesy AIANY

The 41-acre swath of land south of the World Trade Center between Broadway and West Street has been the victim of a “300-year cycle of alienation,” according to Elizabeth Berger, president of the Alliance for Downtown New York. Since the 1960s, many entities, including the NYC Department of City Planning, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, and New York New Visions, have completed studies attempting to tie this area into the fabric of lower Manhattan. Now, the Downtown Alliance has assembled a “dream-team” of 10 designers to contribute their visions for “Greenwich South,” including: Architecture Research Office (ARO); Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners; Coen + Partners; DeWitt Godfrey; Iwamoto Scott Architecture; Jorge Colombo; Morphosis; Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis (LTL); Open; Raphael Lozano-Hemmer; Transsolar Climate Engineering; and WORKac.

The Downtown Alliance developed a five-pronged approach to create a vision — rather than a comprehensive plan — for future development. The goals are to encourage mixed-use development, reconnect the city to Greenwich Street, create an east/west corridor, build density designed for people to inhabit the space, and ultimately design a reason for people to both visit and stay.

Downtown Manhattan is home to more than half of the one-time tallest buildings in the world. When it was built, the World Trade Center officially severed Greenwich Street. “It would seem the west side of lower Manhattan was doomed from the beginning of settlement,” said Stephen Cassell, AIA, principal of ARO, a firm engaged by the Downtown Alliance. The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel holds more than 3 million square feet of transferable air development rights in the area. Utilizing this space, ARO proposed a public market, park, plaza, and recycling center over the tunnel approach. Paul Lewis, AIA, a principle of LTL and resident of Greenwich South, envisioned a “bicycle epicenter” with bike storage and rentals and shower facilities. Along with Transsolar Climate Engineering, LTL also conceptualized the space above the tunnel entrance as a translucent structure, or a “vertical park,” with an ecological center to produce food, decompose waste, and harvest water. Called a “green sponge,” the facility would cleanse the tunnel’s exhaust air.

Neil Kittredge, AIA, partner at Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, claimed that Greenwich Street is the only other iconic connecting street in Manhattan besides Broadway. To maximize its connection to Greenwich Village, the Meatpacking District, and the High Line, he proposed sustainable public transit systems, such as light rail, to carry passengers among these destinations.

The Downtown Alliance has assembled these proposals into a document titled “What If.” As Berger pointed out, its “great work, great process, so what?” There are many roadblocks in the path of progress, such as capturing air rights over the tunnel and interfacing with the MTA, police department, and other stakeholders, not to mention working with property owners to open ground floors of buildings into public connectors. Incentives from city government could prove a potential catalyst, they agreed.

Until these larger issues can be resolved, small efforts are already underway. Artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer designed a public art installation. Open developed a way-finding and place-marker system. And Coen + Partners created a green gateway. For renderings and more information on the proposals for Greenwich South, visit the Downtown Alliance website.

Murrye Bernard is a freelance architectural writer in NYC and a contributing editor to e-Oculus.