Top 4 Design TED Talks To Watch

Sometimes we need to seek professional inspiration from people that have done amazing things throughout the world, or simply from someone who was a great source form the TED community. Below are our top 4 design TED Talks to inspire you on this beautiful Friday; even if you have seen these already, we hope they continue to inspire you and keep those wheels turning to reinvent our design community and appeal to your architectural mindset.

WHY THE BUILDINGS OF THE FUTURE WILL BE SHAPED BY … YOU | Marc Kushner

“That feeling, those emotions that I felt, that’s the power of architecture, because architecture is not about math and it’s not about zoning, it’s about those visceral, emotional connections that we feel to the places that we occupy” says Marc Kushner. He not only talks about the past 30 years of architecture and the design process, but with a little humor interprets how architecture truly affects the atmosphere to the human being. We must begin thinking of what architecture does for us rather than what we want it to look like.

HOW TO REVIVE A NEIGHBORHOOD: WITH IMAGINATION, BEAUTY, AND ART | Theaster Gates

Imagination begins with an individual project and the relationship of synergies one wants to create. “I’ve found that in cases where neighborhoods have failed, they still often have a pulse. How do you identify the pulse in that place, the passionate people, and then how do you get folk who have been fighting, slogging for 20 years, reenergized about the place that they live?” says Theaster Gates. Culture and reinvesting in resources that have not been made available to neighborhoods ignite the start of a poetic demand as Gates explains. It is time to believe that beauty is a basic service and find a way to reinvent it within every city.

WHY GREAT ARCHITECTURE SHOULD TELL A STORY | Ole Scheeren

“Form follows function had become modernity’s ambitious manifesto and detrimental straitjacket, as it liberated architecture from the decorative, but condemned it to utilitarian rigor and restrained purpose,” says Ole Scheeren. The question that lies at hand is, can architecture and the people that work or live inside of it become a part of that building? Do their experiences communicate the design’s intent? Scheeren dives into this topic by visiting his top five buildings and the stories behind the design and the collaboration of storytelling.

ARCHITECTURE THAT’S BUILT TO HEAL | Michael Murphy

“Why was it that the best architects, the greatest architecture…all beautiful and visionary and innovative…is also so rare, and seems to serve so very few? And more to the point: with all of this creative talent, what more could we do?” Michael Murphy. There should be a holistic approach of production for a community within an environmental footprint and design. Murphy shows and explains his approach to considering different factors of healing within a footprint and how that increases the healing aspect of architecture.

Carbon Footprint: Revamp for 2040

Over the past couple of months, even years we have constantly been hearing about our carbon footprint and the 2030 goal; yet, we haven’t really seen any major changes within our communities to reach these goals, we’ve only seen the major impacts with the concurrent droughts, floods, wildfires, storms, sea level rise, extreme weather, higher temperatures, soil degradation, and the insecurity of infrastructure, health, food and water security. We have grown complacent. Since 2008 we have had this major concern and it has been avoided or minimized to be put “out of sight, out of mind.”

You’d think we’d have a plan of action, yet our current plan of action is to use all the assets we have of being able to predict disasters through technology, but we don’t put it to good use. If you’ve noticed, we put out crisis’s one at a time. We rush to all these different catastrophes take all our resources clear up the emergency and then recede and return to normal. But it’s not normal. The environment, human life, and the economy are impacted significantly after every disaster; it shouldn’t be that way. Take our COVID-19 action plan, there really wasn’t one, but you can see what an impact it has had all over the world, it’s evident we immediately took action, used all our resources, put a band-aid on it, and went back to semi-normal.

We need an action plan, this obligation of reaching a carbon footprint by 2030 does not lie on politicians and the economy. We as the building community, architecture, planning, and allied building and construction firms, organizations, and entities, must figure out this action plan and put it into motion. The design industry has used most materials and systems that have caused much of the global CO² emissions. Recently the CarbonPositive’20 Conference and Expo explained how the design industry can initiate the CarbonPositive Footprint through the understanding that designing, planning, building and manufacturing are at the mist of “reducing global CO² emissions by 50% to 65% by 2030 to reach full decarbonization by 2040.” The first steps to achieving this goal is to follow the action plan below:

· Plan and design all new buildings, developments, and major renovations to use no on-site fossil fuels (gas, heating, oil, etc.) and achieve zero carbon building operations.

