NTDStichler

Source: Construction Digital

Date :25/05/2007 04:11:47

NTDStichler: Heeding Higher Callings

Written and produced by James Buchanan & Sean Bakke

By focusing on the education and healthcare markets, and providing services above and beyond the norm, NTDStichler Architecture is working to set itself apart

Some architectural firms want to be generalists by dabbling in a number of activities, while others seek happiness by specializing in one or two specific endeavors.

San Diego-based NTDStichler Architecture would be included with the latter group.

“We want to be the trusted advisor to our clients,” says Jon Baker, president and CEO of NTDStichler. “Sometimes that includes architectural work, But sometimes that includes our other services. This is why we specialize in the educational and healthcare markets: we know as much about our clients’ services and market as the client does, so we are able to offer a full range of services beyond what a traditional architectural firm could do.”

NTDStichler is a comprehensive architectural, engineering, and interior design firm comprised of architects, planners, engineers, interior designers, construction managers, and a number of other professionals. All of these skill sets are targeted to providing innovative strategies and sensitive design solutions to the education and healthcare related markets.

In short, the company wants to be more than just a group of architects designing buildings. It endeavors to improve how people interact with the physical environment, while in an educational or health care setting. The company looks for ways to design buildings that enhance the goals of the activities conducted within those settings. Through investigating, exploring and researching its clients’ services and related needs, it strives to improve how schools and hospitals provide those services.

By way of example, Baker notes that the company has nurse practitioners on its staff as unique providers of strategic planning services on operational issues for its healthcare related clients.

“Because they come from the healthcare environment, they will examine existing protocols within our client’s operations to find efficiencies and then help with new planning,” Baker says. “They take operational documents and develop them into planning solutions such as resolving throughput issues related to patient services.”

As such, these nurses are part of the company’s in-house planning teams, which also includes school building funding specialists that help districts apply for funding and acts as advocates for them during the entire process, Baker says.

As Baker explains, many school building projects in California are funded through a combination of state and local bond issue funding.

“We are extremely knowledgeable about how these state funding programs work,” he says. “In fact, we were involved in helping the legislature set state policy on how funding is appropriated to school districts for new buildings.”

Baker then goes on to describe the role his company plays.

“We will assist the school district by examining its enrollment and other factors that must be used to justify to the state the need for building, and put together justification documentation for state funding,” he says. “We also handle advocacy for our clients in Sacramento by working to make sure they get their share of state bond money.”

In California, in order to receive state funding a school district must show there is growing enrollment and that the existing facilities lack adequacy for handling the projected student population.

“If the school population grows beyond the capacity of the school to handle them – there aren’t enough seats in the classrooms – the excess student population becomes classified as un-housed students, which is the primary justification of new building,” says Baker.

Other services provided by the company include facility and program needs assessment, mechanical engineering, interior design, and digital graphics, modeling and animation.

The company also formed a 50/50 partnership six years ago with Edge Development Inc., to form the design build subsidiary NTD-Edge. With this arrangement NTDStichler takes on one half of the bonding liability and obligation of the company.

According to Baker, the intent behind forming this partnership was to use it to take on the design build responsibilities for school districts. This allows NTDStichler to provide yet another critical building service to its clients while providing the company better control over issues such as scheduling and building costs.

“We are able to make sure the needs of the school are met and that the design is not compromised as building gets under way,” Baker says.

With its full line of services the company has built many long-term relationships with its clients, especially in its education services.

“We have worked with some school districts and colleges for many, many years and we are able to provide help with enrolment trends and site selection for new building sometimes years in advance,” says Baker. “When it comes time, we can also help move the building of the school forward.”

As many builder and school board member would probably attest to, the work prior to actual building can be the most time consuming and difficult aspect of constructing a new school. To make sure the planning and approval process moves smoothly, NTDStichler will meet with all of the stakeholders, including state and district representatives as well as members of the community to facilitate the process.

The company will also send its preconstruction group to the district and do the pre-work involved with developing a plan for the school. It is this attention to detail in the design phase that Baker asserts is another distinguishing characteristic of his company.

The planning and design of the company’s projects – whether it’s a new school or medical facility – is a highly interactive charrette (French for a collaborative session in which solutions to design issues are resolved) that the company calls an “Esquisse.”

The term Esquisse is itself French in origin and means “to sketch out loud.” This is a process used by the company to involve its clients in the programming, planning, and design of projects. An Esquisse involves sending members of NTDStichler’s design team to a site convenient to the client where they set up a mini architectural office, or Esquisse workroom.

“We will set up shop with the client… and we will walk their halls, look at their processes and try to learn and review every detail,” says Baker. “It’s a very involved process that very few other architectural firms are able to do.”

“If you roll over enough rocks in the garden you will find solutions,” Baker adds.

The company also takes accountability to its clients very seriously. As Baker notes, “We have a very strong accountability attitude. Whatever we promise, we deliver. If we commit to something, then our clients can be sure it’s going to happen.”

This also extends to financial issues.

“We take our fiduciary responsibilities very seriously; to the extreme extent where we have actually paid to correct work when our documents were at fault,” Baker says.

Further, the company’s singular focus on its two markets provides its clients a particular advantage, says Baker.

“We don’t dabble in all kinds of architecture,” he says. “Our focus is on the markets we serve and our clients in those markets and what is important to them. It’s all we do and we take it seriously, and that’s why they are with us.”

It’s interesting to note that the company’s first two projects at its founding back in 1952 were a hospital and a school, says Baker. “So the company represents the original founding firm,” he adds.

However, the company has gone through a number of mergers and acquisitions over the years, and in the first half of its life the company expanded into a number of markets. Over the past 15 to 20 years, though, it began to redirect its focus into its two key markets, says Baker.

The move into the school building realm and development of its particular education expertise was precipitated by the acquisition of another company.

“Four years ago school building was the dominate activity of our firm when we made the strategic decision to expand into the healthcare market,” Baker says. “This is when we acquired The Stichler Group, and leveraged that acquisition into a great deal of success in the healthcare market over the last few years.”

Growth will continue organically and through mergers and acquisitions as well as regional and marketplace expansion, says Baker. The biggest challenge to the company, however, is what Baker describes as a severe shortage of qualified architects.

“There is so much work, and it is more work than many firms are able to handle, so it is a very competitive environment to hire these professionals,” says Baker. “Half of the graduates from traditional architectural schools are taking their skills and going into other industries.”

There are several reasons for this. First is that a graduating architecture student can often earn more money straight out of school in another industry than they could earn as an apprentice at an architectural firm, Baker says.

Second, the path to obtaining an architectural license is lengthy and demanding.

Third, talent shortages in other industries such as construction, animation, and real-estate development have created incentives to attract these young, talented architectural graduates.

To hire and retain young architects, the company has worked to create an environment that is conducive to a young apprentice developing their career. Key to this is the creation of cross practice groups that operate in a small studio environment.

“It is a small office atmosphere where they can really learn the craft of architecture,” says Baker.

The company also has strong bonus programs, professional development opportunities, and events where staff can interact socially.

“The nature of the company and the work we do gives our staff the opportunity to work on some really exciting stuff,” concludes Baker.