been designed, implemented, and altered to help make the approach as efficient and valuable as possible. Overall, the approach and its evolution are supported by changes to the firm’s “philosophy, organizational structure, educational expectations” (Culbertson 2013).
The Strategic Kick-Off (SKO) meeting is one supporting component of the firm’s evidence-based approach. As described in the previous section, the SKO is a strategic planning meeting used to get the design team on the same page, identify the dilemma and thesis, and establish the overall vision and goals for the project. Goals are identified in three steps: individual, team, and prioritization; all of which allow the big ideas to come through while grounding them in reality. Although the SKO is project-centered, it also ensures that a common vision for the firm makes its way into every project.
Another component, no longer widely used, is Legacy Design Days. As previously discussed in the Development and Evolution section, Legacy Design Days were used at the beginning of the initiative to teach the process to the design staff.
Mendenhall explains the purpose of Legacy Design Days, “we realized we had to take a step back, teach a process, and teach people: what is a baseline? What is a benchmark? What is a quantified goal?” (Mendenhall 2013). Mendenhall describes these early Legacy Design Days as pencils-down days. People from other offices would travel to be part of the initiation. Those participating would pick a real project that was actually launching and everyone would work on that one project to generate lots of discussion and mutual learning (Mendenhall 2013). Several pencils-down days is a risky undertaking as far as profitability for the firm, but Design Workshop considered it an investment in its employees, its visions, and the firm. While Legacy Design Days no longer occur, primarily due to the economic downturn, the iterative education series laid the foundation for successful implementation of a complex approach across all offices.
Design reviews are another formal component of the firm’s EBD approach.
“Basically, it’s like a design review where different like-projects present so that they can learn from each other” (Mendenhall 2013). The firm calls these near mandatory design reviews Symposia where the entire staff takes part in half-day or full-day education sessions on key issues related to the project type on the board.
The Legacy Design Representatives (further discussed in the Firm Organization section) together identify one project type for which the firm currently has several projects. They bring in an outside expert or keynote speaker to review real projects and gain a different perspective on the use of evidence in the project. “We try
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to target it to a specific project type and then people working on those projects understand the value” (Mendenhall 2013). Each project team is expected to pin-up, present their process thus far, and get suggestions not only on design but how to push their metrics further to improve performance. “It’s the same idea as these Legacy Design Days … the need to just continue learning within the confines of the firm, not just at conferences … Part of advancing yourself as a professional is the conversations we convene internally to improve the work” (Mendenhall 2013).
The ideas of continued education and advancing professionally permeate many aspects of the firm and are the guiding principles behind several components of the firm's EBD approach. Lunch-n-learns are a more frequently occurring example of continued education at the firm. “We have a very robust series of lunch-n-learns
… We bring in outside speakers plus we have internal speakers that share topic-based projects, maybe something someone’s researching, etc.” (Mendenhall 2013).
More than just the typical product representative presentations, Design Workshop's lunch-n-learns are geared toward evidence, types of evidence, and applying
evidence. Lunch-n-learns can also coincide with the Symposia. It could mean “a full-office design review over lunch or it can mean a team really needs the input of two people in the office and they invite them to a design review to get their specific expertise” (Mendenhall 2013).
While Legacy Design Days, Symposia, and lunch-n-learns are valuable for the design staff in that moment and for their current projects, Design Workshop is a long-term visioning firm. And so it came into question: how can we store this information and ensure that it reaches the next generation? In response, an online internal resource base called The Portal was established as a tool for sharing and storing evidence. The Portal is a “vessel that contains the information – it’s about knowledge sharing” (Mendenhall 2013). The Portal is made up of a series of internal wikis that are topic-based and searchable. Although Mendenhall is the ultimate quality control of the site, the content is entirely made of employee contributions and Mendenhall often encourages staff to “not just make
withdrawals but deposits” (Mendenhall 2013). Deposits for the firm mean more than just sending around an email blast of an interesting article they just found.
“I’m the nudge who always replies back to that person and says, ‘did you consider getting this on the portal?’” (Mendenhall 2013). It is a tool made for the staff by the staff with future staff and other offices in mind. Mendenhall describes why an internal library is important:
The shame would be that if we don’t share the research and somebody in Denver learns something wonderful and somebody in Austin next year starts on a very similar project and has no idea that the team in Aspen actually already went down that path … this is about pausing and understanding when you’ve encountered some information or generated some information that would be of value to a colleague either immediately or in the future … It’s easy to just always be on to the next deadline and not stop to make sure you’re sharing content. (Mendenhall 2013)
The Portal is not only meant for the storing and sharing of retrieved evidence but also for evidence-related project information. “The idea is that it’s not just finished work, it’s work in progress … so that we have examples of projects, of a wide variety of project types but also at different stages, not just the complete – here’s the final deliverable – but actually here were the tables that they used”
(Mendenhall 2013). When the teams reach various milestones on projects, it is expected that they pause to think about what information and lessons learned from the project would be valuable to their colleagues. While The Portal is supplemented by the bulk of project information on the server, The Portal is not just a replication of the server – a primary method of storing information widely used by firms. The projects that are discussed by the Legacy Reps and put on The Portal “are kind of percolating to the top as good examples and then those are going on the portal, not everything” (Mendenhall 2013).
