WHEN IS A SMALL OFFICE A BIG OFFICE?  Like many small architectural offices, Schemata Workshop offers some distinct advantages to CPO in the performance of design services – more on that later.

Located in a dynamic part of Capitol Hill area, Schemata Workshop (SW) owns a commercial building which houses their architectural office and additional space that they rent out.  I met with the owners Grace Kim and Mike Mariano who formed SW in 2004.   We were joined by John Feit and Peggy Heim so I had the whole office at the interview.  This four person office (down from 7 people in the boom times) has a strong desire to work at the UW.  With backgrounds in some of the big firms like SOM, Miller/Hull, and LMN, they formed SW as a way to give more complete attention to customer needs than they felt they were able to provide at the larger firms.

Their recent work has focused on multifamily housing (including Cohousing that has small living areas and shared common spaces – not unlike our dorms), offices, schools and a variety of other projects.   Their work is equally divided between public and private clients.

SW loves small projects.  Although they have done their share of “ground-up” building designs (like a 76 bed housing for homeless vets), about 35% of their work is small renovations and they pride themselves on being able to find the special challenges and opportunities to make these projects shine.  Most of their work is repeat work for satisfied clients including small renovation projects for Seattle Public Schools (projects that must be built during the three month summer recess) and Waste Management where SW brings design excitement to seemingly mundane office and maintenance facility renovations.

For a small office, they have a wealth of awards including the National American Institute of Architects (AIA) Young Architect award (one of 10 nationwide in 2008), the 2009 Seattle Mayor’s Small Business award, and the AIA/EPA Life Cycle Building Challenge award for a pre-engineered building design that allowed for future disassembly and re-assembly of the building components.

So back to the opening question:   WHEN IS A SMALL OFFICE A BIG OFFICE?   Here are a few ways smaller offices like SW can give bigger service:   1) You always get the “A Team” and keep it throughout the life of the project;  2) It is not a “small project” to them, it is an important part of their business;  3) Smaller overhead allows for a more affordable fee structure;  4) A lot of experience with smaller projects;  5) Experience working with limited budgets and tight schedules;  6) Small firms are often more nimble in adapting to new technology (SW has been using REVIT for several years already);   7) A small office needs to succeed with small projects to maintain its business and;  8) Small projects will not have to compete with larger projects for attention.

Schemata Workshop would love to do a project for CPO – and small is good.   They are an MWBE firm so can help us in meeting our MWBE participation goals.  For more information, look at their SOQ in our Roster file, visit their website: or call Grace Kim directly at (206) 285-1589.

 
Capital Projects Office
January 2010