· Fully electrify buildings when renovating and replacing equipment and systems to eliminate on-site fossil fuel use.

· Promote the adoption of zero-carbon building code standards as soon as possible, with adoption no later than 2025.

· Prioritize renovating and upgrading existing buildings for extended use and re-use.

· Reduce the embodied carbon of all steel and concrete in new buildings and infrastructure by a minimum of 40% by 2021, and zero embodied carbon steel and concrete by 2030.

· Reduce all other building and construction materials to be low to zero embodied carbon (minimum 40% reduction by 2021), and all materials to be zero embodied carbon (or carbon positive) by 2040.

· Promote fossil fuel free construction sites.

There are hundreds of other things we can do in our personal lives to help this motion forward, but within the design community this is the first step. If you want to learn more about the Carbon Positive Reset, check out carbon-positive.org to access this access plan, conference recordings, and more information.

Express Mindfulness and Gratitude at Work

Now more than ever, there is an importance for employees to encourage and appreciate gratitude and mindfulness in or from their workplace. After several weeks working from home, these expressions can be lost through virtual communication, but we must find a way to create this culture within the workplace. As stated in The Importance of Gratitude and Mindfulness in the Workplace, by Emma Leyton, “…66% of employees would likely leave their job if they didn’t feel appreciated. That is why creating a culture of mindfulness and gratitude, where employees are encouraged to speak up about who they are grateful for in the workplace, is key.” Many times people lose these expressions through stress geared by deadlines, meetings, phone calls, or simply just work, if you think about it we spend 2/3’s of our lives at our jobs, so we have to learn to practice gratitude for our wellbeing and productivity.

Right now, it probably feels like practicing these two expressions is simple working from home, but let me tell you something, it is not that easy. We somehow feel obligated to have our laptop chained to our hip even if we accomplish an 8-hour shift and keep responding to emails late into the night. That may not be as productive as you think it is, you must learn to step back for a little and be mindful of your life satisfaction to reduce burnout and turnover. We need to begin challenging ourselves to expand our mindfulness and gratitude before we head back into the office. So how can you get your entire office to express mindfulness and gratitude to manage stress, recognize the good throughout the day, and reinvent confidence and productivity?

5 MINUTE – FOCUS AND MAKE IT SPECIFIC

Before starting with your workday in the morning begin to make a list (physically or mentally) on what you are grateful for at work. Do this for a week, keep the list short and specific. Not only will this help you get rid of the bad habit of complaining throughout the day, but it will raise your enthusiasm and lower your stress.

STAY CONSISTENT

We get it, work gets tough and people do need recognition even if it’s a small “thank you” or “great job, glad you could help” because nothing speaks volumes like showing up and giving it your all and not receiving a mindful thank you or a special mention for a task that was overlooked or for the stressful work of completing a deadline.

STIMULATE A CULTURE OF RECOGNITION

Showing gratitude and recognition can get a little tough, so what better way to start the new tone in your work environment than having your bosses and managers set the tone. They as well as everyone else must make showing appreciation a priority and demonstrating it. It can be as easy as sending a quick message or video call through Teams or Slack to their employees and calling out the great work everyone has been doing, highlighting the achievements of an individual, or keeping the tradition of monthly office meetings, lunches, or events.

ACKNOWLEDGE WHAT EMPLOYEES REALLY WANT

Most workplaces think that just saying “thank you” is enough to show gratitude and be mindful of all employees, but that is not the only way to reward your employees and increase productivity. We will not talk about pay increases or bonuses, what I am talking about is benefits. Benefits really drive employees! You have to listen to what your employees want for themselves and their team members; it can range from health insurance, life insurance, dental/vision insurance, paid holidays, paid/sick time-off, employee activities, reimbursable expenses, 401K plans, retirement benefits, etc. You would be surprised how many employees in a lot of companies do not even get half of these benefits.