The recording of knowledge has evolved with the evidence-based design approach to increase efficiency. The information is directly relevant to Design Workshop and their specific projects, it was developed and is maintained to be their specific and searchable database of information. “The portal is only as good as the information that’s on it and you have to make sure it’s current and relevant” (Mendenhall 2013). Therefore The Portal, like all components of the approach, is constantly evolving to meet the needs of the firm. “We continue to evolve the role of information technology … to become more of information management. So not just about hardware and software but the storage and retrieval of information” (Culbertson 2013).
Each component of Design Workshop’s evidence-based design approach supports the process to increase efficiency and replicability, expand knowledge through continuing education, and enhance the project designs by engaging outside experts during critiques. Although each component has been developed and evolved, it is not to say that the components are final products. The firm and
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specifically Mendenhall continue to adapt the components and brainstorm new ones to resolve issues and kinks that arise in the process.
Design Workshop's organization did not significantly change with the adoption or inclusion of the evidence-based design approach; Design Workshop is similar to other horizontally structured firms in that everyone shares a responsibility to be their own expert. However, according to Culbertson, “there’s a bit of an organizational chart, organizational structure behind [the approach] to support [it] … It’s shaped some existing roles in a clearer way. But I don’t think there’s been a whole reordering of the way the company is structured to accommodate it” (Culbertson 2013). Many of these roles, including the Legacy Design director, Legacy Design Representatives, and metrics Champions; were developed and defined to support the ever-expanding approach and all the components it requires. These roles oversee the development of evidence-based design within the firm, manage the quality of design, and ensure that the approach’s process is implemented and executed as designed. These roles are also expected to identify deficits in the approach and bring them to the attention of the firm so that they may be acknowledged and strategically amended.
The director of Legacy Design was perhaps the most significant change to Design Workshop's firm organization. The role was established as the Legacy Design approach was being formalized. The first and current director, Allyson Mendenhall, directs the Legacy Design initiative and develops the evidence-based design vision for the firm. Mendenhall describes her role as being “the firm-wide role that is about the teaching and the sharing and getting everybody excited” (Mendenhall 2013). When first hired, Mendenhall primarily conducted and implemented research at the firm. Culbertson elaborates, “I’m actually in discussions with Allyson about evolving what has been more of a research function for her into becoming more of a quality management role. Trying to make sure the research is actually working its way into the next project”
(Culbertson 2013). Part of her current quality management control is overseeing that The Portal is current, relevant, and employees are making both "withdrawals and deposits" appropriately.
Another function of Mendenhall’s role as director of Legacy Design is being the informal leader of the Legacy Design Representatives. One Legacy Design representative from each office is identified from current staff members to represent the office. “We’ve actually had Legacy Design Representatives since
Firm
Organization
2005 I’d say. It’s one of the longest running internal groups that has representatives in the different offices” (Mendenhall 2013). Culbertson describes their roles as helping to communicate the intent of the Legacy Design philosophy. For example,
“if you don’t know exactly where [information] should go [on the portal] or you’re forgetting how to do it, you can talk to your Legacy Rep” (Mendenhall 2013). The Legacy Design Representatives also oversee that the approach and its components are being utilized to their fullest potential within their individual offices. In order to do this effectively, the representatives have to self-educate to keep up-to-date on the state of evidence-based design in the field. Mendenhall describes how the representatives are kept accountable for gaining and sharing new knowledge:
[The Legacy Design Representatives] get together monthly … We share articles; someone will choose an article that everyone reads in advance and then we have a conversation about it. We talk about taking the temperature of the culture of the different offices. And whether design reviews are happening and if they’re not how to make them happen; we figure out what the root cause is behind it and nudge everyone to get going again.
(Mendenhall 2013)
The Legacy Design Representatives, on their monthly conference calls, will share similar projects to create a common foundation for discussion and input about the metrics and tools that are most beneficial to inform that particular type of design.
During these monthly calls, the reps also share and critique commonly used evidence-based design tools like the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF)’s benefits toolkit website. “One of the Legacy Reps will discover a new tool, apply it to their project and then share it with the rest of the group to say, 'here’s how I think it was successful.
