JL Architects

nationally licensed architect

How Do Architects Keep Current with Design Requirements and Trends?

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Do you ever wonder how architects keep up with the changes to building code requirements?  Or how about the latest in design technology?  Or new architectural products and trends?  The answer is by taking continuing education courses.

Why continuing education?

  • In most states, an architect needs to complete continuing education requirements to renew their license; typically, the renewal period is between 1 – 3 years. If the continuing education is not completed on time, their license will expire, and they will no longer be able to practice architecture in that state.
  • Continuing education ensures that architects are always learning. In the ever-changing world of architecture, it is not only important to keep up with design trends, but also the health, safety, and welfare of the community.

What types of continuing education are acceptable?

  • In most states, architects are required to complete at least 12 hours of continuing education credits per year. Each credit is equivalent to one hour of instruction and learning.  These credits typically need to be labeled “HSW” credits by the AIA (The American Institute of Architects), meaning that they pertain to the health, safety, and welfare of the community.
  • In addition to HSW credits, some states may have additional requirements. In Texas, for example, architects need to complete at least 1 additional credit pertaining to accessibility.  New Hampshire requires 4 credits per year pertaining to sustainability, and Nevada requires at least 2 hours pertaining to architectural codes.
  • Some states allow for a percentage of the credits to be in general architecture. For example, in Tennessee during each 2-year license period, 24 credits must be acquired, but only 13 credits must be HSW credits.  The remaining 11 credits can be in any architectural topic of your choosing.

How to earn continuing education credits?

  • There are various ways to earn continuing education credits. Architects can take online courses from registered AIA CES providers. There are many courses to choose from that cover all the different requirements by state.
  • Architects can also attend lunch and learn presentations that are approved by the AIA.
  • Another great way to earn several credits at once is by attending conferences and conventions. Every year the AIA holds a national convention where architects can attend workshops, presentations, and lectures to earn credits.  The Green Building Initiative holds an annual sustainability symposium where architects can earn sustainability credits.
  • Some states even allow for individually planned educational activities or self-directed learning. Architects can research or study architectural topics of interest earning credit for each hour spent. They can also provide pro bono rendering services to the public or even be elected and sit on the board of a planning commission or sustainability committee.

Continuing education is vital for architects to not only maintain their licenses, but also to ensure their designs meet the current standards for the health, safety, and welfare of the public.  Being licensed in 38 states, JL knows a thing or two about continuing education!  We use that knowledge to create contemporary designs that are safe and sustainable.

-Amy Estrella

Space Planning for the New Workplace

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March of 2020 began a significant period of adjustment for our everyday lives that included working from home, virtual learning, and social distancing. Now, as we go back to in person school and back to the office, we must again adjust to a new way of doing things. COVID is still with us, and distancing guidelines and restrictions still apply. As we work to keep our offices healthy and safe, redesigning your workspace may be a necessity.

What does this mean?

Arranging a workspace to be efficient and productive can be tricky enough – now we need to keep ourselves socially distant while still being able to work together. Conference and meeting rooms are being used less and less in the post-pandemic work force, as they cannot guarantee a safe distance from one another. So, how do you design your space to achieve all these contradictions?

  • Open workspaces – many professions have adapted a studio-like work area. Many of their employees share a large singular room, with desks arranged often in rows or clusters. This is a great start – however, with needing to remain socially distant from one another, this may not be enough. It often takes up a lot of room to create clusters of desks and creates a disjointed path of circulation through the work area.
  • Wipeable/Scrubbable surfaces and dividers – most workstations already adhere to this, but dividers can sometimes be upholstered to give a workspace a pop of color or to break up the monotony of a space.
  • Natural light – more employees are requesting access to natural light. This has been proven to contribute to higher energy levels and health overall. Of course, you may not have the option to add windows to your space. Your designer can work with you to choose the best artificial lighting for your work environment.
  • Conference and Meeting rooms – Do we get rid of these spaces altogether – or dedicate larger spaces to these needs? Many companies have gone to all virtual meetings, while others have restricted the number of people who can be in a space together at a time. This is helpful, but when a project continues to grow, sometimes it is necessary to get the whole team together in one room.

What can we do?

There are plenty of ways to keep your employees healthy and productive while still adhering to the new rules of the world. From space planning an existing space, to fitting out a building, to designing an entire new facility – the possibilities are endless. Architects can design all of these with the following in mind:

  • Open workspaces while keeping socially distant – this may include physical barriers to define space, while keeping the space open to air changes and creative collaboration.
  • Wipeable and Scrubbable surfaces – there are many ways to liven up an office while being able to disinfect the entire area.
  • Natural light – whether you are designing a new facility or retro-fitting an existing space; you need to know the best way to utilize the sunlight you can get. Even in a studio environment where rows or clusters of desks may be used, you can still expose the entire room to light, which leads to more alertness and increased productivity.
  • Conference and Meeting rooms – although unconventional, it is possible to bring the client into the studio for a meeting. A work space can be arranged around a large central conference space, which not only allows people to feel more comfortable out in the open; it also allows a peak into the behind-the scenes of what goes into your work/product.