Reference:

LEYTON, E.L. (2018, April 13). THE IMPORTANCE OF GRATITUDE AND MINDFULNESS IN THE

WORKPLACE. FITBIT HEALTH SOLUTION. https://healthsolutions.fitbit.com/blog/the-importance-of-gratitude-and-mindfulness-in-the-workplace/#:~:text=Feeling%20valued%20at%20work%20is,in%20the%20workplace%2C%20is%20key

New Logo Announcement: Introducing SMS Architects’ New Brand Identity

Over ten years ago we started on a new journey and opened SMS Architects. As our business has grown and transitioned over the years, we felt it was time to refresh our brand to better represent who we are going forward. We are proud to announce the new look of SMS! This new logo represents all the qualities we stand by and our ongoing evolution as a company. Basically, our new logo solidifies our most popular identification within our office, client-centric design through new colors and fonts. We wanted our new design to exemplify our strong brand of equity through trust, loyalty, intelligence, creativity, warmth, professionalism, security, and energy. We retained the logo’s core elements due to our profound roots and abundant history. We believe our new look better represents what we have become since 2009. As you will notice we had to alter our colors – you can’t really blame us, they were white and olive. But in the last few years we have changed a lot: we have dedicated ourselves to build strong relationships with our colleagues, clients, and partners, expanded our full-service firm and became involved with small and big projects, and we have concentrated on the excellence of a client-centric firm. Our new look matches our connection of values, design, and the clients we serve.

Within the next upcoming weeks, we will update all our marketing literature and online presence with our new logo. We believe this modern take will expand our community connection and commitment to continue to better ourselves within the industry.

A Founding Principal of SMS Architects, Joseph Smart, Retires

Please join us in extending best wishes to Joseph Smart, who has decided to retire from SMS Architects. Joseph was a founding principal of the firm and has been an integral part of the company for the last ten years. His participation in numerous high-profile projects and co-running of the company has helped shape SMS into the company it is today.
Joseph graduated Magna Cum Laude from California Polytechnic State University and practiced architecture for over 30 years. Joseph will be enjoying his retirement by spending time with his family and going off-roading in his Jeep.
We wish him the very best in this next chapter of his life, as Greg, Brandon, and Stephanie will continue the legacy of SMS Architects.

Team Bonding: Uplifting Your Office While Working from Home

Team bonding used to be so easy when everyone was working under the same roof, but now it is more difficult than ever. The latest virtual team bonding was the weekly happy hours majority of the offices would partake in from the comfort of their couches or those most anticipated Zoom chats with family and friends. Yet, now more than ever, companies need to establish new workforce virtual bonding experiences other than weekly staff meetings. A recent study from the team at Slack by Robert Samuel Hanson suggests, “a whopping 35% of employees have suffered from a lack of accountability since the Work-From-Home orders were put in place. Even more staggering, 73% of colleagues feel less connected to their teams and projects since working entirely remote.” It’s true that in the past couple of months virtual team activities have suffered tremendously due to people being burned out from daily video meetings, events that need structure to succeed, technology malfunctioning and not being tested before the meet, or even low employee engagement.

So how do we adapt and execute effective virtual team bonding experiences that are beneficial and fun for higher employee engagement? Read the room, ask what your is excited about, what they miss doing at the office for their monthly bonding times and see if you can re-create it virtually. Your events can also go offline (keep practicing social distance guidelines and precautions), build some structure into every virtual meeting, build some hype around the event, and customize, as necessary. It is so easy to accomplish and everyone will have fun and engage. We at SMS have been having weekly staff meetings to give updates and check in with the team, our continued education tutorials continue to keep everyone engaged and expanding their knowledge (see previous blog to learn more), and with football kicking off this week we just had our annual SMS Fantasy Football Draft (virtual of course). There are hundreds of other activities any office can take apart of such as trivia lunch hours (jeopardy, scattegories, heads up, etc.), meme chats (have a conversation in only memes, SMS partakes in this activity at the end of the week to show how we’re all holding up), or merely talking about working from home (blow off some steam by talking about it and checking in on each other). I’m sure every other office is doing different forms of these virtual team bonding experiences, just keep going and keep that morale up, and it will pay off on different aspects for your work force from accountability, morale, project completions, and overall employee engagement.

