A Tactical Social Media Handbook for Designers and Builders

Today, my friend Steve Mouzon is releasing his latest book and I am honored to have had the opportunity to write the foreword.

If the book I wrote with Holly Berkley, Social Media in Action: Comprehensive Guide for Architecture, Engineering, Planning, and Environmental Consulting Firms, gave you an understanding of how social media can be a useful resource in meeting your firm's business and communications goals through our experiences and case studies of your peers, New Media for Designers + Builders written by Steve Mouzon picks up where our book left off.

Patience, generosity and connectedness. These are the new virtues that Steve describes in his new ebook. True to form, when I was doing research for Social Media in Action, Steve generously shared with me his experiences growing his career and building his networks through social and other digital media. He shared his approach to building vibrant communities with highly engaged members in the pre-digital age, and how his methods evolved as new media emerged. And he told me about his dedication to teaching designers and builders his formula for embracing new media to help them maintain their relevance in our changing world. Steve has always offered his support universally.

It was an easy decision for  Holly  and I to profile Steve's path navigating and connecting the various elements of his social media presence to amplify his effectiveness as a leader. His story offers lessons for anyone looking to shape a reputation as an expert. However, we barely scratched the surface of Steve's new media methodology. New Media for Designers +Builders details his specific, step-by-step approach that will undoubtedly guide any person working in the built environment – developer, architect, landscape architect, urban designer, planner, engineer, builder or craftsperson – in growing their own network, supporting their own cause, and fulfilling their ambitions online and off. No prior social media experience is required.

Steve’s recipe for using new media effectively is just for designers and builders, and has been tested and deemed effective by him personally and refined through feedback from his many generous readers. He understands the resource and time constraints on practitioners and prescribes a scenario that is intended to take only 10% of your time—this week and every week that follows.

Reputations are not built overnight. Patience, another one of the new values, is so important. Get started today with Steve’s two-week regimen for establishing your new media presence, and be mindful that a consistent effort put in over time is necessary and will pay off. It won’t be long before you realize that new media, like your website and your phone, is an essential tool for doing business.

I wish Steve the very best with his new book and look forward to more opportunities to collaborate with him.

Favorite Design and Urbanism Blog Posts for Week of January 14, 2012

Who rules the earth? Peripheral vision. A new type of architectural school. Why design matters. Endowment for rural communities.  

Who rules the earth. Steve Prince, managing principal of HMC Architects, explores the idea of who rules the earth, stemming from interest of Paul Steinberg’s book, “Who Rules the Earth? How Social Rules Shape Our Planet and Our Lives,” to be published by Oxford University Press in 2014. The book is part of The Social Rules Project, an environmental sustainability advocacy.

Prince, who connected with the project because of its environmental sustainability initiative, awarded a $5,000 grant to support the Social Rules Project, which seeks to create new and innovative ways to bridge academia and real world challenges, and to empower students to make a positive impact on the planet.

Via HMC Architects blog

On the periphery. Linnaea Tillett, an environmental psychologist, lighting designer and principal of Tillett Lighting, writes about how lighting can affect the way people feel in a room where they’ll be performing different kinds of tasks.

Tillett says this affect comes from the periphery of your vision—the “fringe of your focus”—and it determines how you feel in a particular space. People absorb much of the affect without being acutely aware that they are doing it through what we variously call the co-conscious, unconscious, or just the “noise around us”.

Via Metropolis Magazine POV

A new type of architecture school. Robert Kwolek blogs on how he would like to create his own private school of architecture, offering a complete alternative to existing programs in which the worlds of architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture, and carpentry would be melded.

Kwolek says that despite having graduated from an architecture program, he still doesn’t feel significantly more capable of constructing his own building. He says that most contemporary architecture programs “are very insular, with little regard for preparing students for the real world.”

Via Sustainable Cities Collective

Why Design Matters. Tom Ito, a principal in Gensler’s Los Angeles office, blogs about how staying at the hotel Oberoi Amarvilas in Agra, India, made him reflect on the power of design.

