AIA Architecture Firm Award Winners: The Next Generation at LPA

A Welcome to Practice Disrupted, a podcast exploring how architects can build better businesses, embrace emerging technology, and create more sustainable, fulfilling practices. I'm your host, Evelyn Lee, architect, angel investor, and founder of Practice of Architecture. Whether you're running a firm, starting your career, or reimagining what's possible, this podcast challenges you to think differently about the future of architecture. When I was practicing, finding a detail meant digging through old models. That's why I'm glad to have Piros sponsoring this episode. They make every detail, family and standard searchable across your firm and ensure that nothing gets used blindly. See it@piros.com that's P I R R O S.com. Hello disruptors.

A Welcome to this week's episode of practice disrupted. LPA Design Studios won the 2025 AIA Architecture Firm Award, the highest honor the American Institute of Architects gives in architecture practice. I wanted an opportunity to sit with the people inside the firm who will carry it forward. This is a third conversation in our series with future leaders from firms that that have won the profession's top honor. The next generation already shaping how the firm operates. I am joined by three of them from lpa. Federico Carvazos, named principal in the San Antonio Studio this February after two decades of practice in Central and South Texas. Jake Jungi, 13 years at LPA, now in a role that did not exist before him, building the firm's digital and data infrastructure.

A And Rachel Nasland, senior design researcher in San Diego, whose environmental psychology background opened a research function LPA did not have when she arrived. We get into what the award has changed at the firm and what hasn't. The 80% energy reduction across their portfolio last reporting year. A no excuses culture that runs from senior leadership down to people in their very first year.

B And.

A And what it means to be designing outcomes, not just buildings. Let's get into it.

B Hi you guys. Welcome to Practice Disrupted. So great to finally get LPA on the show.

C Thanks. Excited for the conversation.

D Thank you, Evelyn.

E Excited to be here.

B So I want to ask Jake, let's throw this first question out to you. It's been a year since you all have won Firm of the Year. Has that changed anything within lpa?

C To be honest, it hasn't changed anything, but we've kind of used it as a stepping stone. It's not a capstone. It's what's next. And that's kind of been our biggest philosophy. And that's kind of been also a big push from like Wendy and Keith and kind of the senior leadership is that this isn't an End all, be all. But it's kind of a push to kind of keep. Keep pushing, keep doing the great work that we do, but then also keep being innovative and keep pushing forward.

D Yeah. You know, I was thinking about our. The first time we gathered after we were announced with the firm award, and I think one of our first focuses was making sure that it kept us hungry and that we continued to do the things that allowed us to be recognized, which was our focus on integrated design, our focus on building performance, carbon reduction, and. And so an immediate focus on not letting us become complacent set in, which was great to see. You know, it feels like it just galvanizes us to continue doing what we're doing.

E I couldn't agree more. I think there's like, a stronger sense of responsibility now. I think the biggest change I see is that we're becoming more intentional in how we're articulating what we do. We're trying to share our message more broadly and more clearly and capturing how our process does result in better outcomes. And so I would say that's maybe where I'm seeing a little bit more of the push is we're kind of digging our heels in a little more to look at how we can continue to scale this and make it even more integrated within our process.

C Yeah. Really owning the story and the values that we were trying to or that we were telling in our submission and all that, but, like, really pushing that forward. And like Rachel said, digging in is a great metaphor, a great way of putting it.

D Yeah.

B I have a secret love for lpa just because after graduating SCI Arc, I spent a decent amount of time in Orange county, and LPA was founded in Orange county, so I knew some of a lot of the older leadership. So it's been great to get to the newer executive team and then now see what the next generation of leaders look like coming into the firm. Each of you hold distinct roles in the firm. So I kind of want to go through and ask you about your various positions and where you are. So, Federico, let's start with you. You're four months into the principal role, leading design in San Antonio. As you look to the next two or three years in Texas, what kind of design problem do you want LPA to be known for solving in that region?

D Well, Texas is changing a lot. There's enormous population growth, particularly on the I35 corridor between San Antonio and Austin, and that is directly informing who we are becoming. We opened our Austin studio around two years ago, and that has helped us really broaden who we work with and how we work. Because Austin is a very different place from San Antonio or Dallas. Austin is experiencing tremendous growth and a lot of people moving here from other states and those people that we are working with directly are bringing really fantastic questions with them about where they used to live. And how are we addressing concerns that may have been addressed in New York or California or Washington state. And that broader set of priorities is really strengthening everything we're doing in Texas right now. We are really proud that the three studios in Texas and really all of the studios in lpa, we view ourselves as one team.