The Latest Blast from the Past Reappearing in Interior Design - Vintage Trends

Vintage has been understood as using actual designs and items that were produced in the past, yet in order to use vintage trends within design we’d have to think retro and use modern designs that emulate older designs (vintage). If you think about it the mixture of these two forms have been used in everything from fashion, music, food, and architecture. If you look throughout history, many designs have been throwbacks from well-renowned centuries; capitol buildings drawn from Greek architecture, religious buildings inspired from Gothic and Romanesque architecture, industrial buildings and product design derived from Bauhaus and Modern architecture, etc.

Every ten to twenty years trends tend to make their way back through rotation, and in design these trends tend to come back with a twist. The latest bandwagon has been migrating from modernism including Futurism, Post-Modern and New Classical forms of detail to simplistic interactive spaces using natural resources for human comfort, and in the last couple of months modern has begun to spruce itself up with interior vintage trends. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we do not need to go under major renovation to spice things up when it comes to designing; small changes in the design phase can make a major impact to a well-thought-out-space through interior designs. Below are 5 touches of vintage styles for your future project or home.

INTEGRATED HARDWARE

When you think of a kitchen and what pulls it all together automatically your mind goes towards the countertop, color of the cabinets, utensils, etc., but what about the hardware? We hardly give thought to this, because every household obtains the same hardware and the only thing that gets changed is the stain or the color of the cabinets, but what if you were to go more minimalistic? No hardware! Think about it, you do not need a protruding piece of hardware to counteract the appeal you are trying to portray. You can now create multiple versions of the minimal look by using a lip or pull out of the same material as the doors and drawers. Not only do they bring out a sleek and smooth continuous line, but they will also enhance the countertop and backsplash and create a simplistic and graphic statement.

FLORAL WALLPAPER

Allows for the enhancement of breaking time and space giving the designer the discovery of emotional connections within the rest of the items in the space to create unique custom atmospheres that can range from modern, contemporary, traditional or classical. If you think about it, homeowners and designers have spent years cringing at the site of floral or bold wallpaper statements that became very difficult to remove when the time came. Yet, the reemerging of the 1980s through wallpaper is all the rage in this decade bringing in bold and colorful wallpapers plastered in a more subtle and minimal ways compared to them being cased within the entire room. Now picture them on that bedroom wall behind your bed, in the dining room to make the space more refreshed and fun, it will also allow you to draw the eye to a certain accent you are trying to enhance within the atmosphere of your living room; and if you prefer to apply a wall with half wallpaper and half wainscot go for it, it’s a much more unique look!

EARTH TONES

Time to say goodbye to the cool tones that have ruled interiors for the past ten years. Shades of rich earth tones (chestnut, burgundy, deep olive green, yellow ochre, etc.), soothing pastels, muted colors (pale plush, sage green, slate blue, etc.), moody blues, warmed-up neutrals, and organic greens will substitute the warm natural feels that enhance the natural resources for human comfort through a coat of paint.

UPHOLSTERED WALLS

Making a bold statement by transforming a space with an upholstered wall has never been easier. If you think about it, back in the Middle Ages designers used to line bedroom walls with fabric to create an intimate space and add a mutli-functional aspect. To bring back this vintage trend, how about upholstering one wall in your bedroom or a hotel room by making a headboard or upholstering an entire wall. The benefits are endless with this trend, but the most common uses for these panels are acoustic enhancement, softening the look and feel of the space, and has multiple sound deadening qualities by creating a clean-line modern look.

BIOPHILIC DESIGN

When you hear biophilic design you automatically think of dropping some plants here and there in the design and call it a day. Yet, within interiors biophilia is used to create a multi-sensorial experience. You must begin thinking about the presence of natural materials that are important to enhance the environmental, health, and economic benefits as well as the human connection to the space. This is easy to accomplish by adding a green wall, natural textures and materials, natural light, vegetation, nature views, and even water.

Vintage is the fundamental way to extract nostalgia into any space with an emotional bond to every person of any age. With just these simple ten different trends, you can reach this simple impact within any design. Who knows you might come up with a new trend for the future?

