TZL 1367 (web)

TZL: #PayetteForward. When did this hashtag come about? How is it used in marketing? What does it mean to your firm? How are you paying it forward? KS: #PayetteForward reflects our attitude and a culture that is driven to advance and innovate continuously. Our blog reflects this attitude. The hashtag came about as we rebranded our website, worked on our AIA Architecture Firm Award Submission, and also worked on our new book, Fusion: The Performance of Architecture , which is being published by Monacelli. #PayetteForward has become part of our identity and it always makes people ask this question, which is a good thing. “We believe that diversity is essential to innovation and that a great idea can come from anyone at any time. It is part of our secret sauce.” TZL: Does your firm work closely with any higher education institutions to gain access to the latest technology, experience, and innovation and/or recruiting to find qualified resources? KS: Yes, our client base are academic medical centers and academic science for colleges and universities. Because of this, we are continuously exposed to the latest technology and talent in the innovation economy. We have several staff who teach at architecture schools and we also feel that because we are a single-office practice based in Boston, which is a hotbed for both research and academia, this gives us access to the best and brightest minds. TZL: How do you handle a long-term principal who is resting on his or her laurels? What effect does a low performing, entitled principal or department head have on firm morale? KS: We are very, very patient. I do not think any of our principals, past or present, have rested on their laurels. From time to time, some of our principals have underperformed expectations and when the situation does not improve over time, it is addressed, but with much discussion and dialogue over time. The bigger issue is when it becomes obvious that a person in a leadership position is not a cultural fit and is no longer respected as a leader; this is the most disruptive for morale. See DESIGN EXCELLENCE, page 8

future due to COVID-19. After COVID-19, I fully expect that many more people will choose to work from home with much more frequency, and that will be fine with us. TZL: How far into the future are you able to reliably predict your workload and cashflow? KS: We can usually predict our workload and cashflow out at least six months, any longer than that, then the margin for error is quite high. TZL: How has COVID affected your business on a daily basis? KS: Thankfully, not as much as I had feared when we first started working remotely in March. Initially, I was very concerned about our cash flow and projects stopping. Fortunately, this has not been as big an issue as it could have been, and we have been very productive working remotely; however, not all of our staff roles work in a remote setting. I am now more concerned about what it is going to be like in the next few months. With so many of our clients in the academic and healthcare fields, if the major universities and hospitals continue to be significantly affected it is bound to affect us, particularly new opportunities going forward. Typically, 20 percent of the annual net revenue that runs through the firm each year is revenue that is awarded in the same calendar year. I think that we may need to be more conservative as we budget looking toward 2021 if the fall shows signs of slowing down. TZL: How are you balancing investment in the next generation – which is at an all-time high – with rewards for tenured staff? This has always been a challenge but seems heightened as investments in development have increased. KS: Over the past four years we have grown the scale of our partnership by 50 percent to assure adequate overlap during future leadership transitions. New principals do not mature overnight, so you need three to five years of ramp up. This was something that we planned over time with a lot of discussion with our tenured staff. Our tenured staff is highly compensated, and many are compensated at a principal level. The most important thing is that they feel that they have influence, are valued, and get to work on interesting projects and build teams. As a testament to this approach, 81 percent of our titled staff have been with the firm for more than 10 years.

HEADQUARTERS: Boston, MA NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 177 YEAR FOUNDED: 1932 NUMBER OF OFFICE LOCATIONS: 1 SERVICES: ❚ ❚ Architecture ❚ ❚ Landscape architecture ❚ ❚ Interior design ❚ ❚ Building science ❚ ❚ Space strategies ❚ ❚ Design visualization ❚ ❚ Fabrication ❚ ❚ Computation ❚ ❚ Research MARKETS: ❚ ❚ Academic science ❚ ❚ Research ❚ ❚ Healthcare MOST RECENT AWARD: AIA 2019

Architecture Firm Award NUMBER OF PARTNERS: 15

SUSTAINABILITY FACTS: 66 percent of waste materials are composted or recycled; 49 percent reduction in electricity use compared to previous office space; and 81 percent of staff walks, bikes, or takes public transportation to work.

EMBER 9, 2020, ISSUE 1367

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