Q/A: Architecture in Central Pennsylvania On Marketing The Architecture Firm Robert Philbin, Senior Partner, Hershey Philbin Associates, a Central Pennsylvania Marketing Communications Firm. DBN: Where does an architect begin the marketing process? BP: "In a formal sense, with a plan. A strategic plan which leads to an administrative plan, which in turn produces an operational plan. Marketing is all about decision making. Decisions drive marketing, just like decisions drive design. A good plan forces decisions and, to be affective, decisions should be made in a logical sequence. Where is the firm going? What is its future? What does the firm need to do to realize that future? How do we accomplish that on a daily basis?" DBN: How does an architect make those decisions? BP: "Architects come in all shapes and sizes. Some are remarkable designers, some are great project coordinators, others are great client communicators. Rem Koolhaas told me once that architecture is all about meeting the needs of the client, first and foremost, and that pragmatic details are more important than overall design. In other words, good design emerges from the details of very pragmatically addressing and accomplishing the client's objectives. The architecture he practices builds from the inside out. The same is true for the marketing function. "Now Koolhaas builds these remarkable, iconic buildings -- take the Seattle Public Library, which I was involved in, for example -- you might wonder how did the client, a city library system, accept what might be viewed as, and was actually criticized, as a display of egoism? Well that project was nothing of the sort. When you research the work, you discover that every step in the process, every decision made, was rooted in the pragmatic, efficient use of site and space to accomplish specifically programmed functional needs for the library. It took shape in stages and the result was the antithesis of egoism. And it was accomplished on budget. "In fact, Josh Ramos, Rem's partner on that project, said that the first challenge was to persuade the client to understand the real functions -- as opposed to idealized functions -- the library actually performed within a social context. Once the client fully understood what was actually needed to program functionality into the building -- space allocation, traffic flow, and so forth -- the design process very logically and efficiently produced that really extraordinary building." Click here to return to Design-Build News 1  |  2