A proper space plan can do wonders for any office space. With the world changing and being more aware of the spread of germs, we must adapt and evolve. Change is hard and many don’t know where to begin; it is more than just rearranging an office. It is changing the entire way you think about a space. Work environments should be a safe and healthy place for all. To achieve this goal, while maintaining a collaborative feeling, consult with an architect to seamlessly make this evolution to our new work world.

-Stefanie Wiegand, Architectural Designer

The Future of the Suburbs

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Creativity and resourcefulness has always been rewarded and Commercial Real Estate is no exception.  As retail interactions, life, and work change there is no shortage of lemons for lemonade.

The modern history of retail started with the Central Business District, a place filled with the drug store, grocer, doctor and hardware store.  The desire for greater convenience (parking), larger spaces and heightened customer experience led to the shopping center, the mall, and then online shopping. According to Nuveen Real Estate Investments, 78% of online orders involve a physical store.  Retail is not dead, it is simply changed. The complexion of suburban commercial real estate is changing and here are the top 4 reasons:

The desire to go back to an office 100% of the time is limited

  • There are industries where face-to-face is still important; those offices will get larger.  More frequently the hybrid model is taking hold, yet many offices are requiring everyone to be on site on a single day. The result is that those companies will need at least as much space as they did pre-COVID, even if only one day a week.

Retail store counts are decreasing.

  • Large and small, there are store closures due to bankruptcy/contraction (Men’s Warehouse, Kmart) or a new distribution model (Target). That leaves a lot of store space to be filled.

Repurposing and Repositioning

  • As of April 2020, warehouse and industrial leases are up 141%
  • Retail leases are down 47%
  • Office leases are down 17%
  • Decentralized medical services and consolidation of health care providers is up. Hospital Systems are building clinics that are closer to their customers.
  • Retail is downsizing and the 100,000 sf vacancy won’t be filled in the traditional methods. Options to repurpose include warehouse (last mile and mini storage), experiential opportunities, food halls, and medical uses.

Diversity and Stability

  • During the pandemic many retail and restaurant uses were forced to close or reduce accessibility to the point that being open did not make sense.  Medical providers, warehouses, online distribution, grocery and food (restaurant) delivery boomed.  A mix of uses will result in greater stability of rent collection.

One can look at the Exton Mall at the intersection of Routes 30 and 100 in Exton PA for an example of suburban re-purposing. The decline of the Exton Mall had its crossroads searching for an identity and long term plan. The Urban Land Institute in conjunction with West Whiteland Township created a panel (on which I served) to identify the personality that already existed at this prominent crossroad, creating a plan to leverage and manage the redevelopment of the Exton Mall. As a result, Exton’s “Town Center” is becoming a community that includes apartments and townhomes, shopping, eating, healthcare, an entry point to the Chester Valley bike trail, and access to the Exton train station which services both Septa and Amtrak trains.

As experienced in Exton, the mix of uses is a return to the Central Business District model enhanced with large, flexible footprints, opportunities for outdoor congregation and activity space, and ample convenient parking. Turns out, the future of the suburbs is a return to the past in convenience and diversity upgraded to the fill the need for entertainment and experience.

-John Lister, Principal of JL Architects

The Benefits of Living Walls

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Between COVID and climate change, we have all become more conscious of our well-being and its relationship to the environment that we live and work in. In response, architects, engineers, and designers are creating new platforms for a healthier living and working space.  The use of living walls is one method growing in popularity for both its physical and mental health benefits.  A living wall is a carefully selected and designed arrangement of plants, flowers, soil, and a water delivery system that is incorporated into an interior wall.

Living Walls Offer Many Health Benefits:

  • Plants improve the quality of indoor air. They absorb and reduce airborne volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and convert them into a compound which plants use for food
  • Plants increase oxygen levels in the air by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen during photosynthesis
  • Plants can reduce indoor dust by up to 20%
  • Plants release water vapor into the air, which increases humidity, and this can help improve respiratory and skin health by offsetting the drying effects of heating systems
  • In offices where there is plenty of greenery, there is a noticeable decrease in absence due to illness

Living Walls Boost Productivity:

  • Plants have a proven positive effect on employee satisfaction and productivity
  • Increased oxygenation can improve our mood, energy, and mental focus
  • A living wall acts as a sound barrier to the building. It absorbs more sound than a traditional facade resulting in a reduction of noise. Employees gain focus with less distractions, allowing for more efficient decision-making on complex tasks
  • Studies have found that when people have indoor plants in their office space, their work performance improved

Living Walls Create a Pleasant and Comfortable Environment:

  • Installing living walls and maximizing natural light is a great way to bring the outdoors inside
  • Humans have a strong connection to nature and bringing nature into your immediate surroundings makes you feel calmer, more content and helps decrease stress and anxiety
  • Living walls can act as an additional layer of insulation and help reduce the overall temperature in a space
  • Plants absorb sunlight which helps to create a cooler and more pleasant climate during summertime. This means less air conditioning is required, which in turn means more energy savings.
  • Living walls are like a piece of artwork, providing an aesthetic component to your office or home

Living walls are a great addition to any space and offer many health benefits to the occupants.  Considering adding a living wall to your office, restaurant, or multi-family residence?  Contact us at JL Architects and we can help!

