ELP 2011- Small Project's Team Update

The Team is assembled by Benje, Emmanuel, Greg, Jae, Rocky and Dulce. This is an energetic team, powered by the cultural diversity of its members. United States, New Zealand, South Korea and Mexico are the proud countries to have 6 leaders compromised to The Emerging Leadership Program, working on the Small Projects Team during 2011.

Various meetings have been held to define scope of work, design approach, phasing of the project, construction systems, and finish materials.

Conscious about the time and effort fundraising implies; we believe our designs must be able to be build in phases. A good example of this is the restrooms facility, whose phase one, will imply to build a wet wall and its roof. This structure can serve in the mean time as a gathering point for parents and family members and/or vendors to offer fresh fruit/vegetables and flavored water to kids playing. Later on enclosure walls can be added and the space can serve as storage rooms. Finally plumbing fixtures will be hooked to the wet wall and the building will serve its final purpose. 

The Team is considering utilizing construction systems that are inexpensive and easy to assemble, hopefully easy enough that could be assembled mostly by volunteers in 6 or 8 weekends. Our early thoughts on this are to use either wood or steel or chain link construction system to provide shadow to the bleachers. 

We would like to discuss finish materials that have a contemporary look (we desire to reflect the energy and life that occurs at the Field of Dreams), require low maintenance and age well. Durability and lifecycle cost of these investments is factor that must be considered. 

We evaluated the Master Plan and would like to suggest some ideas to enhance de connectivity among all elements on site.

"It’s My Trinity!” Luncheon- March 9, 2011

On March 9, 2011, the Trinity Commons Foundation held their tenth annual “It’s My Trinity!” luncheon, celebrating the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.  The new bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava can be seen towering over Dallas and is scheduled to open October 14, 2011.
David McAtee II, President of the Foundation, welcomed everyone and gave a brief description of the overall vision of the Trinity River Project, which includes features such as the Trinity River Audubon Center, the Standing Wave, and the Trinity Trail.  Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts Chorus performed “God Bless America.” Dallas Mayor Caraway then gave a lively status update of the Trinity Project.  Several amenities including the new Pavaho Pump Station are currently under construction, meeting almost all the necessary floodway improvements for the Trinity.  Then WFAA Sports Anchor Dale Hansen spoke on the importance of community involvement and leaving a lasting legacy for generations to come.  The fun-filled luncheon was heavily attended by representatives from the offices of several Texas legislators, AIA Dallas and affluent members of the Dallas community.

​For more information on the Trinity Commons Foundation, the Trinity River Project, events and how you can get involved, please visit their website at http://www.trinitycommonsfoundation.org/

Hilary Bales-Morales
PAGE SOUTHERLAND PAGE, LLP

ELP 2011 Community Leadership - February 11, 2011

Presented by Walter J. Humann:

Mr. Humann came to speak with us on community leadership and regionalism. Prior to this discussion many of us were not familiar with Mr. Humann and what he does in the community. He’s been working to better the Dallas area for over 30 years. Although he heads his own firm, WJH Corporation, it’s clear his passion is public service. Publicly unaffiliated with any political party, he creates a structurally sound bridge that brings opposing political leaders in the area together to get work done. When he was younger, he was fortunate enough to be nominated and accepted into the White House Fellows Program. While most of the graduating fellows stay in Washington, developing careers up there, Mr. Humann was driven to come back home to help Dallas on many facets. His mantra being, “your rights are my responsibility.” He was influential in bringing the DART system to the Dallas area, he provided great leadership and advice when planning and following through with the updates to Highway 75, one of the major North/South arteries of the area and he played a key role in the founding and development of the Jubilee Community Center in South Dallas. He continues to lead the charge to better develop the South Dallas area for its residents. What stands out most is how genuine, honest, humble, and selfless he is in his civic duty. The fact that he has no desire to run for any political office stands as a testament to his desire to just see success in the public projects he pursues in the region. He talked of sometimes drilling dry wells (working extremely hard on a project only to not get to the goal). These come up in life from time to time and it’s a matter of accepting that not everything one does will go as planned but one should never give up. Walt Humann does not give up. It is clear from how he has lead his life, he is a civic leader who gets things done. We are all fortunate to have such a person working for us in Dallas. On a final note, the best advice I feel he gave to us in his inspiring presentation is a single response to several questions. “How would you approach… “or “What do you recommend… “His response was “just do it”. And while that may seem on the surface as a simplified sometimes overused phrase he’s right. If one wants something done, do it, pursue it to the best of your abilities, seek out all opportunities to reach your goal, be driven and believe in what you do, for yourself and for the common good.   

Zach.Wideman
Perkins+Will

ELP 2011 Retreat (part 2)

Does your company suffer with individuals that:
• have lots of ideas?
• are constantly thinking “outside of the box”?
• are okay with uncertainty?
• want things to be different?
• are conceptually flexible?
• are innovatively creative?

…yet drive insanity to the brink of homicidal tendencies into those who: 
• stick to a few ideas that work? 
• act within the system?
• like predictability and control?
• like to make things better?
• are disciplined and focused?
• adaptively creative insane to near homicidal tendencies?
 
You’re not alone, and we’re here to help!  At Bridgers Incorporated, we are able to pair two polar opposites together with one of our associates to not only create, but actually produce new, better, more innovative products for the constantly technology-advanced world.  We are able to match your crazy, uncontrollable, attention-challenged individuals (Innovators), and your head strong, diligent, always-on-time grumps (Adaptors) with one of our well-balanced associates (Bridgers).

Act now, and we’ll throw in the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory evaluation** at no additional cost!  Contact us now at (555) BRI-DGER, and tell them Pete sent you!

