Side of Design

Side Notes: How Professional Services Bring Buildings to Life

• BWBR • Episode 62

Share episode

Bringing a building design from concepts and renderings to a completed facility is a complex and technical process. Playing a major part in making it happen is BWBR’s Dan Hottinger, Principal and Professional Services Director, who describes his role as “the bridge between design and putting the design in motion.” In this episode of Side Notes, he shares the latest innovations and challenges he sees facing the AEC industry—and how professional services can help.

If you like what we are doing with our podcasts please subscribe and leave us a review!
You can also connect with us on any of our social media sites!
https://www.facebook.com/BWBRsolutions
https://twitter.com/BWBR
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bwbr-architects/
https://www.bwbr.com/side-of-design-podcast/

Matt Gerstner:

Welcome to Side Notes, the bite-sized version of Side of Design. In 15 minutes or less, we'll explore one idea, one insight, or one conversation worth hearing. Let's get to it. Welcome to Side Notes, the bite-sized version of Side of Design. I'm your host, Matt Gerstner. Joining me today is Dan Hottinger, Principal and Professional Services Director with BWBR. We're going to take a closer look at and define professional services today. Dan, thanks for making time to be here.

Dan Hottinger:

Hey, thanks for having me.

Matt Gerstner:

Fantastic. We're just going to get started. We don't waste any time here. Could you start by defining like what professional services is and how it relates to our field specifically?

Dan Hottinger:

So professional services I like to think of as the bridge between design and like putting the design in motion.

Matt Gerstner:

Okay.

Dan Hottinger:

So oftentimes when I'm introducing myself, I say that professional services, every everything that we do after we land the project and work on the design to get it out in the field and built. It's specifying everything, it's making, it's mating the code to the design to make sure everything works. It's the construction administration out in the field, it's the documentation of the set itself.

Matt Gerstner:

Okay. So I'm sure some of our listeners may not be aware, you know, of how that term fits into our industry. So when you're thinking about professional services then today, can you tell me what you're most excited about in the design world around that now?

Dan Hottinger:

So, okay, so you know, in the bridging of the design and stuff, there's a there are a lot of things that are coming down the pipeline that are starting to reach reality level, right?

Matt Gerstner:

Okay.

Dan Hottinger:

Data-driven design.

Matt Gerstner:

Yeah.

Dan Hottinger:

Rather than having the experiential, you know, well, we, we think we experienced this, we think we experienced that. Going into, we actually have the data to back up and say, this is the size of the the waiting room that you need in a medical situation, because we've actually went out there and monitored, and you don't need 50 seats, 14 will do.

Matt Gerstner:

Right.

Dan Hottinger:

And here's why, here's how we can prove it.

Matt Gerstner:

Yeah.

Dan Hottinger:

Um, it's seeing the infancy of AI kind of come in and and uh it's gonna have a major effect on our industry.

Matt Gerstner:

Right.

Dan Hottinger:

But making sure that it's right, you know,

Matt Gerstner:

That's a big one.

Dan Hottinger:

Big one, because you know, I'm sure everybody has seen AI stuff on the internet, and it's a little weird. Well, guess what? It does the same thing to your drawing set, and it does the same thing to your design. There's some weirdness about it that we have to iron out. Yeah. It's not perfect, but it it will allow for us to um to maybe make more durable decisions earlier so that so that we can focus on the design once we have it. So you know, and a durable decision is one where we can inform the decision-making process, and then when we make the decision, we don't have to circle back around to it and come back to it again and again and again because yeah, that decision is yep, this is what we want to do, let's move forward. So there are points where we can just keep moving forward rather than having to circle back in the time.

Matt Gerstner:

Yeah. No, I ... yeah, AI has come up in numerous conversations, and it's it's affecting every industry and every part of every industry. And like you said, trying to make sure that it's doing the right thing and not just doing something that it's unfathomably creating on its own.