D So we grow together and we learn together. And so in my role, one of the things we're trying to do is just be really intentional about how we grow, who we work with, what market sectors we're in, and who joins LPA along the way.

B Jake, I wanted to move to you. So you've been shaping LPA's digital design path and I think with technology emergence, this becomes even more critical going forward. If we fast forward to the next AIA firm award cycle, what is the work that AI and data that will take LPA to another level that it cannot quite reach today?

C Yeah, as you mentioned, technology's becoming so integrated within the world, but also within the industry. Back in the day, we used to use pens and pencils to kind of really express what we were trying to say.

B Did we as a three a foursome

C use ever use I did back in the day? Yeah, yeah, I. I've gone from like hand drafting in high school and things like that to like where we are now. But really what we're trying to do is lean into data and AI and really building the AI off of our LPA data so that we're able to actually tap into the information that we've kind of derived over the last 50 years that we've been affirmed. And it's really about the speed to information so that we can actually practice what we preach with our informed design kind of philosophy, but then also be able to give back people the time where they can actually spend the time where there's the most value for clients. So actually being able to bake in simulations and stuff into our day to day workflows, things like that, so that we can actually cut down on embodied carbon and energy use and all of those types of things and bake them into our day to day design workflows so that it's not a postmortem type of analysis, but it's actually baked into our workflows because the earlier you're able to do those simulations or those kind of analysis type processes in the design kind of process, the more impact that you can have on the end, similar to like construction. The earlier you catch something, it's going to cost less. Yeah, we're just really leaning into that. It's.

C It's still emerging and it's kind of cool to see, but yeah, definitely a fun area to lean into.

E I think something to potentially understand about LPA is that we have a culture of challenging the status quo and opening up opportunities for where people see gaps. And Jake and myself are both testaments to that. And so the role that Jake has stepped into is to really collect all of the different data sources that are going on across LPA so that we can consolidate them and access them. And I think that's one of the best things about LPA is the fact that they encourage all of these different working groups to pursue their passion to push industry, industry standards and question why we're doing things and figure out better solutions. But also one of the biggest challenges is now what do we do with that information? And we're a large firm, but in some ways we're also a small firm and that we say that a lot, that we're very closely knit. It feels like a family, even though we continue to grow. But as we continue to scale, some of these components become more challenging because we do need to figure out how we're tracking things and sharing them better across our studios and our practice areas. Because we like to learn from each other and our disciplines.

E Our disciplines are learning more and more from each other to increase their fluency. And so Jake's really spearheading this idea of just discovering all the different data pools. How are we pulling them together, how are we accessing them? So it's really exciting. I can't wait to see where it lands us.

C Yeah. It's also about baking in and looking at our processes that we have and while improving them, building in mechanisms to actually be able to collect the data that we want to be able to collect. Because a lot of our source systems like Revit and Rhino and Civil 3D are kind of not built off of a data foundation. So if we're able to bake in and kind of extract the data with these mechanisms, it doesn't become a burden, the end users or the people that are actually the practitioners modeling and things like that, but we're able to glean a lot of information from that.

E On top of that, add in all of the human data collection that we're trying to capture and where that lives. That's a completely different system. And so not only are you trying to merge a bunch of building and design data, but on top of that, that human factors data. And it's a complicated task.

D The question was about your role, Jake. And I think Jake and Rachel are really good examples of people who have kind of designed their own career at lpa. Jake so much that a new career path was developed for a digital director digital product, which is not a traditional role in a firm. But I think that's a good example of us trying to meet our people where they're at and help them design and shape their own careers. And ultimately our clients benefit from that.

E I probably should dive into saying what I do.

B Yeah, no, actually, I wanted to set you up a little. I mean, you have been a fantastic kind of cheerleader for Jake and everything that he's doing. But I think there's an inherent connection between what's going on digitally and the research and applied research that's coming out of that. So that's probably also speaks a little bit to your passion and excitement, Rachel. So I want you to talk a little bit about the applied research team, but I also just want to bring up the fact that research in architecture is so underwhelming right now. Really great to see LPA kind of have this relatively new team developing, and I'd love to hear a little bit more about it.