“Everything about my journey into the hotel (and approaching nirvana) was designed. It was “guest experience” planned and supported by the landscape, the architecture and the interiors for the purpose of giving me a lasting memory of this hotel and—bigger picture—the brand. It worked.” – Tom Ito

Via GenslerOn Lifestyle blog

Endowment for rural communities. The new Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD), a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Project for Public Spaces, and other organizations, is looking for proposals from rural communities who need design help. Winners will receive a $7,000 grant and technical assistance valued at $35,000.

CIRD helps rural communities with fewer than 50,000 people. Through facilitated design workshops, CIRD aims to “enhance the quality of life and economic vitality” of these places.

Via The Dirt

Childrens books for future designers and planners

I have two kids, ages almost 6 and 3, and while they love reading books, I enjoy reading their books as much if not more than they do.  I love the nostalgia and silliness of Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl and the clever stories and terms that Mo Willems churns. The way my kids respond to books has shown me the power within their pages. One book can spark a new interest that lasts days, months – even years. One book can lead to the insistence that we read tens more on the same topic.

So naturally, I try to select books on topics that are also interesting to me (after all, I’m equally invested in reading these). This prompted an unofficial research project on children’s books about the built environment. With the exception of the immense stock of books about construction, trucks, trains and planes, there are relatively few stories about the professions and interests of the designers and planners or about the shape and functions of cities, buildings, communities, neighborhoods and parks themselves.

However disappointed I was by the brevity of my list, books like Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty and The Little House by Virginia Burton have been inducted into our nightly favorites. (You can find my assuredly incomplete list of children’s books on landscape, architecture, planning and otherwise urban-related topics at the end of this post.)

What is curious about this short list is that designers and planners love to publish books – but often these books are more effective as marketing tools for their services than as revenue generators from their royalties. Michael Crosbie, FAIA, who is currently the associate dean, architecture department chair, and associate professor at the University of Hartford and also edits Faith & Form magazine, has written more than 20 books on architecture. Five of these are specifically for children. Michael wrote a series of children’s book published by Wiley in 1993: Architecture Counts, Architecture Colors, Architecture Shapes, and Architecture Animals; in 2000 he wrote Arches to Zigzags which was published by Abrams. “The Wiley books have sold more than 120,000 copies, and continue to sell well nearly 20 years after publication, so they have by far been the most popular books I've ever written,” Michael says.

Watching my kids get excited by their books reminds me that I “discovered” the design and planning professions well after I established my career. Perhaps if I had read The Curious Garden by Peter Brown when I was five years old, I may have studied landscape architecture instead. From loosely polling my landscape, architecture, planner, urban designer friends, I’ve noticed that most of them chose their profession because they had a parent, uncle, aunt or family friend that was in a related profession. If this is how young people are still being recruited into studying design and planning, it’s no wonder why these fields suffer from a lack of diversity.

This is a missed opportunity! A children’s book that can be found in a public library can transcend races, genders, economic classes and cultures. What’s the literary legacy you’d prefer, a silly picture book about a personal learning experience that inspired a little girl to pursue your vocation or the coffee table monograph that you’ll give to your clients?

