I am a big hockey fan. That helps me “fit in” a little bit here in Brainerd. My oldest son has now been playing in the local amateur hockey association for the last 3 years. It has been really great for our family. We have made a lot of good friends and have been able to rub shoulders with some very neat people. Not to mention that our son has been able to have the camaraderie of the team which has helped him make the transition of our move to Brainerd.

It has also given me on opportunity to volunteer in the community. I serve on the facilities committee. Our task lately is to develop a facilities plan for the association so that we can provide a quality hockey opportunity for the long term.

While these relationships have not translated into more local work for the firm, they have been personally rewarding.

But an interesting thing was said at our last committee meeting that made me consider our public image as a firm. The committee consists of professionals and local business owners. In the group, there are 2 accountants, 1 attorney, a management consultant and at least 3 business owners; all successful and good people.

At our last meeting, one of them showed up in business attire. In the world I came from, that kind of thing isn’t worth noting, but it drew some sarcastic remarks from this crowd. His good humored retort was “hey I work for a living” which led to a discussion about “Brainerd casual.”

Apparently, the idea of dressing up in central and northern Minnesota is jeans and a button down shirt and you aren’t out of place anywhere in town in a hoodie or flannel. I know it sounds funny, but I once had another professional tell me that if you showed up in a shirt and tie to an interview, you probably won’t get the job. People around here are comfortable casual.

As a result I rarely wear slacks to work and I don’t know if I have ever worn a tie. As an architect from a dense urban core, this is a dramatic public image shift that I’m not always comfortable with. Everyone has an image of an architect and how they dress and jeans and flannel are not it. We wear silk shirts, slacks, black rimmed glasses and black shoes. If you live in a city you are familiar with ties and the trendy ways of tying them.

It’s about image. What does the client think of you the first time you meet? Do they think of you as a professional because of the way you dress? If they are going to be willing to pay 5%-10% of the building cost to you, they need to feel good about it and dressing nicely helps the image.

The same concept applies to your office. We work in an office that is attached to my partner’s house. It has great light and views and is very convenient, but it is small and is not conducive to meetings or presentations. We don’t have a conference room, a reception area, cool modern furniture or even great pictures on the wall. It is a good working office, but that’s it.

So all of this leads to the question: what is the image we want to present? What image will most likely help us grow locally? And finally, what image best fits us?

I’m not sure we have come up with a solution to this issue, but right now we are leaning toward the contemporary vision of the architect as a collaborator between art and practicality (that’s another interesting conflicting image that seems to have already been breached). We both have an affinity for modern architecture and technology and our discussions to date seem to be heading in that direction.

Due to our needs to grow, we have been looking for spaces to lease. It has not been easy since the majority of the leasable spaces in town are in buildings that are not distinctive, interesting, beautiful and none of them seem to ‘fit’. After some consideration, we have made the decision to try to get space in the Franklin Arts Center, home to the Crossing Art Alliance. We believe that being in this facility with other artists is a nice fit and is consistent with an image that we are comfortable with. The question is, will our clients feel the same?

Perhaps Brainerd is quietly waiting and longing for the type of sophistication and architecture we want to build and represent. It will be interesting to see if we are able to be successful.

We have been practicing architecture in Brainerd, Minnesota as Oldham Hirst Design now for about 4 years. My partner has been practicing architecture here on his own for an additional 2 years and worked for a local firm for several years before that. We like it here. It’s a nice community. The people are friendly, the schools are good (failing reforendum notwithstanding), and it’s beautiful. After the hustle and bustle of the urban core of Denver, Colorado, this has been a nice change of pace for me.

Recently the local paper has been reviewing the results of a social capital survey. In one of their articles in the series, they address the level of trust the local citizenry has in their neighbors. I was encouraged in my decision to move here by some of the results they reported.

Residents were asked if most people can be trusted or if you couldn’t be too careful in dealing with people. In the lakes area, 63 percent of residents thought people could be trusted compared to 47 percent nationally.

This was very encouraging. Their chart, however, showed that while the local community is overall more trusting than national averages, those who are newcomers are the least likely to be trusted. I guess that makes sense to me, but as a newcomer, I hope I can do something to change that.

What does all this mean for our business? Well, we are a successful architecture firm doing project in 10 states. Our projects range from retail centers, restaurants, class A office buildings, church’s, industrial buildings to private residences. We have been fortunate enough to do some work here in our back yard but not enough for us to really feel like we are part of the community, or rather that the community feels like we are part of them.

As a result, we have set a commitment in our office to do more to reach out to our local community. My next several posts will chronicle our efforts.

However, I want to paint a bit of the picture of the mountain we are trying to climb.

Demographics: We live in the Brainerd Lakes Area of Central Minnesota. The community has a seasonal aspect. There are several large lakes in the area that support summer residences and resorts that are primarily supported by individuals whose residences are in the twin cities. As a result, the summer is a very busy time of year for this area. Many of the smaller businesses and restaurant actually close down for the winter. There is also a broad range of economic brackets in the area. We have worked on both low-rent apartments and multi-million dollar homes all within a basic 10 mile radius.

The competition: In the local phone book there are 9 architects listed. I was actually surprised by that number because of those 9, in the 3.5 years I have lived here, I have only heard of 4 of them (strangely enough, we are not in the phone book! Something that needs to be fixed right away!). Additionally, one of the largest employers of architects in the area is a design build firm that is not listed under architects. That makes, essentially, 10 competitors.

Public works mountain: Through my research, the majority of public design work for the past 10 years and all in the past 5 years, has been completed by one architecture firm (a firm that also provides comprehensive engineering services). Other locals and some of our other competitors have also acknowledge this fact and have admitted a feeling of partiality, pulling up just short of terms like nepotism and discrimination, on the part of local government. In fact, we were excited when we received a RFP from a nearby jurisdiction for design build teams for their new government offices and police station until we were informed that the RFP was essentially a formality since they had pretty much already decided to use a team which this design firm was heading. We intend to submit any way. Hopefully this is not as biased as it looks. (Proviso: I have become friends with the head architect at the firm in question and I like him. I would be surprised if their was something untoward going on with him, so I am hopeful that this is more perception than reality)

Marketing strategy: For the first time in my architectural career, I am going to be embarking on a marketing “campaign.” Sure we have put ads in the Lake Country Journal, have joined the Chamber of Commerce and have supported the local ballet and other charities, but I have never had a need for an official marketing strategy. I’m kind of looking forward to it. Most of our work in the past has come from word-of-mouth (the best kind of marketing) and so this will be new for us. In order to help, we are negotiating with a local marketing firm to help us create an effective campaign.

Next: Public image. Lumberjack vs. Professional…and…Early Setbacks