Greg Owens 15:54
Right, right. And yeah, I’m really hoping I keep looking for case studies. And I like some of the ones I’ve seen so far, but so few compared to like, what I was hoping for during COVID, right, like on airplanes and things like that. There’s been a few, for sure, right? Showing that. But it would be nice to see some for like coffee store or something like that, like they go in and they test surfaces, and they test things and say and test the air. There was one case study out of Korea, I think one girl that never met the other girl who had COVID, approximately 20 feet away got COVID, because of the way the air was traveling through the mind, is the theory. Right? Yeah. And Korea really, really tracks this things. I mean, they were able to track it both from their cell phone data, which they have access to, and the CCTV that they had on on the restaurant, right, that these two guys actually got too close to each other. But it was the only person on this particular island that had COVID and spread it to this other person. Yes, this theory goes. But you know, there’s a lot to that I was just talking to a friend from from New Zealand, a kiwi, he was saying that, you know, they’ve had actually gotten it down to zero cases in New Zealand, except then they got like one case from an African strand of COVID. And they think it came through packaging,
Hafsa Burt 17:15
like my God,
Greg Owens 17:16
is there an island and they’re really, really super strict, like you fly in and they escort you to a hotel room, right, like for 14 days
Hafsa Burt 17:23
for 14 days. Put it in writing now. Yeah, I think with the variants and everything, I don’t think masks and social distancing. And just, you know, General hygiene habits are not I’m just not going away. I was in, I was traveling in Hong Kong, right after SARS. And I noticed that they had washing stations everywhere. Yeah. And people wore masks, because they have dealt with it for so long that you know, it’s it’s a good base to learn from them and see, you know, what are the practices just in terms of hygiene, we can get crazy, but I think with globalization is just going to get worse and worse instead of any better.
Greg Owens 18:01
Yeah, I think so too. I think, you know, I think in Asia, like you just said, they’ve been subject to this so much more often. So they have more way more protocols in place, and we’ll start to see those come to this country for sure. And and it’s gonna be a slow, it won’t be an end, like the pandemics over and it’s like a victory party. It’s gonna it’s gonna be a very slow, long, gradual sort of, and people’s comfort levels, right? Yeah.
Hafsa Burt 18:28
So the the filter thing that you were asking earlier as minimum efficiency reporting value, so how efficient the filter is, and how far is this? Of course, the best right now? Right?
That’s what the sport is going to. So if you want to fly somewhere, make sure you’re taking a boy.
Greg Owens 18:47
That’s good to know. I wonder why it’s different. Do you see any other trends just in general, within the InDesign and that kind of thing going forward?
Hafsa Burt 19:00
You mean outside the pandemic,
Greg Owens 19:02
or just in general, just sort of like color trends or workspace trends or things clients are sort of looking other things that clients are looking at?
Hafsa Burt 19:11
So I think, I mean, not necessarily in terms of clients at some point looks only good so far. Right? So I’m a firm believer in functionality and also what your space or product is doing for the environment. And we’ve been proponents of, you know, green building and for 20 plus years, so I think electrification is going to be a big trend and just to provide the infrastructure so if somebody does choose to switch to all electrical efficient appliances, that’s going to be a huge thing. In terms of aesthetics, that’s mostly subjective, you know, driven by the branding that the client is looking like for this coffee shop in their retail space. You know, he has a very minimalist tastes so it’s mostly you know, like the the Snow White, some blunt colors that create this more of a minimalist space. I think color anesthetic is very subjective. And when we work with clients, we end up you know, listening to them and what in the statement or the story that they’re trying to tell. But in general, I feel like there’s a big awareness of like, in the next nine years as we do need to reduce our GHG below 65%, just to even meet the Paris Agreement goals. Yeah. So I think we’re gonna see more and more awareness toward just screen building and efficiency and reliance on renewable energies, zero carbon zero energy spaces and products. And if anybody’s not doing it, I don’t I think at this point is just ethically wrong,
Greg Owens 20:36
though you can always was just, we were talking yesterday about this, then you can still see in San Francisco, none of the buildings are being used very much. And there’s still a tremendous amount of just lights on. something so simple in this day and age that you think could have been, you know, there are some old buildings, but not that it’s not that difficult. And in no time, right,
Hafsa Burt 21:01
automatic shut off, well,
maybe they’re relying on occupancy sensor, and there’s no occupants. So there’s like, okay, the lights are off, bro. Right. So it’s a sad, and I think consumer behavior of just, you know, awareness of your carbon footprint and where it fits in the bigger picture, it’s, it’s just so important. And advocacy is needed, because a lot of people are just devoid, like, if the lights go on where the water is coming from the faucet, they’re just not they just don’t care about the bigger picture of these resources. And where it’s coming from. And even with like the ordinances and the mandated codes, they’re so tight to new building construction, that you start worrying about the existing building sector, because that’s such an energy sponge. And yeah, like, we need to retrofit existing buildings to be more energy efficient for lighting. And, you know, just for general use
Greg Owens 21:49
that HVAC for sure to write like,
Hafsa Burt 21:52
yes,
Greg Owens 21:52
it’s such a complicated thing in an old building to get right. Yes,
Hafsa Burt 21:57
yes.