Children’s Books Relating to Design or Planning of the Built Environment

• Roberto the Insect Architect by Nina Laden
• The Curious Garden, by Peter Brown
• ARCHES TO ZIGZAGS: An Architecture A B C, by Michael J. Crosbie
• Architecture Shapes, by Michael Crosbie
• Architecture Counts, by Michael Crosbie
• Architecture Colors, by Michael Crosbie
• Architecture Animals, by Michael Crosbie
• Not  a Box, by Antoinette Portis
• Gargoyles, Girders & Glass Houses by Bo Zaunders
• Snail Trail: In Search of a Modern Masterpiece By Jo Saxton
• Two Bad Ants, by Chris Allsburg
• Island Boy, by Barbara Cooney
• Rome Antics, by David Macaulay
• Round Buildings, Square Buildings, and Buildings That Wiggle Like a Fish by Philip M. Isaacson
• Pop-up London, by Jennie Maizels
• Iggy Peck, Architect, by Andrea Beaty
• How a House Is Built, by Gail Gibbons
• The Three Little Pigs, by Steven Guarnaccia
• An Ants Day Off, by Nina Laden
• The Architecture Pop Up Book, by Anton Radevsky
• Draw Me a House: A Book of Colouring in, Ideas and Architectural Inspiration by Thibaud Herem
• The Little House, by Virginia Lee Burton
• The Cable Car and the Dragon, by Herb Caen
• Frank O. Gehry: Outside In, by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan (10 years and up)
• Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson (added by Carol Hagen)
• Le Corbusier in His Own Words: An Introduction for Children edited by Antoine Vigne
• Need a House, Call Ms. Mouse by George Mendoza
• The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Manus Pinkwater
• 13 Buildings Children Should Know by Annette Roeder
• Cathedral by David Macaulay
• Building Big by David Macaulay
• Motel of Mysteries by David Macaulay
• The Unbuilding by David Macaulay
• Great Building Stories of the Past by Peter Kent
• The Picture History of Great Buildings by Gillian Clements
• Building a House by Byron Barton
• How A House is Built by Gail Gibbons
• Castles: A 3-Dimensional Exploration by Gillian Osband and Robert Andrew
• What It Feels Like To Be A Building by Forrest Wilson
• Architects Make Zigzags: Looking at Architecture from A to Z by Diane Maddex
• Zekmet, the Stone Carver: A Tale of Ancient Egypt by Mary Stolz
• Charlie’s House by Reviva Schermbrucker
• The House that Bob Built by Robert A.M. Stern
• Book of Cities by Piero Ventura
• Beauty and the Beast by Charles Moore
• Nature By Design by Bruce Brooks
• Discover America’s Famous Architects by Patricia Browne Glenn
• Draw 50 Buildings and Other Structures by Lee J. Ames
• Fank Lloyd Wright for Kids: His Life and Ideas by Kathleen Thorne-Thomsen
• Houses and Homes by Ann Morris
• Housebuilding for Children by Les Walker
• Math in the Real World of Architecture by Shirley Cook
• The Architecture Pack: A Unique, Three-Dimensional Tour of Architecture over the Centuries : What Architects Do, How They Do It  by Ron Van Der Meer
• Under Every Roof: A Kid's Style and Field Guide to the Architecture of American Houses by Patricia Brown Glenn
• The Little Skyscraper by Scott Santoro
• The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas and Helen Oxenbury
• The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett
• Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
• The Danger Box by Blue Balliett
• Start Exploring Architecture: A Fact-Filled Coloring Book by Peter Dobrin

(Did I leave one of your favorites off? Please comment with title and author and I’ll add it.)

Make Your Vote Count: Be2Awards

I first learned about the Be2Awards awards last year while researching our book, so of course we are really excited to have “Social Media in Action” shortlisted for the 2012 Be2 Media Award. I’ll say it up front … the awards are crowdsourced, so please vote for our book! Plus, if you journey to their website and start clicking you’ll discover some fantastic examples of built environment (that’s the B.e.) professionals, companies and organizations who are using new media in innovative ways.

The quality of competition here is no joke.  Mark Johnson’s social media PR campaign (which we recognized as one of our blog post favorites) and his competitor, #droptheban, make for a tough choice in the Best PR/Social Media Campaign category, as does ArchitectMap and Green Vision in the Best Community Category. The categories for the best social media and sustainability blog are ripe with great examples – and blogs to start reading religiously. I was thrilled to see Cesar Abeid’s Construction Industry Podcast, a series that I recently discovered and really enjoy.  The list gets me thinking of other sites, campaigns and communities to nominate next year.

“Social Media in Action” is in the Best Old Media/New Media category and I am honored to be among these prestigious candidates which include the UK’s construction search engine, a UK construction publication that makes all its content free online, the UK’s construction trade association live database of contract awards and The Guardian’s own built environment “hub” for sustainable development.

