Curiosity drives creativity. Precision takes practice. We are working everyday to find new and inventive ways to make the world a better place through design.

AE Design Tour: Quinnipiac University

For our second design field trip of 2024, we toured the campus of Quinnipiac University. We started with a walk-thru of our project, in partnership with Ayers Saint Gross, The Grove – a new 417-bed residence that will open in the fall. The Grove is part of the University’s new South Quad which includes the SITE academic building (science, technology + exploration) designed by Sasaki and the School of Business designed by Pei Cobb Freed – both currently in construction. We also toured the new Recreation and Wellness Center designed by designLAB architects and visited some of our completed projects including the Admissions Center and Brand Strategy Group offices.

Typically held 4-5 times a year and open to everyone in the firm, our design tours offer staff a chance to go beyond our screens and physically engage with notable projects while encouraging critical conversation around our collective experience. We aim to get at the heart of how and why projects are considered a success.

See photos of our trip here.



Exploring Site Relationships

During the early stages of design, it is imperative that the entire team have a clear understanding of the intentions of the project. Simple concept diagrams like these allow us to work through formal and site related concepts quickly and get buy-in from clients and end users. The focus here was how to create a sense of place and scale on a site that was bound on all sides. By leveraging the topography of the site and adjusting our massing we can create a clear front door while maximizing the site’s most unique features.

2024 Northeast Embodied Carbon Summit

AE Team members attended the 2024 Northeast Embodied Carbon Summit, gaining valuable insights into sustainable design from leading experts nationwide. Key takeaways included the critical importance of reusing and reducing materials, innovative approaches to minimizing our projects’ carbon footprint, and the necessity of robust data collection to inform policy decisions. These insights will enhance our firm’s progress toward the AIA 2030 Commitment and help us realize our vision for a sustainable, low-carbon future.

AE Design Tour: Cambridge

Typically held 4-5 times a year and open to everyone in the firm, our design tours offer staff a chance to go beyond our screens and physically engage with notable projects while encouraging critical conversation around our collective experience. We aim to get at the heart of how and why projects are considered a success.

We started our 2024 field trip series with a tour of Cambridge. Some stops included the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, the Google Rooftop Park, MIT Museum, MIT Welcome Center/NADAAA Site 4, MIT School of AI, MIT New School of Architecture (in construction), MIT New Vassar Housing and MIT List Center.  

See photos of our trip here.

Community Engagement

While working together with Gensler on a senior living campus-wide sustainability plan, we engaged residents in two workshops. The purpose of the workshops was to get resident feedback/opinion on which areas of sustainability could provide the most benefit. We found this to be helpful both in educating residents and understanding the broader range of priorities within this unique senior living community.

Physical Models

Utilizing a 3D printer, we can quickly produce multiple iterations of a project massing that can be directly compared with one another. These physical models introduce a new level of workability into design and client meetings. Moving, flipping, and shifting elements of a model provides valuable insight into a vast range of alternative configurations. This tactile experience fosters a deeper understanding of the project and ensures that every voice is heard, promoting more informed and collaborative decision-making.

Cove.Tool Aperture Studies

By performing daylight modeling early in the design process, we can quickly understand the impact of aperture configurations on spatial daylight autonomy. Cove.Tool is a great resource for quickly performing these analyses. In this exercise, we are maintaining the aperture dimensions while playing with their frequency and location. We found that two windows leave us far from the LEED 50% sDA goal. These studies provide a baseline for further experimentation and design development.

sDA (Spatial Daylight Autonomy): How much of a space receives sufficient daylight (the percentage of floor area that receives at least 300 lux for at least 50% of the occupied hours).

ASE (Annual Sunlight Exposure): The percentage of space receiving too much direct sun (1000 lux of more for at least 250 occupied hours per year), causing glare and increase cooling loads.

Geode Inspiration

Designers looked to natural elements, colors, and patterns – including some from the Smith College Geosciences geode collection – for inspiration for the department’s lounge.

Concept Diagrams

Concept diagrams are an essential tool for our designers early in the process. It allows us to quickly explore and validate massing options internally while creating a clear way to communicate our ideas to our clients. And, it doesn’t hurt that they are great stand alone graphics!