Greg Owens 21:58
And I love that you kind of touched on it, and I want to just explore it a little bit more was the, when you go into a new meet with an owner that has an idea for a project, and they have a brand and a company and and a culture, how much time do you spend on that front end of trying to get an understanding of the culture, the brand, and what they want the space to look like, and sort of integrating all those pieces, right, kind of like what you’re saying, like about the minimalist, like the owner of the coffee shop is a minimalist sort of person, and his brand is a minimalist, and then you had to deep dive into I would think more and more about what that means to him.
Hafsa Burt 22:40
Yeah,
so first, conversations are very important, because it sort of tells you, you know, I mean, it’s there, it’s, it’s their baby, it’s their, you know, it’s their, it’s their story. So you do have to listen a lot to what they’re trying to do. And then also focus on the budget concerns and see, you know, how you can make it better. Like in terms of the coffee shop, he came in with a very solid idea, like he had pictures and ideas. And he was he came in with a very solid idea that this is what I want. And if there was room for me to provide input I did to make it better. And, but most importantly, it was his story. And it’s his, you know, his child, and we wanted to make sure that it’s a successful, you know, successful project in terms of like that medical office building, I was speaking to you about that we gave him a hospitality touch. It was, you know, I knew that he wanted to modernize the space. So when we came in with that hospitality approach for the common areas that was entirely lost, because I thought it went when people go into I compared it basically to their older space. And it was very, you know, very medical office building look like with like the fluorescent fluorescent lighting and you know, the dark colors.
Greg Owens 23:51
Not very comfortable.
Hafsa Burt 23:53
No, no. So you’re basically looking at your watch, okay, I’ve got my 15 more minutes, but my appointment, how can I get out of here?
Greg Owens 23:59
Why is the doctor late? I want to get out of this space.
Hafsa Burt 24:04
And I wanted to give it more of a hospitality field. So patients don’t, first of all, when they come in, they get in a better mode. And they’re like, Oh, I don’t mind spending time and space and my mood is better. Even if I’m coming in to see a doctor. I think that’s important. I think experiences in a space are very important. And they can be easily created with lighting with color and with fixtures like furnishings that are sort of, you know, just married to this space in a way that is probably unconventional.