E Absolutely. I think. And I'll preach LPA all day for taking a chance on research and me there. To Federico's point, Jake, you know, found his career path within lpa, and mine didn't exist before I talked to lpa. And so my background is psychology. You're talking about sketching earlier. I've. I don't do that at all.

E Nor have I ever, Nor will I. I come from an analytical background of understanding human behavior, and my master's is in environmental psychology, meaning that I study how spaces impact people, how it makes them feel, behave, and also how people impact their space. So one of my favorite sayings is that space plus people equals place. So it's really the people who are in the space that add the understanding and the use to it. So we can design all day long. But you put a statue in a park and it's no longer a statue, it becomes a bench, it becomes a shade structure, a playground for kids. And it's really the users that are applying that meaning. And so my role is really to try to understand and bring translation to both of that.

E So I work very closely with our design teams on understanding our user groups, on identifying problems, the problem early in the design process, so that we can then use research to back up some of our design decisions.

B So you were already in the built environment space, but how did you create this path for you in lpa?

E It goes back to me taking a course in college called the Psychology of Architecture. And I thought I was going to clinical school. I wanted to help people, you know, talk through their problems. And then I learned how impactful our spaces could be. And I loved the idea that you could reach so many people in a way that they may not be even aware of. And so when I went searching for this degree, it's fairly uncommon. At the time, there was five schools worldwide that had a master's of environmental psychology. There's Now a few PhD programs and there's a few other schools that coin it differently.

E But that's largely the challenge in this industry is that there's a cohort of probably 50 of us across the country who get together frequently and we're trying to grow the field and the knowledge. And part of the challenge is that it's called something different. There's really little structure in what our day to day job entails. And so as a group, we are trying to kind of build up the fluency of that and create a little bit of parameters around it so that we can expose students to this career path. So it really was just me learning that we can influence our environments and touch people in kind of small, small ways that might have more significant influence down the road.

B So I want to talk with you about things, something that's been happening or something that will be happening in a lot of firms, which is kind of this great wave of retirement, especially with the baby boomers and leadership position transitioning. So now the firm is viewing you guys as not the bunch, but the future leadership of the firm. Has that really empowered you to do more with the firm or do you feel empowered? What does that mean for your positions going forward and what you want to see in LP in the future?

D Well, I'll jump in. I think one of the things that draws people to LPA and to stay at LPA is the importance of opportunity and the importance of transitions. Pay is over 60 years old. This isn't our first time transitioning leadership. And I think we've overcome, I think what is the hardest transition, which is the first when the founders or original shareholders sell their shares and now we can't even think of the way we're practicing as waves, because it's more like a continuous spectrum. And there's really a much bigger, bigger group of people that view themselves as the future leaders here. And hopefully that extends all the way down to people early in their career. Knowing you're coming to a place and shepherding it for a period of time and training.

D Your replacement, for lack of a better term, is something made very clear to you when you join. And our staff can feel it, and I think we certainly feel it in our San Antonio studio seven years ago, the three principals, they all stepped away or announced they were stepping away within two years of that day. So the transition became very real for us on a very personal level for the people helping to lead the San Antonio studio and the firm invested, they didn't hire outside people, though that certainly that's merited certain times, but invested in the people that were here already. And it's great to see and to feel that.

C One thing that is kind of prevalent just within the culture of LPA is that everybody does have a voice. So even, like, anybody can come to the conversation. It's just our voices may be amplified a little bit more now because of kind of the transition, quote, unquote transition. And just with the prevalence of, like, my emerging role and Rachel's emerging roles, it's just the industry is different, and it's actually kind of cool to see the senior leadership actually lean into that and actually give us the space and give us the agency to come to the table with ideas and not be very set in our way. That's just not the LP way we'd like to push and be innovative. But all actuality, everybody has a voice, and it's like we partner with other people and we'll elevate ideas that come from people that are below us even.

E I think you're spot on. I distinctly remember in my first three months having a meeting with Wendy Rogers, our CEO, and she was full on taking my research and opinion to heart. And I remember being just blown away. One, that I was even in the same room as this individual, and two, that she would actually care about what I had to say and trust it. And I think what you're talking about, Evelyn, there is a huge generational shift that's happening. I mean, we have five different generations in the workforce, and our younger generations are really the ones that are trying to kind of push the boundaries with it naturally, because that's kind of their characteristics is, you know, thinking smarter about how we're working, questioning processes, how are we improving things. And it really Is, I think, up to more experienced generations to allow that to happen. And that's what we do see at LPA is this culture of any voice matters.