Dan Hottinger:

Yeah. You know, and when you combine all these together, it's really making so that we can uh shape ... we're going beyond designing buildings. We're kind of shaping the experience, not only for the client, but for the for the people the client's trying to reach. In medical, it could be the patients that are coming in the door, making sure that they feel safe and connected and secure and to their you know, to their medical providers, it could be providing an environment that people want to come work in. You know, nobody wants to go to some sterile office and sit under fluorescent lamps anymore. You know, so it's it's being able to kind of shape that the the project to a lot of different things that just make it better in the long run.

Matt Gerstner:

Fantastic. So when you're thinking about what's uh what's exciting, what are the biggest challenges on the flip side of that then that you're seeing?

Dan Hottinger:

AI is a two-sided coin.

Matt Gerstner:

There it is.

Dan Hottinger:

AI is a two-sided coin in that um, you know, there was a day when we used to draw everything, right? On mylar with ink. You know, making changes was just pull your hair out time. Oh no, that's too late. We can't change it now. Then we went into AutoCAD, we're into BIM now. And you know, we're already in an environment where people may think that we just press a button and the changes are all made. Once we get into AI becoming more uh uh ingrained in some of that, you know, fighting the notion that AI is designing buildings. AI doesn't have the ability to design a building. You know, uh it's it's interesting when you when you read up on it and people will say that AI is the death of creativity. So we still need that creativity within our design group. You know, it'll help us translate and put that into into motion. But um it's a two-sided coin. It's uh, you know, and the problem is is we also have you know, you have that AI practicality, but um we're also under, you know, we have tighter budgets, shorter schedules. We have um very high client expectations.

Matt Gerstner:

I don't doubt it.

Dan Hottinger:

And you know, all of these in a very unpredictable climate right now, right? So we have, you know, we went from 2019, which is kind of normal, you know, uh, and then we went to 2020. Whoa, new normal. How are we gonna do this? You know, we have so many clients telling us, how are you gonna do this from a remote environment? So we had to work through that. Now, as we're all starting to filter back into the office, expectations are a little bit different, but the but the business climate is very volatile. So it's up, it's down, you know, you're over budget, you're under budget. You know, how could you be so far under it? So the outside pressures along with the inside pressures are you know are are creating a lot of swing back and forth on the on the old pendulum.

Matt Gerstner:

Okay, okay. All right. So thinking about those challenges, like what what kind of solutions do you think we have for that?

Dan Hottinger:

Well so the biggest thing is balancing the project's ambition with the reality. So being able to have a team that can effectively come in and make sure that that the project not only re uh reaches the ambition that the client wants, while injecting the reality of sustainability, of of codes, of all of the different review processes and just, you know, um the time to get it done properly. You know, it's uh you have the old adage uh um my dad owned a repair auto repair shop and he used to have a sign on the wall that I think fits in this industry. And it has a triangle, and it said, cheap, fast, um, thorough, uh, or good. And he said, and it the the caption underneath it was you can have two of these.

Matt Gerstner:

Oh, yeah.

Dan Hottinger:

You know, so and and I I think it fits if you want it super fast and you know, super cheap, you have to cut corners somewhere. So it's

Matt Gerstner:

Which isn't good for anybody in the long run.

Dan Hottinger:

so but the expectation is all three. So we have to we have to marry a lot of that together. Um, you know, our job isn't uh our job is to make it simpler.

Matt Gerstner:

Okay.

Dan Hottinger:

You know, the implementation should be simpler. Um we should be able to put a lot of the code and a lot of the sustainability and a lot of that kind of stuff in easily digestible um strategies for our clients. And then that way um in the end we can help them see their project as successful.

Matt Gerstner:

So when you're thinking about the challenges and you're thinking about what's exciting you, what do you love about design?