Greg Owens 24:35
Yeah. And it’s so true because I know that my place of work because because I’m out in the field all day long looking at projects and that kind of stuff, my place of work with coffee shops, right. And so I would, I would find, you know, it was great Starbucks sort of led this trend of like bringing the limit like having a living sort of room feeling in a lot of ways to a coffee shop and I can spend some time in there. But then I watched how like different brands change that dramatically. Phil Being one of them completely changed, like I would seek out a Phil’s over a Starbucks because of the sense and feeling and you’re just bringing that up right now is like it would draw me to it, I want to go over here and work. I mean, of course, their coffees way stronger too, but their environment was so enticing. And for some reason the type of music they were playing, and the layout of the chairs and the tables and things like that made it so that it was like much more of a place that I would spend time at and work at. Yeah, I would think that comes into play all the time when you’re looking at when you’re,
Hafsa Burt 25:35
I think just by changing lighting, and you know, warming up the space. And you know, just like furniture placement and how the spaces whether it’s open or whether it makes you feel claustrophobic. So I’m very well more than visual, I react more to spaces with how I feel in them. And that’s been like, since forever since like, I think even before college like I would go into a space not like that needs a window. So I think I can easily manage, like imagine myself walking in a plan, if it was a drawing and see how I can make it better in terms of more, being more open and more inviting. And just more livable. If you have to spend you know, as a as a patient, you go in for like, maybe an hour, but as a doctor, if you’re stuck in that space for like eight to nine hours, then you know, you just need to feel like okay, I can probably last here for like nine hours and be productive and happy and
not in a bad mood.
Greg Owens 26:29
Yeah, I didn’t even think about that how much it affects the doctor and nurses and things like that. And that’s so important because you want your doctor feeling good all day long, because he’s going to be in a better mood and, and more likely to find what’s going on with you.
Hafsa Burt 26:43
Or even a worker, you know, he’s got exposure to daylight instead of fluorescent lighting all day, or just dark colors.
Greg Owens 26:51
Yeah, any advice for people that are working from home of how they can do a few things in their home office to make it feel better? Because I know there’s a lot of people that are working from home these days. And maybe you have some thoughts on that?
Hafsa Burt 27:05
Well, not
every body may have access to a view. But if they are in a habitable space, and they’ve you know, established an office space, which is not in a storage room or a garage, I’m sure they have a window. So just having a desk close to a window can help. You know, just get natural daylight rely less on artificial lighting. Just probably paint I guess for you brighten the colors with a lighter coat of paint.
Greg Owens 27:36
Yeah, the coat of paint everybody do that?
Hafsa Burt 27:38
Yes. And also, I think ergonomic furniture helps because if you’re gonna be spending long hours, you want to feel comfortable. And then you do want to do want to quiet so you can focus and you do want, you know, a private space where you can have calls. That’s very important.
Greg Owens 27:54
Yeah, yeah, I find myself in my truck a tremendous amount of the time now doing Oh, really work from there. Because we’re you know, we’re out in the field, we’re looking at projects. So yeah, I’m in the truck, I need a bigger truck.
Hafsa Burt 28:10
printer in your truck, too.
Greg Owens 28:12
I do have a printer. handy. We we can print contracts from there, you know, change orders, things like that. And then also, we do a tremendous amount of things with pictures, right? Like your picture, you take on the phone, and then you’re able to like, hey, this cup, this wall gets this color, this wall gets this treatment, that kind of thing to get it handed off to the painters actually visible. Right?
Hafsa Burt 28:34
That’s great. Yeah, do you have to So what are some of the Wi Fi mobile Wi Fi sources that you rely on?
Greg Owens 28:40
I have an at&t iPhone that has that I can create a hotspot and I just do that. And then I’m able to work from now the only problem with the truck is like I’m turned off to the side. So that’s not good. ergonomics. Right. So I try to move seats and jumping from one seat to the other instead of switching up or, or stand on or sit on the delegate, you know, and yeah, work. But again, I get opportunities for lots of fun. And as we wrap up here in the podcast, I love checking in around if there’s because there’s a lot of people out there that don’t know about this industry being the as far as like facilities management, property management, those kind of things or let alone I mean, or is it just more so I think people know about architecture and that kind of stuff. But any suggestions for people that are that are young or old, and they’re trying to change their careers and want to get into doing something some of the things that you’re doing, what would you suggest this day and age
Hafsa Burt 29:37
in terms of getting into the field of architecture or
Greg Owens 29:40
Yeah, yeah, either or what however, but architecture is your Yeah, you know, so that’s fine.