The Be2Awards are in their third year and aligned with the London strand of the global Social Media Week event series that takes place in a handful of cities worldwide. Be2 is also hosting Be2Talk, a speaker series on the built environment and social media as a part of the London Social Media Week. I sincerely hope these talks will be posted after the event. I’m interested to see Carlton Reid’s ''Cycling, the built environment and social media'' presentation. This is hardly their first event – Be2 has hosted a slew of conferences, Twitter chats and more since the organization was established in 2008 by built-environment professionals Martin Brown  and Paul Wilkinson, Jodie Miners  and Pam Broviak.   I just joined the Be2Camp community to stay better connected to all their happenings and hope you will consider joining too.

Success by Design Shares Compelling Stories of California Architects

Success by Design: Revealing Profiles of California Architects, written and photographed by Jenn Kennedy, provides a detailed overview of the careers of 25 successful architects in California. Kennedy profiles a diverse group of architects from variety of firms based throughout California who have worked on projects ranging from residential, commercial buildings, educational institutions and public arenas. She does a compelling job of telling the stories of architects through interviews, portraits and photographs and includes renderings from each firm, discussing their beginning work until current work.

The book is accessible and illuminating. Kennedy has a unique approach in telling each innovator’s story in an authentic and sincere manner. Each innovator shares their personal history, how they got started, their challenges, lessons learned and other aspects of their journey that make this book a must-read for anyone who aspires to pursue this profession.

Success by Design is a helpful resource for architects and designers new to the industry or for anyone looking to work for or with these firms, but it would also be useful for architects who are seeking to start their own firm and need perspective on how to build a practice.

Notable architects profiled include Steven Ehrlich, principal and founder of Ehrlich Architecture, Art Gensler, cofounder of Gensler, Ray Kappe, educator and founder of SCI-Arc, Stephen Kanner, modernist and founder of the A+D Museum (Kanner passed away in 2010), and Lauren Rottet, an internationally recognized interior architect.

Architects profiled in the book:

Barry Berkus of Berkus Design Studio Boris Dramov, FAIA, President of ROMA Design Group Steven Ehrlich, FAIA, Design Principal of Ehrlich Architects Richard Emsiek, AIA, President and COO of McLarand Vasquez Emsiek & Partners Elisa Garcia, President of Garcia Architects Art Gensler, FAIA, Chairman of Gensler Craig Hodgetts, FAIA, Creative Director and Hsinming Fung, AIA, Director of Design at Hodgetts and Fung Design and Architecture Michael Johnson, AIA, Design Principal of Carrier Johnson + Culture Stephen Kanner, FAIA, President of Kanner Architects Ray Kappe, FAIA, President of Kappe+Du Architects Hank Koning, FAIA, Founding Principal and Julie Eizenberg, AIA, Founding Principal of Koning Eizenberg Dan Meis, FAIA, Senior Principal of Populous David Mourning, President and CEO of IA Interior Architects

Barton Myers, FAIA, President of Barton Myers Associates Ed Niles, FAIA, President of Edward R. Niles Architect Juan Diego Perez-Vargas, Principal of KMD Architects Simon Perkowitz, AIA, CEO and President and Steve Ruth, AIA, Executive Vice President of Perkowitz+Ruth Architects Randy Peterson, FAIA, President and CEO of HMC Architects Michael Patrick Porter, AIA, President of Michael Patrick Porter Architect Beverly Prior, FAIA, Principal of Beverly Prior Architects (now HMC Architects) Lauren Rottet, FAIA, Founding Principal and Richard Riveire, AIA, Principal of Rottet Studio Don Sandy, FAIA, President of SB Architects Rob Steinberg, FAIA, President of Steinberg Architects Erik Sueberkrop, FAIA, Chairman of STUDIOS Architecture Allison Williams, FAIA, Principal of Perkins + Will

For more information on Kennedy and the book, check out www.architectsuccess.com where Waltercomms blog readers receive a 20% discount by using the code Blog20.