As a full-service architecture and engineering firm, we take meaningful collaboration and long-term partnerships very seriously. While some may hear “architecture firm” and envision a company that only designs blueprints or wants to solely create new buildings, we’ve worked to overcome those misconceptions and have built a strong reputation as a partner from beginning to end, no matter how big or small a project may be.
We always strive to go above and beyond in the services and insights we provide our clients to make a true difference in the communities we serve. From our in-house engineering team, ensuring buildings are up to code and safe for their users, to our hyperactive community engagement, sharing updates and various design options at public meetings and open houses across the country, we work alongside our clients to ensure a smooth process and necessary buy-in from all voices involved.
We’ve asked team members across our education, government, and healthcare and senior living teams to share unexpected ways we support our clients to help dispel the misconceptions of what it means to be an architecture and engineering firm – and a truly great partner.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, federal funding became available to many of our public sector clients through the CARES Act. Our team helped those clients submit for and receive funding by preparing scope of work narratives and cost estimates to accompany the funding allocation applications. We worked closely with each client to ensure the scope of work matched the relief fund qualifications. In many instances, we helped develop details for implementing social distancing provisions and other safeguards into existing spaces that Wold had originally designed.
Bond campaigns are a large part of how we support our clients. We often help develop fact sheets to help with bond education in the community, facilitate campaign meetings and even organize fundraisers. On one occasion, Architect Cody Knoblock teamed up with a school’s custodian to make handy-man repairs to help support the campaign.
While funding support doesn’t fall in the traditional role of an architect, we find it valuable to not only ensure the project is able to come to fruition, but to also build a meaningful relationship with our client that will likely result in better outcomes.
It is always the little extra things that go a long way. Doing what is expected is doing a job. At Wold, we believe in going the extra mile and doing the unexpected to provide value to our client relationships - whether that means rolling up our sleeves and picking up a broom, setting up furniture in a new space, or helping answer a question or solve a problem that is traditionally outside of the architecture realm. We understand that the design and construction process can be extremely stressful, and we do anything within our power to alleviate our clients' anxiety. When we go above and beyond in a client crisis, we also get to be a part of their victory, which is pretty special.
While we have a community engagement framework that we recommend, we always take into account how each community's needs may require flexibility. For example, one facilities task force might have 10 members in one community and over 100 in another. Being flexible in our approach allows us to adapt to each unique community and ensures our design solutions are never cookie-cutter.
I have also seen our team go above and beyond the role of an architect/engineer on numerous occasions to support our clients. This includes supporting a client's foundation, presenting to students about our profession, attending career fairs, creating maps and graphics to support their events, and even seeing team members pick up trash on a construction site and help squeegee water out of a building after a pipe break to try and minimize damage.
Our team is currently working with the City of New Prague on a facility master plan. As we were completing our assessment and recommendations, the city administrator asked if our team could assist with planning for a community center and other community recreation needs. Because of both our previous experience helping clients plan for community recreation centers and our relationship with the New Prague school district, we were able to seamlessly and quickly help the city strategize a plan and process for engagement with local youth athletic associations and the City Council. Our expertise expedited the entire process, and over the next six months to a year, our team will develop a long-range plan to help meet these needs.
Instead of continuously creating new buildings, our team explores unique facility solutions for all available space, both within our clients' current campuses as well as out in the community, to use all resources efficiently. Our in-house architectural, interior design and engineering teams have analyzed and completed fit plans for a wide variety of healthcare spaces. Having all of these services in-house has allowed us to continue creating and fostering strong relationships with our clients and our many other industry partners, an especially important task as we all work to adapt to rapidly-evolving societal and economic forces.
In addition, we integrate a full cross section of voices into our planning and design processes to ensure we’re empowering all patients, staff and communities with environments that promote healing and emphasize support. Through these processes, we have often become a catalyst for strengthening communications within the organizations and communities we serve.
We don’t just think of a building as how many students it can fit or how big the gym is, but rather how it enhances the community, enriches the learning experience for students and inspires for years to come. Wold brings a unique perspective to every project because we aren’t just architects, we’re educational planners and space programmers.
Our team works closely with educators and school administrators to align with their strategic plan and vision to create environments that feed the wonderment of learning. Our clients often express what a great experience they have working with us because of the ways we interact with them day-to-day and week-to-week and the long, trusted personal relationships we build.