Julian Owens - Prompt 2

Prompt: How do you build a practice that engages community?

Response: This is a pretty important topic to me because I hope to work on community-based projects for most of my career. After discussing the topic with my mentor it seems to me that there's one major theme that has to be implemented in an office's work culture in order to engage its community, and that theme is simple. In order to engage the community, the firm needs to engage itself and seek out interaction. This can happen in multiple ways.

The simplest way is introducing yourself to the people of that community. This can be in any setting. The best conversation I've ever had with an architect was by happenstance in a convenience store. He struck up a conversation that appealed to me. We talked for a good 20 minutes, and then at the very end of the conversation he told me he was an architect, and I coincidentally happened to be an architecture student. In that one little conversation, he met somebody in the community that is impacted by his design decisions, and he also began to build trust with a member of the community by opening up to him.

Another way to seek out interaction is to make sure your firm has a presence at community-based meetings, whether that be planning, zoning, BAR, or even neighborhood associations. Introducing yourself, listening to the issues, and engaging in conversation can lead to building a very strong relationship with members of the community who can then begin to feel comfortable giving insight on projects that you're developing within the community. Hopefully then, you can hold your own meetings around the community, giving people the opportunity to be involved in the development that's being done by this firm they've become very familiar with.

The final way of engagement is to seek out projects that meet the community's needs. An example of that is the affordable housing project that my firm, Meadors Inc., is currently working on for the city. This kind of project forces the firm to engage the community. It's wrong to design housing for people you've never engaged with, and it's wrong to never give people of the area the opportunity to give input on a project that their friends and family may be utilizing. Through this project, Meadors has really made itself available to the community through charettes, planning reviews, zoning reviews, neighborhood association meetings, BAR meetings, and it's created a good relationship between the firm, city, and citizens.

To spark engagement, you must first engage.