-Amy Estrella

Managing your Leasable Space through a Master Model

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One of the services we provide at JL architects is the creation of a master model.  So, what is a master model? It is a digital representation of a multi-tenant space which can be updated each time a tenant space is turned over.

What is Your Benefit?

  1. Keeps a living record of your building. The more information collected on the building, the less time it takes to get a LOD when you need one. This holistic view of your property allows your design professional to offer best options for your tenants.
  2. With master models, we can demise the building however you need. Once the building is surveyed the first time, spaces can expand and contract as needed, and can be combined in any configuration possible. This allows for maximum flexibility when wanting to do tenant fit outs.
  3. Site visits: the master model will cut down on site visits, speed up production time, and complete your leases faster. While a site visit is required to create the model, it is not going to be needed for each new LOD.

Using JL’s Master Models gives you the opportunity to own accurate drawings, allowing for creative space planning in an efficient and cost-effective manner. It works equally well for your shopping center, your office building, or your lab space. Let us know how we can help you!

-Alex Schleicher, Project Manager

Your Real Estate Asset: Achieving the Best Use & Greatest Financial Payback

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As COVID wanes and deals wax, commercial real estate is flexing its muscles to reinvigorate the economy. The number of on and off market transactions are well ahead of predictions, and the pre-COVID numbers. This can put a strain on a buyer’s ability to perform due diligence and come to a clear understanding of both the actual and potential assets being purchased.

This is where documenting the physical building asset comes in, and it is a skill not everyone has. The ability to do it accurately and efficiently has grown with technology. And with any new technology a new skillset is needed.

Where to Start:

The Technology – For a long time, Building Information Technology (BIM) was one of the greatest inventions since the Blackberry smart phone. BIM is a digital creation of new/original building drawings or drawings created by measuring existing buildings. How we measure those existing buildings and spaces is the latest leap forward. During my time as an architect, we have moved from measuring tapes and clipboards to laser measuring to today’s laser scanning (LIDAR). Today’s LIDAR is faster, smaller, and more accurate; accurate to a hundredth of an inch, gathering information on anything in its line of sight in all directions including buildings, site features, and topography. Scanning is also faster and requires less technical training. The scans create augmented reality-like images that can be scaled and traced to produce very accurate, data packed and manipulatable drawings – the graphic component of BIM. Bottom line, more information for less money.

So, What does this Newfound Information Mean to You?

Repositioning & Repurposing – It has been widely published and popularly believed that Retail has died, and the Office is going hybrid and remote, leaving lots of empty Gross Leasable Area (GLA) in its wake. What to do with those buildings is the question lurking on the minds of many. The answer is to Repurpose and Reposition. Current technology allows us to create accurate drawings of these existing buildings for their new, and more profitable use. Drawings created by skilled and experienced architects, using today’s technology results in tight bids, and few change orders resulting in greater value and profit for you, the owner. The return on a good as-built drawing set is recognized even before construction begins.

The Acquisition/Due Diligence – how any times has a rent roll been “stretched”? Then the property goes on the market and a deal is struck. The current technology presents the opportunity to use the same documentation in the due diligence phase as well as in the operations phase. It also is an irrefutable way to know just how big the building is and justify – or challenge – the rent rolls, and any needed negotiation. What is the best time to find out about an inaccurate area verification? The answer – before you own it!

Debt and Financing – We had a client who bought several connected medical office buildings. The property also included some higher ed spaces. They thought it was a great value, yet it got even better when we were able to show that they had purchased 200,000 sf more than they thought! Sounds like an overnight 8 figure valuation increase. In this case, having accurate square footage numbers before financing may have helped them.

Leasing and Management – Rent rolls often seem to be made of rubber; sometimes you really need to organize them and put them into balance. Having a reliable As-Built in a BIM format makes that not only possible but hard to resist.

  • Stop measuring the building every time there is a tenant change.
  • Show a graphic timeline of the core factor changing with each lease.
  • Get ahead of the competition and produce test fits and LOD’s in hours, not days.
  • Spend less to re-tenant your building. As an example, if the cost to document the entire building is $5,000 and you save $1,000 on field verifications with every new lease, it is not long before you see a return on your investment.
  • Reduce change orders and construction bids with accurate drawings that do not need contractors to build in “fudge factors” to make up for drawing inaccuracies and inconsistencies.

There are many ways to build a database of real assets. From that data new opportunities can be found, and increased returns on existing assets are within reach.  Leaders in the industry are proactively using these methods to build their bottom line. Ask me how JL Architects can help you reach your project goals.

John Lister, Founding Principal