Fictional Characters at SMS

When you think about a fictional character automatically your mind goes to Superman, Batman, Alice in Wonderland, Rocky Balboa, Meredith Grey, Han Solo, Popeye, etc. If you think about it any profession or any person can be assigned a pool of fictional characters based on their characteristics or personality. Which made us curious, in trying to figure out which fictional character would be perfect at our job. And what better way to research this topic than to pinpoint which fictional character best resembles our three principals at SMS Architects. We have based this from what they have helped to shape us and inspire us.

Ted Mosby – How I Met Your Mother

Ted was automatically one of our favorite characters, not for the only reason that he is an architect, but because we all tend to relate to him in our profession. Our principal has shown a drastic transformation from a quietly intense shy nerd to a passionate, quick-wit and dedicated cool teacher. He has found a way to enlighten us about the techniques we should all pick up and pay attention to in order to advance our procedures with some humor involved.

Jennifer Harding – Dead to Me

Jennifer was instinctively a standout for another one of our principals. You cannot help but love her character from her tenacity to her fierce desire to succeed and constantly put out fires. If you know, she does put out fires 24/7. She has showcased a strong and motherly figure, and has helped us all by looking out for our best interests, and having little patience for our shenanigans which help her to be skeptical of new things that arise which help to keep our office in tip top shape.

Richard Webber – Grey’s Anatomy

Richard was our top contender when it comes to expertise and influential tactics. Our principal has shown us what a strong, stoic, and wise person he is which has related to all the times he has affectionately talked to us about a project or told us stories from previous jobs that relate to what we’re dealing with at the current moment. There is a reason Richard is called “Chief” and it instinctively reflects to how we view him at our office.

If you have not guessed right by now our three fictional characters are: Brandon as Ted, Stephanie as Jennifer, and Greg as Webber! There are many other characters that can be used to describe our principals, but we think each of these characters are strong representations of our leaders.

Each of these characters can be interchangeable between the three, but we guarantee that each on is a strong honoree for the actual person.

Continued Education Within A Firm

Have you ever just sat and thought about “what would make my job easier?” or “I wish I could learn how to do this skill?” maybe its on your commute to work, while you’re sitting on the couch binge watching TV or even while at work staring at your computer. Design and technology are always changing and so we as designers and architects must make sure we are always growing and learning new skills or other ways to do our job.

One thing that will help a firm set itself apart from the rest is having a recognition on continuing education within the firm. SMS Architects as well as the AIA (American Institute of Architects) believes this is a crucial improvement for the profession. A lot of firms already participate in continued education through the infamous Lunch & Learn presentations (from well-known or up and coming sales representatives ranging from building materials to codes), the multitude of educational conferences, to simple happy hour gatherings with other designers and sales representatives. But in today’s world, all these ways of learning are getting more difficult to come by. So, what has SMS decided to do to help its employees continue this journey? We have instituted our employees an allotted amount of time every day to continue their education! This ranges from viewing online videos dedicated to current software we are using, to asking our team members to help us learn how to use a simple command, to doing video conferencing calls to show the entire office how to create a parametric family on Revit, testing out new platforms as tools to enhance Revit, or learning about the new codes being instituted due to COVID-19.

Design is an ever-changing career, which means that every employee must understand the new changes being made and freshen up their skills when it comes to design software and communication. Trust us when we say, a simple 15-minute presentation goes a long way to help your firm interact and understand why we do things a certain way and how it will continue to benefit their own skills and the design process in a whole.

Renovation: State School & Correctional Facility to Commissary

Set within Whittier, CA this 75-acre development has transformed the former Whittier State School and Correctional Facility into residential, retail, and new recreational space at The Groves. The redevelopment of this historical landmark motivated SMS Architects to work alongside Brookfield Residential Properties, Environmental Science Associates (ESA) and the City of Whittier to design the new recreational space which encompasses from the renovation of the former Commissary and Chapel built more than 125 years ago to the newly renovated Commissary.

The Commissary is an 11,000 square foot community center restored from the former chapel. The project consisted of retaining and rediscovering the concrete arches, wood roof structure, brick veneer, and original fixed and stained-glass windows. We believe these architectural features enhance the modern experience of the new community living room, historic lobby, conference rooms, co-work lounge, game room, fitness center and pool. With the new electrical lighting, various articulated furniture elements, clean calm colors, and wooden accents have created a flexible, serene, intimate, open, and relaxed space that invites the community in from the busy atmosphere of the city.