** The Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory evaluation is used to measure an individual’s thinking style.  Security should be on hand when this evaluation is administered; not everyone approves of where they score, and there is no telling how they might react.

Our class took part in the KAI evaluation, and was broke up into three main groups: Adaptors, Innovators, and Bridgers (refer to traits of Adaptors and Innovators below).  Adaptors and Innovators don’t always get along, but we learned that it is important for a group to have both in order to be effective over time.  The scores could range from a 32 (extremely adaptive) to 160 (extremely innovative).  The larger the gap between peoples’ scores, the greater the problems of communication and collaboration exist.  The Bridger acts as the go-between the Adaptor and Innovator, and in a sense, balance out the differences between the two in order to get things done.  Understanding and acknowledging these traits will help make us stronger leaders and team members within a diverse group.  

Adaptors:  Tend to accept problems as defined with any generally agreed constraints; generate a few novel, creative, relevant and acceptable solutions aimed at doing things better; prefer well-established, structured situations; in times of expected change may have some difficulty moving out of their established role. Some famous Adaptors would be Thomas Edison and Michelangelo.

Innovators:  Tend to reject the generally accepted perception of problems and redefine them; produce numerous ideas, some of which may not appear relevant or acceptable to others; prefer less structural situations; are essential in times of change or crisis, but may have trouble applying themselves to ongoing organizational demands.  Some famous Innovators would be Nikola Tesla and Leonardo Da Vinci.

Adaptors are seen by Innovators as sound, conforming, safe, predictable, inflexible, wedded to the system, intolerant of ambiguity.

Innovators are seen by Adaptors as glamorous, exciting, unsound, impractical, risky, abrasive, threatening the establish system and causing dissonance.

Greg Nollkamper, AIA
PAGE SOUTHERLAND PAGE, LLP

ELP 2011 Retreat (part 1)

Our first immersion into the Emerging Leaders Program was held at the Turtle Creek Pump House and was led by Dr. Pete DeLisle.  In his engaging and energetic manner, Pete touched on a few concepts throughout the day, the morning began with a slightly awkward but informative communication exercise in which partners had to interpret a phrase the other had written; however, one partner was not allowed to speak and the other was not allowed to see.  This introduced a discussion on the Triangle of Awareness, (Effective Leadership requires a leader have Awareness, Commitment and Ability in order to be successful).  The morning concluded with various topics of interpersonal dynamics communicated through varied four square graphs including the Dynamics of Competency, the Farm Gate and the Johari Window.  The group was then given a survey to take during lunch that set up the afternoon session of the retreat.  
 
Following lunch we explored the ‘secrets’ of the survey (the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory), which revealed to us if we were Adaptors, Innovators or Bridgers.  These terms pertain to how people approach problem solving, not necessarily how creative they are (see Greg’s blog entry for more info.).  Since the retreat, much like my inability to take vacation photos of more than just buildings, I have been unable to stop analyzing my friends and co-workers as Innovators or Adaptors.  As the retreat wrapped up, I began to get that feeling when you realize there isn’t enough time for your favorite TV show to wrap up the story and you are left with a cliffhanger.  We took in large amounts of information and had many questions that will be answered at later dates and class sessions.
 
Wes Henckel
Brown Reynolds Watford Architects

Introducing The AIA Dallas Emerging Leaders Class of 2011.

AIA Dallas Emerging Leaders Program 2011

Public Relations Team: John Carruth, Jae Lee, Nicholas McWhirter

For Submission to AIA Dallas Columns, Summer 2011 Edition

The AIA Dallas Leadership Committee is proud to announce a new class of participants in the Emerging Leaders Program for 2011.

Hilary Bales-Morales, AIA — Page Southerland Page

Jacquelyn Block, AIA — Perkins + Will

Derwin Broughton, AIA, NOMA — Ron Hobbs Architects

John Carruth — Merriman Associates

Benje Feehan, Assoc. AIA — bcWorkshop

Juan Fernandez — Huitt-Zollars

Rathael ‘Ray’ Fambro — Raymond Harris & Associates

Chris Grossnicklaus, Assoc. AIA — RTKL Associates

Emily Harrold, Assoc. AIA — DSGN Associates

Wes Henckel, Assoc. AIA — BRW Architects, Inc.

Emmanuel Jaimes — FKP Architects

Jae Lee, AIA — The Beck Group

Nicholas McWhirter, AIA — Good Fulton & Farrell

Jason Mellard, AIA, LEED AP — Corgan Associates, Inc.

Ashlee Paar, Assoc. AIA — Gensler

Greg Nollkamper, AIA — Page Southerland Page

Jonathan ‘Rocky’ Owens, AIA — Omniplan Architects

Laurel Stone, AIA — 5GStudio Collaborative

Dulce Torres, Assoc. AIA — HKS, Inc.

Zach Wideman — Perkins + Will

Kirby Zengler, AIA — JHP

The program is Co-Chaired by:  Charles E. Brant, AIA of BRW Architects, Beth Carroll, AIA of Page Southerland Page, Sheila Kleinpeter, AIA of JHP and Grant Wickard, AIA of GFF and instructed by Dr. Pete DeLisle of The Posey Leadership Institute at Austin College. 

The Emerging Leaders Program is open to participation from all Dallas area architectural firms through an application process to the AIA Dallas Leadership Committee. Information describing nomination details for the 2012 class will be posted on the Dallas AIA website this fall.

Special thanks to Marc Blackson of Blackson Brick for sponsoring tuition scholarships for this year’s class.

Contact:

Nicholas McWhirter

nick.mcwhirter@gff.com 

214 303 1500