E And so I don't see that changing. I just see it being embraced even more. So.

B That's a great segue, Rachel. So you guys have talked about how you're an integrated practice. LPA has architects, right? Engineers, landscape architects, interior designers, research. I don't want to leave out research all under one roof. So what does it mean to continue to push the boundaries on what integrated practice means and the type of product and how you're delivering projects going forward?

E So I think that the evolution is switching more toward. Away from merely coordination and more into this shared authorship. I don't think it's merely us collaborating, but us also figuring out problems together, identifying them together, and being able to speak each other's language a little more. So I think that's something we are working towards. We potentially a hot topic for, I think, a lot of people. Our studios have been shifting into a more of a free address nature, meaning that people come in and sit. They can sit amongst their team members. They can sit amongst people who are from completely different disciplines.

E But what that is allowing is more of that passive learning. And so people are picking up information. You could be sitting next to a mechanical engineer and start hearing a few terms. And that allows you to speak a little more intentionally about their process. And so I do think it's not just the collaboration and coordination, but it is all working towards the same goal and increasing our fluency. I would love for a civil engineer to start talking about human experience one day and our. Yeah, vice versa. So I think that's where we're trying to head in that direction.

C I feel like there's not a real big shift in that kind of. Because we've always had everybody has a seat at the table kind of philosophy when it comes to a project. And it's not a dictator type of approach where it's the architect's way and then the engineers are just following suit. But it's kind of a holistic approach of projects because. And it's. It's baked into me because I've been here for so long. It's just that, like, my idea is probably not always the best idea. So hearing and listening to others, even if it's a landscape architecture telling me something about the building, they may be coming from it with a valid perspective that I may not think about because I'm not a landscape architect.

C And it's really about that integration, which is kind of the key aspect of an interdisciplinary firm because yeah, good ideas, no matter who they are coming from, are good ideas.

E I think how we'll continue to improve the integration too goes back to how we're collecting and measuring our projects and how we're improving that continuous feedback loop that's going to educate all of us better and keep us more integrated and more involved in each other's disciplines. And so, you know, having that and being informed at the beginning, going through the design, measurement, learning and redesign will just continuously improve our process and how we're working with one another.

C The data at the end of the day is our receipts. So it's really kind of showing the proof in what we're saying.

B So one of the things that I think was the most impressive by LPA when we were looking at the firm award nominees was the amount of buildings within your portfolio that hit the 2030 commitment. So a 70% energy reduction target across the entire portfolio for two years running. How do you keep improving upon that?

E I should mention that my team is not just devised of researchers. We call ourselves, we're sustainability and applied research. And I do think that's divided across a lot of firms. That said, so within my direct team, we have individuals who are working with our project team studying the building science. We have the other members who are researching materials and where we're getting materials from that whole life cycle. We have individuals who are helping all of our teams through certifications to make sure we are hitting the correct markers, to make sure that we are constantly looking at our buildings in a performance lens. I think probably one of the most interesting thing is the fact that we have buildings in California and in Texas, which are two very different climates and political climates as well. And so the fact that we take education, I would say also very seriously.

E We have a lot of all hands events where we are sharing our projects, our methodologies, checking in on where projects are at, and working across studios to help share that knowledge of how can we keep elevating our project to make sure that we're meeting that next threshold.

C I would also add in there it's the importance of having sustainability fluency. So it's not just doing a building performance analysis and getting a PEUI reduction or any or like an embodied carbon reduction. It's actually understanding the numbers around it, because anybody can do an analysis, but it's understanding the why and the what around the numbers. It's kind of the key indicator there. And then also being able to transfer that knowledge between groups. I know in the San Diego office this last year, there was a healthy improvement in the PEUI reduction when we submitted to the 2030 commitment. And one thing that we had done in that one was that we set up a working group where we were just meeting every week so that it wasn't just somebody submitting a number to a database, but it was like checking and validating the numbers and having people share ideas of what they were doing to get those numbers. And it's.

C It's not just the end all product, but it's at the process to get there is kind of a key thing to kind of think about as well.

