91视频

As shutdowns triggered by the coronavirus pandemic drag on, building industry professionals are adapting to a new way of doing business by leaning on technology to foster communication with co-workers, build client bases and keep projects moving.

People working in the architecture and construction sectors, both of which have traditionally relied on the collaborative nature of face-to-face interaction, are utilizing various tools to continue working as well as discovering that productivity need not suffer as a result of social distancing.

鈥淚t’s pretty amazing how quickly we’ve all adapted to this new world,鈥� said Abby Dacey, a principal with Mahlum Architects.

Dacey spoke April 30 during a of the 91视频’s regular Builder Breakfast panel discussion. Panelists also included Bart Ricketts, CEO of Lease Crutcher Lewis, and Scott Rose, a senior manager with R&C Management Group. Darien Loiselle, a shareholder and construction attorney with Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, served as the discussion’s moderator.

Because Mahlum has offices in Portland and Seattle, its employees are already used to working together while at a distance, and the firm had a lot of necessary infrastructure for doing so already in place. Still, Dacey said, having 95 people working cooperatively from their homes is a far cry from doing so between two offices.

鈥淎rchitecture is a hugely collaborative endeavor,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e’ve had to develop a number of workflows to keep us productive and to help us really stay creative.鈥�

Mahlum has erred on the side of overcommunicating with staff. Meetings are held daily to maintain connections between team members, identify any technical issues and plan the day’s work. Because they typically do a lot of broad thinking using whiteboards or sticky notes, employees are using a program called Miro that mimics such brainstorming methods in a virtual setting. Architects are uploading hand drawings and sketches using apps like Genius Scan to share design concepts, and using sketching apps with vector manipulation capabilities or using older programs like Vectorworks to create and share layered drawings.

Lease Crutcher Lewis also has offices in both Portland and Seattle, and was using various digital methods to conduct business before the coronavirus outbreak. According to Ricketts, hashing out the details of a quote in a virtual meeting with subcontractors or trade partners is business as usual.

What’s different, he said, is using the same technology to secure new work, which his team is learning to do successfully without the benefit of in-person meetings.

鈥淲e’ve won three jobs via remote interview in the last four weeks,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat’s pretty cool; that’s something that I never thought we would be doing. We’re getting skilled at it and figuring out ways to be really engaging when you’re on a screen, or sharing a screen or explaining to an owner why you’re the best fit for a job.鈥�

Part of the key to an effective virtual interview, Rose said, is working out the technology ahead of time so it doesn’t become an obstacle. Doing a dry run with somebody on another end is a good way to avoid potential snags.

鈥淢ake sure it’s working really well so that people get to see who you are,鈥� he said.

Figuring out how to make human connections without shaking a hand or relying on typical social cues is key to securing new work and maintaining existing client relationships virtually, Dacey said. One partner at Mahlum held a virtual lounge with higher education clients; another colleague, who typically holds a monthly breakfast meeting with district representatives, recently sent her biscuit recipe to attendees for the virtual version of the meeting.

鈥淲e’re using technology in as many creative ways as we can just to stay connected with folks,鈥� Dacey said.

For Mahlum, most of the innovations are coming out of projects in the beginning stages. A recent pre-proposal site walk-through was conducted virtually by a project manager walking around with a camera. For another project, the firm decided to not do pre-bid walk-throughs and instead make a point cloud scan of the site available to general contractors. Doing so, Dacey said, had the additional benefit of providing views of spaces not typically seen on a regular site walk-through.

All of the Lease Crutcher Lewis preconstruction collaboration is being done remotely. Meetings with clients and architects, sessions with engineers and trade partners 鈥� all are being conducted on a variety of virtual platforms. Remote work is changing how the firm administers its projects, and Ricketts anticipates that in the future it could be more acceptable for administrative work, and perhaps even some project engineering support services, to be conducted remotely.

鈥淵ou may have less of a head count at the job site and have some of those services more centrally located or working remotely, and it’s something that we should probably consider,鈥� he said.