Gosh you know, I understand how to use it but it’s probably more for projects of a certain scale.' They’ll kind of give their assessment of it, which has been very valuable”
(Mendenhall 2013). The Legacy Design Representatives are valuable tools who enhance the implementation of the approach within each office as well as being a firm-wide group that specifically focuses on evidence-based design at the firm and how to improve it.
Representation and support from every scale ensures the evidence-based design approach is integrated into the projects and represents the firm’s vision. While the Director of Legacy Design oversees the firm-wide implementation and the Legacy Design reps cover office implementation, various roles support the individual project teams. Design Workshop’s basic team structure includes a principal in charge, a project manager, and if the project is big enough, a lead designer, and
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various project landscape architects and planners. “I think, increasingly, there’s kind of like a “metrics champion” or a “watchdog” on the team … not every team is big enough to have that person. And so someone on the team might wear many hats. Often it’s the project manager’s responsibility to make sure that the different aspects of our approach are kind of baked into the process and incorporated” (Mendenhall 2013). The metrics champion is often the person to handle the Sustainability Matrix, ensuring that values are assigned at each stage and responsibilities designated. “They’re just the one to say, ‘now wait, we need to stop here before we move any further along and answer some of these questions and get on the same page’” (Mendenhall 2013).
There is also a role on the project team that takes charge of ensuring that outcomes are documented. Just as the Legacy Design Representative encourages deposits onto the portal for the office, the metrics champion or project assistant encourages the team to document the information gathered. Mendenhall describes this informal role:
We have a project assistant on projects and it’s this person’s responsibility, among many other things, is to try to capture and gather information produced by the team that potentially goes into an awards submittal in the future, or goes on The Portal because the team did something, found some really amazing information, an article, they produce something that really should be put on The Portal so that everybody has access to it … I hope that the champion on the team or the project assistant can be that last resort if others aren’t thinking to share the information [on the portal]. (Mendenhall 2013)
As Culbertson mentioned, there is not a significant rearranging of the firm’s structure to formalize the approach but rather a redefining of roles and added responsibilities to existing roles that allow the approach to be integrated
seamlessly. The specific steps that make up Design Workshop’s specific evidence-based design process are ultimately the responsibility of the project manager, a role that existed long before the approach.
As discussed previously (in reference to Mendenhall's evolving role), the role of quality manager is an organizational strategy that is currently being developed and refined. “We have continually tried to design, incorporate and improve upon a quality management function which is not something that a lot of … certainly not a lot of landscape architecture firms have done … Evolving the role of quality management is directly related to being more precise and going deeper with the data
and the research” (Culbertson 2013). A quality management role (specific to research and the Legacy Design approach) would move beyond overseeing The Portal and would expand more on evidence gathering, implementation, and incorporation of components (like the Sustainability Matrix) into the design process.
While some roles are currently taking off, others had been conceived but abandoned for various reasons. One of these was the role of Forum Leader (as discussed in the Development and Evolution section):
One idea very early on had been that we would have like a firm-wide lead for each of these areas [economics, environment, community, and art].
And they would be this expert and they would teach everyone and they would bring in speakers and get information on the portal and kind of sprinkle their knowledge amongst different projects … I mean the idea was flawed. It’s a great ideal to have but the fact is that I think the projects tend to be much more, sort of generated by a team and the knowledge needs to be generated by the team … It was more of a top-down. Whereas now I think the expectation is that all the teams are tackling their projects comprehensively and there doesn’t need to be a firm-wide expert in environment.” (Mendenhall 2013)
The purposeful designation of this responsibility to the team itself rather than a separate role was a deliberate decision by the firm and it remains consistent with the workshop ideal.
In order to make each of the roles and responsibilities discussed effective, the firm has developed and utilized several inter-office communication strategies and tools. Developing the inter-office communication and collaboration with projects was not difficult however because Design Workshop considers themselves to be one firm, not different offices acting as difference entities with different visions. Mendenhall considers the six different offices and says, “we’re very connected … there’s a lot of pairing of teams connecting the different offices … sometimes we physically will fly someone to another office where they’re needed”
(Mendenhall 2013). The offices also have the ability to connect through video, web conferencing, and conference calls. This happens so often that it’s not unlikely that a designer will have a consulting conference with one office, a lunch-n-learn with all offices on a conference call, and a continuing education webinar all in one day.
“There’s a virtual way that the firm operates as well” (Mendenhall 2013).
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Much of the success of the evidence-based design approach development and implementation is attributed, both internally and by the firm’s peers, to the deeply ingrained design culture at Design Workshop. Mendenhall wrote in the Architectural Worlds magazine of Design Workshop's culture: "The collaborative atmosphere and sense of purpose are palpable" (Steiner, et al. 2013). The design