E And that has to start at the beginning. And I think that's probably the most important thing. We preach it all the time and I think every discipline would say that too, that bring me in earlier and it will help the process. But we really are trying to push those conversations right from the start so that we're not getting too far along in the process and adding sustainability as just this overlay. We really are designing with it in mind. And I think that's really what is elevating our design across our full portfolio.

D One thing we're really proud of is that the projects that we're working on that allow us to achieve this are no different than what our peers are working on. They have the same budgets and the same timelines. We don't have a special array that allowed us to hit these energy reduction targets. In fact, we were at 80% this last reporting year. And I think what's really cool about that is it shows as possible, you know, particularly for large firms that work on. We work across seven different practice areas across eight different regions in the US So putting attention on it and measuring it and reminding the firm, you know, we check in on our average reduction every month as a firm. Those things have a meaningful impact.

B Yeah, just the all hands, right? And then the regular like this is something that we measure and here's how we are improving and tracking just at least keeps it forefront for everyone right in their daily work.

E I think to add to that what Jake was saying too, just about the fluency we did a few years back, look at our overall understanding of different sustainable metrics and we test ourselves actually each year to understand where we need education. And so we are. One of the first things we were looking at was Jake has mentioned peui, which is the predicted energy use intensity of our buildings. And that was something that, I don't know 10 years ago. It wasn't familiar or comfortable for people to talk about. But I think that's an area we spent a lot of time improving, is that operational understanding of carbon. And now we're starting to recognize that we feel like people have been kind of brought up to a good level where we all share that same understanding that we're shifting our focus into now understanding that embodied carbon lens. And so we're constantly trying to look at where we can encourage, improve our education so that we have better awareness around how to implement it.

C One other layer to that too, is the speed, the speed to the metric or the speed to analysis, because we've often heard that it's too much work to do the analysis or it's. So we've had a heavy emphasis on the technology side to actually speed up the process and also train people to understand the tools that they have to use to get to those analysis numbers. Because a lot of times it's just the barrier of entry of I don't know what I'm doing, so I'm not going to do it. So I'm just going to put it onto the back burner. So if we're able to kind of break down that barrier to entry, then people are more likely to do it. And the more likely they're going to do it, the more often they can do it too, within the process. Like I was saying earlier, the earlier you can get the metric, you can then have more time to change it or improve it.

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B I would love to talk about some of the larger dynamics that are really making architects struggle or be concerned or be anxious about the climate that we're operating in and kind of want to throw this to Fed because you're the practice side of things. What does it mean to be navigating what is essentially tighter budgets, very intricate political shifts? Demographics falls along with that. And are you having different types of conversations with clients now than you had previously to manage through some of those things?

D Well, I think all the things that you're talking about are very real. I mean, a lot we work on both private and public projects, and it seems like in both cases there's less time to design Buildings for a number of reasons, and budgets can't grow as fast as escalation or inflation happens. And so all of these things, I guess could be excuses to put this on the back burner. So we have a, we call it a no excuses mindset for our, you know, for these goals, these really important goals that we're setting as an industry. And this is where I think the, the real value of integrated design comes in. All of the things that Jake and Rachel have been talking about, which is great, by the way, to hear someone with a psychology degree talk about sustainable approaches. If we can make these strong decisions early, we can't let timeline be an excuse and we can't let budget be an excuse. And the things that we find.

D Okay, so the kinds of conversations that we have are first of all, starting with empathy for our client and the struggles that they have. So many of our clients are public institutions with a lot of turnover in their maintenance departments with heavy use buildings. And oftentimes like in Texas, at least they can secure funding through bonds, but they have a hard time with the operational budgets. And so we talk a lot about the value of capital investments to lower maintenance and operations budgets as a way or as a reason to invest in higher performing facilities. So, you know, there's not more money to pay the facilities team year over year. But when you have the opportunity to build a building through the passage of a bond, you can use that capital investment to lower your energy bill, to lower your maintenance costs. And they understand that. I mean, our clients are smart.

D So these are not new conversations though. I think one thing about the way we practice is we've been having these for a long time. So we are strong at that now. And we train our team members in our design process to start with empathy for where they're coming from. Our clients.

B I think it's more than empathy though. I mean, you just use a vocabulary that I would argue a lot of architects are not able to articulate as cleanly and as fully about capitalizing things up front to improve or to minimize long term operational costs. So where did that type of education come in? And is it something like how do you expose more of the broader LPA team to that type of language? Because it's not language that you hear in an architecture studio.

