Dan Jay, AIA, LEED AP was recently featured in a Missouri Lawyer’s Weekly Q&A (April 30, 2012) editorial surrounding Christner’s design of the Lewis Rice & Fingersh, L.C.  office.  Dan served as the Principal in Charge for the design of 100,000 sf of new office space and a conference center occupying six floors of a high-rise located at 600 Washington Avenue.  Lewis Rice, one of the St. Louis region’s leading law firms, sought new space that would speak to their reputation and importance in the St. Louis business community and radically transform their office aesthetic.  Dan and Christner’s law firm design team worked with the firm’s leadership to revisit a broad range of operational goals, from file management, to the development of secretarial teams, to the creation of a centralized conference center.

In his interview with Missouri Lawyer’s Weekly, Dan speaks to the unique considerations of designing for law firms, the process he uses to engage clients, and the importance of understanding the big picture when thinking about designing an office space.

The Center for Outpatient Health is on the northern edge of the Washington University Medical Center.

The BJC Center for Outpatient Health, a 322,000 sf medical office building that combines a mix of private and public clinics, physician offices, and administrative offices, recently opened its doors to the public on March 12, 2012.  Located at the corner of Euclid Avenue and Forest Park Parkway on the northern edge of the Washington University Medical Campus, the Center for Outpatient Health occupies an important urban site in the Central West End neighborhood.  Responding to the programmatic needs for clinic and teaching space, the owner and Christner design team analyzed a number of space scenarios and concluded that the 12-story building would maximize the potential of this location and appropriately express the BJC “brand.”
Clinics occupy floors two, three, and four, a retail component is included on the first floor along the lobby of the building, and the remainder of the floors are reserved for office space.  Separate elevators service the clinical and corporate floors.
Clinics included in the Center for Outpatient Health are dermatology, general surgery, internal medicine, neurology & neurosurgery, orthopedics, plastic surgery, otolaryngology, OB/GYN, psychiatry, urology, and surgical care center.

Bryan Sechrist rides his bike to work most days, weather permitting, to reduce his carbon footprint.

Christner’s new office space landed a spot in the 2012 ‘Green Issue’ of St. Louis Commerce Magazine.  The article ‘Greening the Region:  Making Sustainability Part of the Office, School Culture’ highlights Christner’s new space and its sustainable design features including state-of-the-art workstations as opposed to traditional cubicles; access to maximum natural light; use of sustainable materials and furnishings for cleaner indoor air; and new procedures to reduce paper use.  The article quotes Christner Principal Dan Jay speaking to the importance of ‘walking the talk’ when it comes to an organization branding itself upon its core beliefs.  Dan states that Christner’s beliefs pertain to “the qualities of built environments that enhance a client’s mission.”  Christner is targeting LEED gold certification rating for commercial interiors.

IIDA “Unravel” Fashion Show Recognizes Elegant Design

Green design was reinterpreted in a stunning, though ephemeral dress fabricated from tropical foliage. The Christner design team, led by architect Emily Wray, won first prize in the fanciful St. Louis Chapter of International Interior Design Association’s “Unravel” competition. This is the second “Best of Show” accolade for Christner. You can catch a glimpse of the dress in a window display at 600 Washington Avenue, through Christmas.

You can find an article about Christner’s dress at: www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/blog/2011/12/christners-dress-made-out-of-plants.html

Christner participated in the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association’s (RCGA) St. Louis Green Business Challenge. Of sixty-nine companies that registered, Christner was one of twelve to receive a special Award of Merit for achieving the greatest gain in the challenge scorecard competition. Christner implemented the most sustainable business practices in their workplace for 2011. Christner compiled a scorecard of strategies to form a “green team,” reduce waste, conserve water and energy, improve indoor air quality, and provide clean transportation options.

Accomplishments:

• Energy efficient lighting has been installed in the new office that achieves 10%+ better efficiency than the standard office building
• New policy that eliminates workstation appliances
• Dual monitors for employees to continue to reduce office paper consumption
• New office stationary printed on paper with 100% post-consumer content
• Low flow toilets and valves have been installed (1.1 gallons per flush)

Innovations:

• Old furniture from the old office was donated to St. Louis Green’s Operation Food Search Furniture and Metal to Food programs
• New office has been LEED registered for LEED-CI certification and is currently tracking at the gold certification level

Christner’s Green Design Team:

First Row- Grace Corbin, Terry Crotty, Bryan Sechrist, David Coleman, Emily Wray

Back Row- Kelly Pimmel, Robin Ringwald, Dan Jay, Kathy Caldwell, Marilyn Sander, Todd Jacobs

Not Pictured – Kelly Duepner

“Targeting LEED Gold gave us a collective goal for the design and construction of the space. The Green Business Challenge kept our focus equally on the office operations.” – Dan Jay (CFO)

For more information visit:  www.stlouisgreenchallenge.com or www.stlouisgreenchallenge.com/images/totalscorecard_2011.pdf

John Reeve hosted a “Conversation” in early December with a group of healthcare facility development executives. The topic focused on the current use and future potential of standards in planning, design and operation of healthcare facilities. Although virtually all agreed that at some level standards bring value to project development, there were varied perspectives. The areas of divergence included: 1) process of arriving at standards; 2) how prescriptive standards should be; 3) means and methods for enforcing standards; 4) degree of integration with clinical operations standards; and 5) frequency for revisiting/updating. While approaches and results varied, everyone seemed to agree that on balance the application of facility standards can reduce project costs and potentially shorten delivery time. Both are benefits in delivering cost-effective, high quality healthcare to our communities.

As competition for students heats up, marketing your campus is more important than ever

David Coleman and Tom Van Landingham gave a talk at the Society for College and University Planning North Central Conference on the importance of Voice of the Customer Analysis to Campus Planning. They used the college visit tour and the affect of campus appearance on student application rates as a case study. They discussed ways to acquire non-biased feedback from students through voice of the customer surveys and demonstrated how this feedback can be translated into actionable campus improvement plans.

To view the “Voice of the Customer – Your Campus Through Teenage Eyes” click here. It runs approximately 6 minutes.

After 25 years, we are moving to a new space in Clayton.  We’ve designed offices that support our collaborative practice model and incorporate an enhanced technology infrastructure. And we’re going greener in the process – targeting LEED Gold.

Starting October 31, you can find us at:
168 North Meramec, Suite 400
St. Louis, MO  63105

Our numbers will remain the same:
Phone:  314-725-2927
Fax:  314-725-2928

Stay tuned – we’ll post updates on the construction progress!

Tom and Tomislav presented on the subject of “BIM from an Architect’s perspective.”   They covered topics including:

• Lean process opportunities in the BIM environment.
• Why BIM Execution Plans (BEXP) are an essential element of project management.
• If the design and construction industries aren’t investing in R&D, what best practices can be borrowed from other industries?

For a copy of the presentation, go here.

There are only four days to go until the 150-mile BikeMS.  Team Christner has completed months of training for the ride in support of the National MS Society.  There is still time to join us for the big day – we welcome all riders who share our commitment to finding a cure for Multiple Sclerosis.

Team Christner is among the top fundraising teams, contributing nearly $60,000 annually to MS research.  You can visit the National MS Society website to support our 50-member Team Christner or some of our individual riders: John Reeve, Olivia Reeve, Bryan Sechrist, David Coleman, Kelly Duepner, Robin Ringwald, John Walters and Margaret Walters.