TZL 1284

BUSINESS NEWS U.S. GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL RECOGNIZES ROCKEFELLER KEMPELARCHITECTS FORADAPTIVE REUSE OF HISTORIC FORD MOTOR FACTORY IN DOWNTOWN LA Rockefeller Kempel Architects has been awarded the Sustainable Innovation Award in the Sustainable Site category by the Los Angeles Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council for its creative architectural solutions and restoration work in the adaptive reuse of the historic Ford Factory in downtown Los Angeles, which was completed in March 2017 and achieved LEED Gold certification. Each year, the U.S. Green Building Council recognizes project teams who exemplify having a commitment to a sustainable built environment, and who reflect the Chapter’s focus on energy and water savings, air quality, good design, community engagement and equity. “We’re honored to receive this award for our work on the rebirth of the old Ford Factory,” said Christopher Kempel, AIA, Rockefeller Kempel Architects Partner. “Adaptive reuse of historic buildings like this one are incredibly fun and rewarding. Not only do they pose design challenges and push our thinking, but we have the privilege of using our expertise to preserve or restore history while dreaming up modern solutions for a sustainable site.” The original concrete and brick building was

one of six factories designed by Parkinson & Bergstrom and built by the Ford Motor Company to assemble Model A and Model T automobiles from 1913 to 1929. The site consists of a five-story factory (Tower) built in 1913, a two-story factory (Assembly Plant) built in 1923, a single-story storage facility (Annex) built in 1984, and a cold storage facility built in 1996 (and then demolished in 2015 to make room for the Paseo and parking structure). Rockefeller Kempel Architects was careful to protect the history of the structures and restore character to the decaying buildings while modernizing the site for future use. ❚ ❚ The beautiful façade was restored to its former glory by revealing the historic brick and displaying the original expanse of glass. ❚ ❚ The original mushroom column capitals in the Tower building, which can be seen today in a restored fashion, support the extremely thick floor plates that once held the machinery used to build the original Ford automobiles. ❚ ❚ The clerestories in the Assembly Plant and Tower building were given new life while still meeting strict LEED and Title 24 standards. These gigantic linear skylights bring abundant natural light into the workplace, not only cutting down on the need for

artificial lighting, but adding to the healthy atmosphere that natural light provides. ❚ ❚ 83 percent of the existing structure and envelope elements like the steel window frames and skylights were used in the redevelopment. ❚ ❚ A 15,000 square foot linear park or Paseo was added as a communal space between the office and the new parking structure. It provides shade, landscaped views, and an escape from the urban surroundings while welcoming visitors to the site and serving as a delineation between the structures. Established in 2002, Rockefeller Kempel Architects is a highly skilled and talented team of architects and designers who specialize in modern residential, commercial, and mixed-use projects. Rockefeller Kempel Architects provides comprehensive architectural services to transform space from conceptual design and strategic planning to construction administration and post- occupancy evaluation. The team is known for their expertise in modern design, attention to site context, and focus on details. With over 75 years of experience between the partners Rocky Rockefeller, AIA and Christopher Kempel, AIA and a distinguished list of clients and design accolades, few architecture firms compare.

outside of the meeting. Constraints can make you more cre- ative. ❚ ❚ Take the chairs away. Standing leads to greater excitement about the creative process and allows for better collaboration on ideas. The longer you stand, the more uncomfortable you get, which speeds the meeting along. ❚ ❚ Limit the number of attendees. Keep meetings to less than 10 people. Jeff Bezos of Amazon refuses to attend a meeting if two pizzas don’t feed the entire group. The more people in attendance, the less productive the meeting. ❚ ❚ Keep meetings to a maximum of 20 minutes. This helps to prioritize the important items and forces attendees to be pre- pared to discuss the topic at hand. Richard Branson, founder and CEO of the Virgin Group, keeps his meetings to 10 min- utes or less, noting that it is rare for a meeting on a single topic to take more than five to 10 minutes. ❚ ❚ Use email. If it’s a meeting that can be completed just as ef- fectively over email, cancel it. CHASE MILLER is a project manager and planner at BSA LifeStructures. He can be reached at cmiller@bsalifestructures.com. “Many employees dedicate themselves to coming in early and staying late to get everything done, resulting in burnout. Furthermore, time in between meetings becomes unproductive.”

CHASE MILLER, from page 11

but even so, they should be managed to provide the most value possible to the organization or project. For years meeting agendas and meeting minutes have been the key tools to get more out of our meetings, but it’s more than that. In the extreme, Mark Cuban refuses to meet with anyone unless they are writing him a check, and Elon Musk will walk out in the middle of a meeting when he is no longer adding value. This is probably not the right strategy for you, but perhaps you can eliminate half of your recurring meetings in favor of email communication or send out pre-reads and homework to make a meeting more productive. “Meetings have an adverse effect on productivity in a number of ways. Between the time spent in meetings, and working in a collaborative way outside of meetings, very little time is left to accomplish solo work.” As you begin to take a critical look at your meetings, you may want to consider the following hacks to improve your productivity and remove waste from your organization and projects. ❚ ❚ Set a timer. When the alarm sounds, the meeting is over. Pe- riod. Anything not addressed will have to wait or be resolved

THE ZWEIG LETTER February 18, 2019, ISSUE 1284

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