D You know, our, honestly, our clients, if you really listen to them, they will tell you what matters to them. And so we, we know that we have, like when we're given a project, you know, 20 million dollar project, let's say we are like their we are responsible for 20 million of the taxpayer or the private or the developer's dollars. Right. That's a financial investment. So we have to understand their business or their organization just like they do. So I think the people in our role are taught by the people we learned under and worked under and we saw their values and we saw them navigate these conversations and meetings. And it's a very natural way of learning that. And so the way that we train the entire team to do that, well, first of all, the client knows the entire team.

D We bring the team to our meetings, they hear these conversations real time and then we debrief afterwards. So it's just baked into the way that we, you know, that we practice.

E Mentorship is really big at LPA and I and sitting outside of the design role, something I can recognize that has maybe improved our designers ability to have some of these conversations is one the fact that our hierarchy is largely flattened and that you are having conversations with anyone and everyone. And then on top of that is the investment that LPA puts into education. We did have a team go around to all of our studios and start to talk about conversations to have with our client regarding carbon. And how are we explaining that just because something might be sustainable doesn't mean it's more expensive. We can reallocate dollars and we can design smarter, not more expensive. And so that is something that we've been working on, trying to articulate more clearly.

C Well, we have a thing called LPA University or LPAUs that are a forum for project teams to be able to share those types of kind of approaches that they took to implement a sustainability measure or something on a project where like a person like Federico will broadcast that to a larger audience so that it doesn't just sort of stay siloed into that team, but it's kind of shared out. Because the more you share out, the more you understand and like kind of glean those types of information. Because we do have a lot of really smart people that we want to democratize some of that information that they have to the greater masses so that we can have those kind of more informed conversations with our clients. At the end of the day, I

B want to move back to Jake. So we have been talking about data, which I am a complete data geek, so I can go on about that all day. But so much of what is the conversation around AI right now and digital tools is really about agentic and generative AI. So what does that look like and where is that coming into play in terms of some of the things that LPA is looking at right now.

C Right now we're heavily focused on data because any tools like Agentic or agents or things like that are really to really distill out the value for the company. You have to be built off of LPA's data. We don't want to be using generic tools that are just on the market. We are using some of them here and there just as trials just to see what's out there, but really to build up the value is building these tools off of our data and our processes. Because if we're trying to train an agent, like an AI agent on our process, first we have to document that process and we have to really extract out the value that we're doing and kind of teaching the tool how to, how to use it. And one thing that we're heavily focused on is never taking the person out of the, out of the workflow. It's more of how can we focus on giving the people back the time to be able to spend it more on the, where the people are more valuable. So focusing on like automating, like ad administrative type tasks like meeting minutes, things like that, that like people hate to do but are critical for the business and actually being able to give them more time to spend on the things like Federico was talking about spending time with the client, understanding the client, because that's really at the end the of the day where like we will add the most value.

C And in my humble opinion, personal opinion, I don't think AI is going to completely disrupt. Yes, it's going to be a tool that we have to help us with our process. But really at the end of the day, our clients don't want generic slop like AI slop. They want the value that we are bringing to them, which is the person connection and actually being able to kind of create the space that they are wanting. It's just like the transition from like hand drawing to cat and cat or Reddit. This is just kind of another generation of that where it's going to be a tool that we use to shape the spaces for our clients at the end of the day. And there are some clients that are probably going to want that generic slop just because that's kind of their mo. But do we really want to be working with those clients? Because probably not.

C We want to be really working with the clients that are still wanting that kind of inherent quality that we bring to it at the end of the day. And plus we're also trying to open up different market segment or different revenue streams into the company too. Just because we know that there will be some impact on that. We don't know what that is right now, but we're trying to figure that out and also get us set up on the foundation of having the data structures, the data lakes, kind of the infrastructure in place so that we can bring in these new tools when they emerge.

B So you've talked about kind of workflows and reinstate like, yes, we need to figure out what these workflows are. Does LPA generally invite innovation in? Because I think a lot of how AI will change things is actually us relooking at how we do everything from the beginning and questioning why we do it the way we do it. So you talked a lot about everyone having a voice, which I think is great. But then how do you really act on all of these voices? Some might not be aligned, some you want to elevate, some you're like that, that's great. I just need you to learn a little more to understand the entire process and then come back and reevaluate. How do you create space for those type of innovative conversations to happen and then decide like that is something that we need to be looking at as a firm.