Hafsa Burt 29:47
I say I would say get an experience at like even high school level, there are opportunities to get an internship. It’s not really called an internship. It’s more like a mentorship in an architect’s office, just to see how it works. And even in a Real estate firm like development or property management, a lot of school offer mentorship opportunities. So just to see if that’s, you know, if it’s if it’s a good fit, if that’s your calling, and if it fits, and if it fits, you know, and if it is your calling that pursue it, pursue, like, take the, you know, take the electives that you need in my field, because it’s fairly creative, and it’s rarely changing all the time. I think curiosity always helps. And if you’re, you know, naturally a curious person, then you will be drawn to something like this, because because trends are changing codes, you know, just information because there’s such a load of information coming from every direction. And I think if it was a, you know, just be supportive of each other, because that’s extremely important. I feel I built my business on collaborations and teamwork. And I’m a strong believer that, you know, with collaborations you can actually achieve more than just, and that in a competitive environment, and I think as a team, you can go farther along. So if if somebody gets direct exposure to working in a team at an early age, like before college or early in college, then they can develop those skills. It’s so more important than just knowing AutoCAD or Revit. It’s just how you how well you work in a team and how collaborative you are, and how supportive you are of your team members. I think those are life skills. Right? Probably be good in any field.
Greg Owens 31:19
Any field practically, right? Like for sure. The same thing with our company, right? We’re a team trying to get the trying to get good work done out there.
Hafsa Burt 31:28
Yeah,
Greg Owens 31:29
yeah. You mentioned Revit, and AutoCAD any other software, AutoCAD is incredibly challenging to learn how to use. There’s other ones that are easier to any other technology and things that you found or apps or stuff like that, that you haven’t been, yeah,
Hafsa Burt 31:46
so we, I mean, AutoCAD Revit. Cloud features and also 3d Max, we use 3d max a lot for rendering. We’ve been we’ve used we are but not so much client communications. But you know, if I had to produce like a 3d panorama or rendering we we’d literally produce it overnight because of 3d Max and importing AutoCAD drawings. And that’s a good communication tool comes with a 3d panorama. You can even pull up your phone and show clients. Okay, this is what your room looks like in a 360 environment. So, yes, those are the common tools them which is Revit. AutoCAD, I think if you’re just starting out, just get into Revit right away, just because coordination is so much easier. And it’s very, it’s a smarter. Yeah, it’s probably a smarter software.
Greg Owens 32:31
It’s more intuitive, right? Like things come in, you think about it, and it’s right. There.
Hafsa Burt 32:39
It’s well coordinated. It’s well coordinated. Like, yeah, if you put it heights in the plan, it’ll show up on them in the elevations in itself. And you can invite teams to coordinate it to like you can have your mechanical engineer, the problem is that some of the consultants are still using AutoCAD. So you know, that’s where it sort of lags.
Greg Owens 32:56
Yeah. Yeah. And it’s interesting, because as you were saying about the VR, it’s like, so far, I’ve been lucky or not, maybe, maybe not. But I haven’t had to go that direction for our takeoffs and proposals yet, because I only have so much time to me personally, that I can spend on computers, you know, and it’s, that’s a challenging piece. But I can see 10 years from now that, you know, a bunch of our proposals and take offs and things like that. walkthroughs will be in a VR setting, right?
Hafsa Burt 33:26
Yeah, could be, easily.
Greg Owens 33:28
Technology is moving that way so fast. It’s unbelievable.
Hafsa Burt 33:31
Yes,
Greg Owens 33:32
the one this has been wonderful talking with you and about what your knowledge in the architectural and design fields. How would people find out more about you and your company and that kind of thing.
Hafsa Burt 33:43
So you can look us up on our website at hbaarchitects.com? And you know, we’re pretty active on our website. It’s updated regularly. Yeah, our contact information is all there.
Greg Owens 33:54
Okay, that sounds great. Thank you for spending time with us today on the Watching Paint Dry Podcast.
Hafsa Burt 34:01
It’s been a real joy so much. Thank you so much.
Outro 34:15
Thanks for listening to the Watching Paint Dry Podcast. We’ll see you again next time. And be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.