Quarantined: Day 100 - Transitioning Back to the Office

Safer-at-home: Day 100…has it really been one hundred days since we began to shelter-in-place? It is hard to ignore our current situation and how this pandemic is causing many within the design industry to become more versatile and dependent on flexibility and adaptive use. The way the world has adapted within the past three months has been extraordinary, but it has come at some costs. This pandemic has allowed us to slow down, rekindle relationships, focus on daily tasks, and given us the ability to develop new hobbies; but it has also caused anxiety and given us uncertainty about how and who is at risk of this disease. We have had to stop and focus on what really matters, our health. Even though we cannot exactly see what the future holds, we can examine how to reestablish ourselves with new trends, tactics, and concepts to get our offices back to one hundred percent.

SMS Architects has been hard at work (remotely) following state and county guidelines, watching conferences, and medical advice to allow its staff to return to the workplace. Yes, it has been challenging having everyone on the same page even if we are all miles away and can only communicate virtually; yet we have been able to do it as well as the rest of the world. Queue in the quiet sobbing of people stuck at home with two plus people and children, or the ones that have become one with their home and never want to leave again. Our office recently rolled out the top guidelines to return to the office, we hope your firm will use some of our tactics to get ahead of this pandemic and begin your transition from shelter-in-place to the workplace.

Guidelines for a Safer Work Environment:

• Temperature checks when arriving at the office.

• Protective gear (face coverings) needs to be worn while in the building.

• Touch-less hand sanitizer pumps and Lysol wipes are distributed throughout the office to decontaminate office desks and high-traffic areas.

• Covid keys will be administered to every employee to open doors to lessen exposure in the public in lieu of gloves.

• Seat assignments have been updated to maintain every employee is six feet apart or more.

• Office work schedules have been updated to allow every single staff member to be in the office two days a week within opposing days of their neighbor to stop the spread of germs. Every other day our staff will be working remotely.

We know every office is different, and techniques will continue to be updated and adapted to what the office needs. In the meantime, it is nice to go from sweatpants and messy hair to casual business attire during the week…no more long days without a shower or endless hours scrolling through social media and snacking constantly. Back to the matter at hand, we know many big companies are beginning to transition to open office workspaces and compartment seating, touchless technology, removing public restroom doors, and increasing self-cleaning materials. Which in doing so, we are becoming more versatile within our workplace and making strategic impacts within our designs in the rest of the world.

We hope this Covid-19 season will bring forth sustainability, awareness, and revitalization to revolutionize the design industry; allowing us as architects to continue to enforce the oath we all had to make in the beginning, “I am an Architect, an honor that carries solemn duties. I pledge myself to the service of humanity and nature…to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public…” Now what?

New Principals Announced

Left to Right: Stephanie Gilbert, Brandon Dedmon, Greg Simonoff

After ten years of service, SMS Architects is very proud to announce the recent promotion of two members of our leadership team, which have also taken ownership of the company: Brandon Dedmon (COO/Principal) and Stephanie Gilbert (CFO/Principal). These accomplished individuals have and continue to be vital members of the firm’s commitment to success. Brandon and Stephanie strongly believe in pushing boundaries and taking on challenging projects to create a “Client-Centric” firm that is passionate about creative design solutions and relationships. We look forward to welcoming them into their much-anticipated roles at SMS Architects as Principals and Owners.

SMS still operating and working remotely per CDC guidelines.

Due to Coronavirus, SMS has been following the CDC’s recommendations to work remotely from our homes to limit the amount our employees are in the office. We take much pride in creating a safe and healthy environment for our employees and clients. This precaution we took has not stopped our company’s production. We are still working collaboratively and continuing with our ongoing projects, as well as welcoming new ones. SMS wholeheartedly wishes good health to all during this time.

SMS Architects Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary!

SMS Architects is celebrating 10 years of being in business! We have now been our own architectural firm specializing in cinema, retail, restaurants, and hospitality projects primarily in Southern California for 10 whole years. We look forward to the next decade and are excited to see what the future holds.