C That's a great question. We've been investing over the last couple of years, in particular the digital and product group A starting off with scale, so starting off small, finding these moments of innovations where we can actually implement something. But in doing so, we're not just jumping to a solution. A lot of times we're meeting with our different groups within the company to interview them, ask them questions, ask them what their pain points are, what are the potential gains that they see from an innovation and then being able to take that, synthesize it into some kind of solution. So doing like a solution design for it, presenting that back and then always keeping them in the loop of like if we're trying to implement something, if we're creating a new revit plugin or we're creating a custom web app or something like that. It's all about the constant check in. So we've kind of adopted a agile approach. We're treating it kind of like a tech company would, where you're kind of doing these in Sprint cycles of every three weeks.

C We're sharing something back with our end users and showing them like a particular element that we've been working on for the last three weeks and say, hey, do you see the value in this? Do you see how this would improve your day to day workflows? And then if they say yes, then we keep moving forward, but if they say no, we pivot and we kind of, kind of keep moving forward. It's not an easy process because we do like to have everybody's voice, but there is kind of a critical mass that we end up getting to where we can get a general census from a larger group. But then it's all about also how we're constantly looking for, how we're improving the end user's experience because we don't want to ever implement something that comes across as a burden to them, but it's an improvement to them in some kind of form or fashion.

E I might tackle this question from the research side of things and just from a different angle. Something you had said, Evelyn, about there's oftentimes you're inviting so many voices and conversations in and how are you finding that consensus or how are you arriving at a singular idea? And I think we talk about this a lot on our projects because we're big advocates for talking to user groups and bringing as many voices and diverse voices to the table. And that's not to say that this is something I communicate all the time, that everything, you can't have everything, and we're not going to get everything. But coming to the table with understanding, being transparent in why decisions are made is something that we are always trying to do on our project. So whether it's an AI project or one of our design projects, we are still trying to bring as many voices to the table, trying to find where that consensus lies. Ultimately, it always goes back to decision makers internally. Same thing with innovation. It goes back to there are decision makers, that's how things function.

E But being able to turn around and explain to all the participants who did share their voice why decisions are made, people can accept that, I think, a lot better than not being asked altogether, because people are going to have opinions and thoughts whether or not you ask them. So I always think you ask them and then we can find better understanding and at least have an opportunity to course correct if we learn something new.

B I want to talk about transparency from a completely different lens too. So LPA does. It's not necessarily unusual for, I would say, broader companies. I think it's unusual for an architecture firm that LPA does annual gender pay audits, supporting an EDI advisory committee. Beyond representation in numbers, kind of what is the equity work that you want to see push forward? And especially in today's climate, how have those conversations, have those conversations got harder at all for lpa?

D I mean, it's not harder. It's a moment to lean into our values. So we're really proud of the different ways that we support edi, whether we have a scholarship or diversity in design scholarship that supports underrepresented groups in, through higher education in design fields. But I think it also comes down to the kinds of projects that we work on, whether they be affordable housing or a school in, in an area that doesn't have many funds. It's really not hard to get excited about those things. We can all rally behind this idea that a more diverse firm, a more diverse project type is better for everyone.

E And I can speak to, I served on the foundation board and which is LPA for Change and our EDI committee for about five years. And we had a lot of conversations around evaluating ourselves, but then where are we making changes and how. And a lot of the conversations were really about looking to the pipeline, not trying to fix it after the fact. And so we've really tried to understand where in the pipeline there is less diversity and potentially just less exposure. And that's what we see is just the mere exposure of architecture and all these other disciplines in some committee, in some communities. It's not visible there. And so trying to put some of our efforts towards going to school after school programs and teaching students about design and trying to broaden their horizon on these different professions. And so that's one way that we've started to kind of look at the pipeline.

E And ultimately we measure ourselves just because we want to see the long term effects. We're not unrealistic to think that we're going to see year in year over year changes, but we want to ultimately see if our efforts have more long term effects in the industry. And so another I think large roundtable is also looking, they were also studying the pipeline and I think they were also seeing that there's a huge drop off right after school for licensing and tests and how those are expensive. So we're just trying to figure out how we can use our foundation dollars in a very intentional and purposeful way. And then something else we've started to really lean more into is pro bono work. And that's something we hadn't done a ton of before, but that's something that we really have the ability to impact a community in a really meaningful way. And so that's something that we're just scratching the surface of.

