GSD Alumni and Friends
GSD Alumni participate in Future Practice Seminar
On November 10, the Harvard Graduate School of Design hosted a panel discussion entitled “Future Practice.” The seminar included not only an architect (Scott Simpson, FAIA, MArch ’75, Senior Director at KlingStubbins) who led the session, but also a consulting engineer (Mysore Ravinda, president of LeMessurier Associates), a builder (John Tocci, president of the Tocci Building Company), a client (Nathalie Beauvais, MAUD ’92, principal architect of the Harvard/Allston Planning Group), and a technologist (Phil Bernstein, Vice President of Autodesk). Each offered a different perspective on the design and construction industry today.
“All of us agreed that we are in the midst of a major transformation,” concluded Scott Simpson. “The three big influencers of change are BIM (Building Information Modeling) technology; IPD (Integrated Project Delivery); and sustainable design (LEED). There is a paradigm shift from sequential to simultaneous thinking and team-based design, and a clear evolution from an industry based on “silo thinking” to one based on integrated practice. We are moving from contention to cooperation.”
To emphasize this new practice paradigm, Simpson stressed that as architects “we are in the leadership business. Design is our medium.”
“When we consider that construction is a $1 trillion industry annually, Scott Simpson added, “process innovation could easily result in efficiencies of 10-20%, saving upwards of $100 to $200 billion per year. Compare that with the total fees paid to architects (about $32 billion annually) and you can easily see the compelling value proposition. The implications are huge.”
Mysore Ravindra, Scott Simpson, Nathalie Beauvais, Phil Bernstein, John Tocci
John Tocci presenting
Phil Bernstein with GSD students
Scott Simpson presenting
Phil Bernstein, Natalie Beauvais, and Scott Simpson