Cooper Carry is designing the Progress Energy project in Raleigh, North Carolina. The four-block development is a joint venture between Progress Energy and the city of Raleigh.

Despite the slow economy of the past couple of years, today’s business world moves at an ever-increasing pace. Development, when it is occurring, is no exception. On the front end of the development process, architects have learned to be more responsive to clients and to look further into the development of a project earlier in the design stage. And they stand ready to respond as the economy shows signs of improving, signaling the possibility of more projects to hit the drawing boards.

“We’re seeing little spurts of positive activity. I think we’re coming out of the bottom of the dip from our standpoint,” says Ron Stang, principal with Stevens & Wilkinson Stang & Newdow. “Companies that have frozen their activities with regard to corporate facilities are starting to spend money and do things they’ve had on hold for a year — or two or three.” Atlanta-based Stevens & Wilkinson Stang & Newdow is a recently merged, full-service architecture, engineering and interiors firm that focuses on education projects but also handles corporate office work, historic rehabilitation and urban architecture, including multifamily residential and hotels.

And architects are in a good position to judge the beginning of an up-tick in the development cycle. “Architects, engineers and planners are going to be on the front side of any return to a real estate development cycle,” explains Pope Bullock, executive vice president with Cooper Carry, based in Atlanta. “The planning work for large complex projects is a year to a year and a half before construction. Construction is a year to a year and a half. A large project takes 2 to 3 years to materialize from the time we start work.”

Cooper Carry serves real estate developers with office, corporate, hotel, retail and mixed-use projects. The company also has a strong institutional basis. “We do a fair amount of public-funded work so that, when private spending falls off as it has the last couple of years, we can pick up more projects that are publicly or institutionally funded, particularly state regents work and private university work,” says Bullock. For example, a little more than 20 percent of the company’s business each year between 1997 and 2000 was investment office buildings; this year, office buildings make up less than 5 percent of the company’s business.

The market is still suffering the effects of the down economy, according to Bullock. “The office market is very flat. Retail is flat in the region. In the area of new malls, big box and ground-up neighborhood centers, there is market saturation.”

In terms of retail projects, Bullock notes that Atlanta and other areas of the Southeast have served as proving ground for a lot of national retailers. “I think mixed-use retail is being tested now,” he says. “It certainly is more popular in the sense that we have more opportunities to do those kinds of projects,” says Bullock. He adds that it is more common to find public incentives and public/private initiatives to support mixed-use projects.

Cooper Carry is currently designing a mixed-use development for Progress Energy in Raleigh, North Carolina. The four-block development is a joint venture between the city of Raleigh and Progress Energy. The project, developed by Carter & Associates, will include a 350,000-square-foot office building for Progress Energy, 80 residential units, 20,000 square feet of street-level retail space and more than 1,000 parking spaces. Brasfield & Gorrie is serving as general contractor for the project, which is scheduled for completion in July 2004.

Looney Ricks Kiss is just getting started on a 10,000-acre mixed-use project outside of Naples, Florida. Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza, is giving a new university to the Roman Catholic Church, and Looney Ricks Kiss is involved with planning the town, called University New Town, that will be developed around the school. “This will be the first — from scratch — university-based new town in history,” according to Laurin McCracken, marketing and strategies officer with Memphis, Tennessee-based Looney Ricks Kiss.

McCracken expects to see architecture change as more and more developers seek zoning regulation exceptions for mixed-use projects and pursue planned-unit developments. He points out that architects make mixed-use projects work with features like “liner buildings” — two-story small-shop retail and residential space along the sides of big box buildings — that help mask overwhelming big box facilities.

Forum Architecture & Interior Design has designed The Oaks at Riverview in Tampa, Florida, for Mid City Urban.

“Urbanism” and “traditional neighborhood development” are ideas affecting current architecture practices, and Altamonte Springs, Florida-based Forum Architecture & Interior Design Inc. has been involved in an urban renewal project that exemplifies these trends. The company designed The Oaks at Riverview in Tampa, Florida. Mid City Urban, located in Silver Spring, Maryland, selected Forum to design the project, which includes single-family housing, townhomes, two-story quadplexes, walk-up garden apartments, senior housing, a pool and a resident services center including daycare, a community room and a computer training room.

“The overall design of The Oaks at Riverview will seamlessly blend with the existing neighborhood vernaculars including Mediterranean, bungalow, craftsman and traditional brick. The buildings are constructed of light gauge steel framed walls which is an ‘upgrade’ from the more common wood framed walls that are typical of affordable housing,” says Alan Wolfe, program director/architect with Forum. “This project is designed to eliminate the institutional projects and replace them with an urban neighborhood.”

“Another issue we are beginning to see more of is sustainable design,” says Bullock. “Even national real estate developers, I think, are finding there is a marketing advantage to be able to talk about sustainable, responsible design.” In Atlanta, Cooper Carry has designed a LEED-certified building at Emory University. Encouraging sustainability, The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System (LEED) helps judge how environmentally sound a building is.

“Private institutions like Emory have led the charge [with the issue of sustainability],” Bullock says. “Many states are beginning to address [sustainability] and actually pass laws that require certain sustainable design minimum criteria for publicly funded work. I think 5 years out, sustainability will be a core discussion in the design of any project that we are undertaking.”

The business of architecture is changing as well. Although development companies and commercial clients deliberate longer in the slow economy before deciding to pursue projects, once they decide on their projects, they often want them completed on a compressed schedule.

“The pressure continues,” says McCracken. “Architects have to be more efficient, more responsive and more money-conscious.”

The practice of fast-tracking projects, for example, “makes [the architect’s job] a little more difficult,” says Stang. “You have to look around a corner to anticipate what you are going to be doing on top of an early release package. There is more effort involved in the coordination of the finished product. You need to think through details in an earlier stage of your work than you would if you had the benefit of a standard extended schedule. The ones that can do it and feel comfortable doing it are the ones that are successful.”

Stevens & Wilkinson Stang & Newdow is designing The Meridian, a 350,000-square-foot office building in Columbia, South Carolina.

Stevens & Wilkinson Stang & Newdow is currently working on fast-track project for The Meridian, a 17-story, 350,000-square-foot office building in Columbia, South Carolina. The building, which will feature a rooftop terrace, is framed up to the fifth floor already and will open in the first quarter of 2004. Holder Properties is developing the $64 million project and Holder Construction is the general contractor.

Stang says, “We don’t sacrifice our design quality with the speed and that is kind of a balancing act. You’ve got to be able to react to schedule demands without sacrificing design quality or construction quality.”

Wolfe agrees. “Balance is a great challenge. Excellent design versus construction budget, speed of production versus quality, expedient communication versus quality and procedure, experienced staff versus competitive salaries, and cutting-edge technology versus maintaining tried-and-true methodology are some broad examples. However, we know our goal is great design and great service. When we meet this challenge, everything else falls into place.”

©2003 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.