Dan Hottinger:

Oh my gosh. So um uh I could I could nerd out on this for the entire 12 minutes. I mean, so there are a number of things. I mean, internally, I love the process of design. I love watching our teams, like our design leads, you know, sometimes when you watch them present and just the way they can lead you down a path, right? And and explain the project to you and really create a passion around the project. I find that like amazing. I love it. Um, you know, going to the meetings with the client and challenging their notions. How many times have you walked in and and they say, Well, we've always done it this way, and it works. Yeah. But what would make it great? What would make it work better? What would, you know, and really getting them to kind of think outside of that along with you. I love that process. But then also um seeing it built in the field is one of the greatest things ever, right? How many times have you like a number of my projects have been built in the metro area? And driving by and seeing the steel frame, but in your mind's eye, you know what that building looks like. You know what it's supposed to be.

Matt Gerstner:

You've seen the renderings.

Dan Hottinger:

Right and while everybody wonders about it, you know what it's gonna look like. And and later being able to walk through, touch, feel, smell, experience the whole building is to me, it's it's amazing. I was telling my son, uh that it's like it's like leaving footprints, you know, wherever you go. And these are buildings that you can go back to and and experience, you know, later in your career as well.

Matt Gerstner:

Absolutely. That's yeah, the the that's that's one of the things that I I always comment on too. Like we live and and work in one of the few creative fields where not only do you see your result, you can enter, you can experience, you can like become part of it and in in in how it's used. You know, it's just yeah, there's just so many ways you can experience architecture.

Dan Hottinger:

And oftentimes you go into that building during the grand opening and you get to listen to the people who work there, or say students who are coming in, or even like uh, you know, the the community that come in and they talk about oh, this is amazing. That is just like the most warm fuzzies you can get. It's so amazing. It's it's yeah. So that's uh it's it's a it's an um yeah, it's an amazing job.

Matt Gerstner:

Yeah. So you're thinking about what you love about design. What inspires you in design then?

Dan Hottinger:

So working in professional services, right? I feel like my inspiration might be different than other people's. I'm tasked with finding the next generation to come in here and learn how to do it. And you know, you always have to start at the bottom and and you know, with people, teach them how to put a building together, teach them how to put together a drawing set, work them into client-facing positions and things like that. I find the people who are coming in in the next generation to be inspirational. I love interviewing them, I love meeting with them, I love when they come in and ask questions. They're not weighed down by all of the preconceived notions, you know. When you've been doing this for 30 years, you kind of been there and seen that on just about everything. And sometimes you sit in a meeting and it's just somebody brings up something and you think, Wow, you know, or or you say, Oh, we can't do that, and they say, But why? You know, and they show you that it can be done and relatively easily. It's I find that to just be like the inspirational moments where you're like, Wow, this is really cool and really fun.

Matt Gerstner:

I love it. I love it.

Dan Hottinger:

Um, so that kind of stuff is fun, but also um being able to take the knowledge base that you or I or some of our our long-term people have and and spill that onto them. The teaching the next generation is is so much fun. And it's I might even say it's a little bit easier because oftentimes you can do it over Zoom. Oftentimes you can create videos and podcasts and things like that. So it gives you a much wider base to start from and um it also gives you something that they can go back to.

Matt Gerstner:

Oh, yeah, absolutely. A library of sorts.

Dan Hottinger:

Yeah, a library of videos is is very cool. Um, but uh I also like to say that in doing a lot of the the the continuing ed at BWBR, I learn from these people every day, not only from the people who are in the the things, but our presenters come in and they have amazing like uh experiential stories that they'll tell. They have they they tell you things where you sit there and you watch it and you go, huh, I never knew that. So it's it's one of those industries where you you're always learning. You know, you don't know everything. You can't possibly know everything.

Matt Gerstner:

No, not one person.

Dan Hottinger:

It's fun to just keep learning as you go. And and you know, I've been doing this for almost 30 years, and I'm still learning almost every single day something new, which is, you know, which is always that hmm, interesting moment for me, you know.

Matt Gerstner:

Absolutely. That's fantastic. And on that note, Dan, we're gonna call it quits for the day because you've given our listeners a lot to noodle on, and I can't thank you enough for the time that you've given us today. So thanks for being here.

Dan Hottinger:

Thank you, Matt.

Matt Gerstner:

And thank you to our listeners for tuning in. We will see you again soon.

Head Shot

Matthew Gerstner

Host