B I think that's another can dive into all of that work on an entirely another episode. But since we're coming to the end, I want to do I Think two round robin type of questions. If a next gen leader from an entirely different firm comes to you and asks about the future of practice and how they should be building out their firm, what is something that LPA is doing right now that you're just like most passionate about, that they think that you think they should consider building into their firm?

C I would say lean into innovation and technology. Don't be set in your ways and your laurels because the world and the industry is moving at a very fast pace. There's a quote by Justin Trudeau that IT technology's moving at a fast rate and it'll never be moving this slow again. Like there's so much going on in the, in the world. So try to stay on top of it, but also lean in on people that are expressing the interest in it. You don't have to be an expert in it, but find a team around you that is, and give them the agency and allow them the space to explore because it's a critical aspect of what we do and it's the only way that we're going to be able to stay on top.

D So funny, Jake. I love hearing that answer because my mind directly went to people and culture. And I would tell someone who's thinking about the future of their firm that the things that we have found that our people really value is a lot of transparency in who we are in the business and how we're trying to grow and a lot of investment in the people. Our people walk out of the door every day and they don't have to show up the next day and they are why we are who we are. So you cannot over invest in your own people.

E And I think I'm going to bring it back to the human outcome side of things. I think we need to keep figuring out how we can study our buildings in a way to better understand how they're shaping our behavior and our wellness. So we're getting really good at measuring how our buildings perform and their impact on the planet. But I think we need to continue to get better at how they perform for people using them and how we can take those lessons learned and reapply them. I think the biggest challenge of research in architecture is that we're trying to take something that's academic research itself and and apply it to a profession that moves at a completely different pace. And so finding that balance between rigor and speed is something that we're constantly going to be fighting. But ultimately I think it will help us make better decisions. And I think it's Something we need to lean into that uncomfortableness.

B You talked about the Firm of the Year award at the very beginning kind of being not an endpoint, but potentially even a catalyst for how do you continue to challenge the firm going forward? What is the headline that LPA is writing like 10, 15 years from now in terms of where they are as a firm of the future or what would you like the headline to be?

C I know one of the bigger goals is that we're heavily focused on reduction of embodied carbon and just how our buildings perform overall. So I would want it to be how are we tapping into the data that we're collecting to be informed and making the right decisions to improve in all of those areas in an exponential way that we are each from today?

E I think from a, again, research lens, I think if LPA could be known for shifting architecture from just designing buildings to designing outcomes, that would be my headline, I guess is LPA is helping shift architecture from designing buildings to designing outcomes.

D It's really nice to get together and just tell a little bit of our story. The hope would be that the things that we're talking about seem relatable and achievable. I think that's one of the reasons that we broadcast the way that we work so much and with so much transparency is because we think that this is. We're trying to tackle industry wide problems and we think we as an industry can do better. And so through sharing what we do through this podcast, through the way we publish our work, hopefully that's making an impact.

E I think our current slogans are also going to carry us for the next 10 to 15 years. It is within our regular practice that people are saying there's no excuses and there's always a way and we don't do this alone. And that's something that has become so natural for us to say. And it was something that we exposed in winning the Firm of the Year award when we were trying to understand what makes us so special. But it really has become part of our regular jargon now is there's a way when we're on a project and we're hitting a wall, someone will say, well, there's no excuses. We maybe can't do everything, but we can do something and there's a way that we can do it. So that has become part of just our daily jargon. And I think that will continue in our culture.

C It's definitely baked into our basically our culture and our philosophies. And the way that we think now is, yeah, that no excuses resonated a lot and I like it does tap into the technology side on my end because a lot of times people do have excuses that the technology is not there, the technology is not working. But tapping into the innovation is how we get past those barriers. It's a thing that I've said multiple times in this call is that the barrier to entry is oftentimes the biggest hurdle. So sometimes you just have to do it and learn by doing.

A Hi Disruptors. Thank you for joining us today on an episode of Practice Disrupted. If you like the content for today's show, you can find all of our past episodes over on practiceofarchitecture.com podcast. Be a part of the conversation by joining me, our speakers, and other disruptors in our community@practiceofarchitecture.com community. Our social media handle is practiceofarch. That's practiceofarch. We'd love to hear from you, so feel free to drop us a DM and say hello. Tune in next week for a new conversation on change in the profession.

C Sam.