Every project has its own story. Finding that story and bringing out its value takes a wide exploration that doesn’t always lead where you expect it to go.
At some point in every project, designers turn into detectives. Together with the clients and communities, they launch into an investigation of the background, culture and goals that will change the design’s course and shape.
The search for this story, the elements that will drive the project design and give it life, is not always easy nor obvious and often takes our teams in unexpected directions.
“You can’t layer the story over a design,” says LPA Design Director Rick D’Amato. “For it to be a meaningful expression, it has to be an inherent part of the process and come from a true understanding of the client.”
The story can come in many forms and is inherently different on every project. A headquarters office for a car company was transformed by the Japanese company’s culture and history, and the philosophies behind its work. The convergence of two rivers drove the design of a community library in Texas. A life science facility in San Diego developed as the embodiment of life-saving drug research.
“These facilities express human stories, and it is the human side of the story that ultimately drives the process and inspires clients and communities.”
– LPA Design Director Franco Brown
Developing the stories that make a difference, going beyond the brochures and mission statements, requires a commitment to dig below the surface. It is a unique experience on every project, working with diverse groups to explore aspirations, culture and heritage.
“We use storytelling to help our clients make good decisions,” says LPA President and Chief Design Officer Keith Hempel. “It’s part of our language to help make very technical and very nuts and bolts work more relatable and share the value and impact in a meaningful way.”
In each case, the story adds to the initial goals, defining the elements that will make a project engaging, supportive and memorable. The story can cross generations and cultures, creating a thread that binds the project and makes it something greater than the parts.
Spaces throughout Glaukos’s new headquarters tell the story of a pioneer in treatments for chronic eye diseases.
CO-AUTHORING THE STORY
Stories evolve from open dialogue and asking the right questions. The process seeks to learn what is important to the client and the people who will use the spaces.
“What we try to do is very much sit down and coauthor the story with our clients and really make it their story, not our story,” Hempel says. “It’s not only just telling the story but demonstrating its value and proving it’s impact with analysis and performance measures.”
Design teams seek to find what’s important, how do we prove it and what’s the effect on the project. Outreach and engagement strategies are molded to each project, recognizing that people respond differently to an online survey than an in-person meeting. Efforts must be made to draw out people and get them sharing, even if it’s just responding to an image with a green dot sticker — “I like it” — or a red dot — “I don’t like it”. The process can’t be forced and doesn’t always lead to profound revelations.
“The really meaningful expression of the narrative in the storyline comes into play when it is something that happens naturally between the designer and the client being themselves,” D’Amato says.
The search for the stories is often a direct output from goalsetting, helping to set the priorities and discover what really matters. Original goals are often vague. Designers are searching for touchpoints that will shape the project. It can be one or many themes. “The story comes from learning more about what they want to achieve,” says LPA Director of Civic + Cultural Jeremy Hart. “For many civic projects, that story really comes from an understanding of the history of the place and the community.”
On a campus known for traditional Spanish architecture, Mt. St. Mary’s University’s new wellness pavilion will speak to openness and empowerment.
Designers are often surprised by where the process leads. The obvious course for a new health and wellness facility for Mt. St. Mary’s University in Los Angeles would have been to follow the theme of the traditional, Mission-style concrete architecture on campus. Instead, the designers and school administrators flipped the story, moving away from the reclusive, concrete buildings to create a transparent, glass-box facility that speaks to empowerment and a new era in the school’s approach toward wellness.
“It’s taking into account the student population context more than the literal physical context,” says LPA Design Director Franco Brown. “As designers we love allowing these stories to shape our buildings.”
THE SCRIPT
Embedding storytelling into the design process creates ROI in many forms, providing meaning to steel, stone and glass. The narrative leads to spaces and environments that go beyond the project’s scope to represent the facility’s real meaning to the people who will use it for generations. “These facilities express human stories,” Brown says. “And it is the human side of the story that ultimately drives the process and inspires clients and communities.”
Brown likes to compare the process to a movie production. On the integrated team — engineers, landscape architects, interior designers — are all working from the same “script” or story, toward the same ending. All the stakeholders feel ownership and understand the goals.
When everyone is sharing the same story, it changes the dynamic on a project. Instead of adversaries, groups become protective of the story they developed together. Everyone from civil engineers to lighting designers are looking for ways to make the elements part of the project, recognizing their ability to make a difference in the final result. Everybody is focused on creating something beautiful and meaningful, working to turn a story into a reality.
A workplace reflects a modern car company’s culture and heritage.
“It was about their history and really understanding those influences that came from their culture. A lot of the branding in Mazda was culturally based. For them they were looking to propel their brand forward. It wasn’t just about, we make cars. They wanted to move away from that. By understanding the philosophy behind what they were doing and expressing that it helped them to elevate their brand.”
New urbanist ideals come to life on a middle school campus.
“From the beginning, this was about connecting the middle school to the growing Mueller community, which is built around new urbanism. Mueller prioritizes walkability, bike-ability, access to parks and helping families stay out of their cars. The design grew around linking to a robust bike lane, jogging trail and pedestrian network, slowing traffic and creating an accessible resource for the neighborhood.”
“Wimberley exists at the confluence of the Cypress Creek and the San Marcos River. The city exists because the crossroads of these rivers and the community grew out of that. We came to the design of the library as this confluence, the coming together of the community. You’ve got the existing library and then the confluence of the new addition that comes up into it.”
Inclusion changes the narrative for underserved students.
“The students were letting us know they felt they were falling behind when they looked at other CSU facilities. They wanted us to restore the pride they felt in their university. That was a huge mission for us. The building is very unapologetic. We put the students on the top floor with broad views of the mountains. It was very deliberate and very intentional. We didn’t want to be coy about it. The design had to be imposing, bold, energizing. We wanted to reflect this strong desire for pride in their institution.”
